In 1950 Stefan Kisielewski, having heard the works presented during the Congress of Polish Composers’ Union, quipped that ‘this time the honour of Polish composers has been saved by a woman. The work that earned his compliments was Grażyna Bacewicz’s Concerto for Orchestra, named by Kisielewski ‘a contemporary Brandenburg Concerto’. The work, written in 1948, draws on classical patterns and delights us with great melodic ingeniousness  as well as a wealth of tone colours, comparable to Mozart’s serenades for string orchestra. In fact, all the works presented by the Leopoldinum Chamber Orchestra on 18 April, albeit varying and spanning a period of over 70 years, could be described this way. The earliest works in the programme are two pieces in Romantic style: Tchaikovsky’s Serenade composed in 1880 and Elgar’s Serenade written in 1882. Dmitri Shostakovich’s Concerto in C minor upstages the orchestra, giving priority to a dialogue between the piano and the trumpet. The virtuosic exploits of the piano will draw tur attention in the first place, as the piano part was written by Shostakovich for himself, and he premiered the work in 1933.