Rafał Blechacz and Bomsori Kim are immensely popular artists who need no introduction to the Polish audience. Blechacz’s rise to fame came with winning the gold medal at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 2005, while Bomsori gained recognition winning the 2nd prize at the Wieniawski Competition in 2016. Shortly thereafter, the musicians began a collaboration that has resulted in numerous concerts and a critically acclaimed album released by Deutsche Grammophon.

The concert will open with the short Sonata in G minor – a late work by Claude Debussy, completed in 1917. Although the composer was initially proud of it, he quickly changed his mind. In a letter to a friend, he even wrote that the sonata is “a document and example of what a sick person can create during wartime”. However, history has proven these words unfair. The piece, with its subtle colour and shimmering texture, quickly won the hearts of performers and audiences alike. Next, we will listen to a work by Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Although he is primarily remembered as a piano virtuoso, as a composer he did not limit himself to writing for his instrument. A prime example of his versatility is the Sonata in A minor op. 13, written in the 1880s and dedicated to the Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate. Many scholars consider it the most outstanding work from Paderewski’s early period. It is written in the Romantic style, full of melodies and powerful emotions.

César Franck’s Sonata in A major is one of the most popular examples of this genre in music history. It was composed in 1886 as a wedding gift for the Belgian virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe. Its composer did not attend the ceremony, which took place in Arlon in September of that year, but engaged a mutual friend, Charles Bordes, to deliver the manuscript to the groom. The delighted violinist reviewed the score and asked Bordes’s sister-in-law, pianist Marie-Léontine Bordes-Pène, to accompany him in the performance. The sonata was played that same evening at the wedding reception, and its public premiere took place in December. It was enthusiastically received, and Ysaÿe remained a staunch advocate of the piece till the end of his life. The final work on the programme will be Karol Szymanowski’s Nocturne and Tarantella op. 28. The artist wrote it in the spring and summer of 1915 during stays at friends’ estates in Zarudzie and Ryzhavka. It is light, graceful, and humorous, drawing on the tradition of salon virtuosity in a pastiche manner. The Nocturne evokes associations with Spanish and Gypsy music, while the Tarantella is a beguiling stylisation of the passionate Italian dance, which, according to folk beliefs, was danced after being bitten by a tarantula.