During the Musica Polonica Nova festival we will not hear a symphony orchestra during any of the concerts. However, sometimes less is more, and the composers successfully incorporate their great ideas into smaller compositions. That evening, the main instrument of the two works presented is the harpsichord, which will be accompanied by a chamber ensemble.

Jerzy Kornowicz is the author of Wrzeciono (The Spindle) for harpsichord, orchestra and amplified sounds, world premiered in November 2019. The artist, born in 1959, is a composer, teacher, animator of musical life, long-time chairman of the Polish Composers’ Union and artistic director of the “Warsaw Autumn” festival. He is the author of orchestral and chamber music for various ensembles. He also likes to write music for theatre plays and films. Moreover, he creates songs or music illustrations for radio literary and musical broadcasts. Jerzy Kornowicz is interested in experimental theatre and computer animation.

The four-part Silver Concerto for harpsichord, strings and multimedia is the work by Adam Wesołowski, a graduate of the Academy of Music in Katowice. The author describes his work as an “industrial concerto” because the integral part of the composition are images and sounds from the Historic Silver Mine and the Black Trout Adit in Tarnowskie Góry. A “silvery harmony” is significant and symbolic element here. Since the abbreviation of the Latin name of silver is Ag, the composer used two chords in his composition: A major and G major. They are key for this musical narrative and form the basis of the concert’s melodic development.