For many composers, music is a kind of autobiography. It is not only evidence of a mastery of the craft, but also a carrier of hidden meanings. This is the case with the symphony that will conclude the concert.
Krzesimir Dębski is a versatile artist who refers to various styles in his work. He works as a conductor, jazz violinist, he also writes film, theatre, ballet and classical music for various ensembles. He has summed up his approach to composing as follows: “I have worked in almost every music industry. Rockers consider me a rock musician, jazzmen treat me as a jazzman, and still others as a composer of film music. I know that my world is the world of classical music. I spend around eighty percent of my time composing classical, contemporary music – sometimes even more. The concert will feature his work Dos lid far a jidisze fidl for violin and string orchestra, premiered in 2009.
The second work in the programme, Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes for violin and string orchestra, is a composition by Mieczysław Weinberg, completed in 1949. Although Weinberg was born in Warsaw and was educated there, he spent his entire adult life in the Soviet Union. His rich legacy is only now gaining popularity.
Symphony No. 5 in E minor was written at a very special moment in the life of Pyotr Tchaikovsky. On the one hand, he was at the height of his fame, composing his most popular and polished pieces. On the other hand, he experienced serious creative crises: he doubted his abilities and the value of his work. He considered his music to be intimate confessions of the soul. Tchaikovsky’s surviving notes show that in the Fifth, he planned to convey with sounds the conflict with fate, symbolized by the motif introduced by the clarinet at the very beginning of the piece. It returns many times throughout the narrative: it breaks the singing cantilena in the second movement and whips into a vortex in the third. It is also the building material of the finale, this time presented in a major key – it sounds triumphant and majestic, as a symbol of overcoming a jeopardy. Building the dramaturgy in this way, Tchaikovsky referred to Ludwig van Beethoven’s 5th Symphony and the dramatic scheme per aspera ad astra.