We invite you to the final concert of Leo Festival, prepared with children in mind! We will hear well-known works from films about the adventures of Professor Ambroży Blot and his students, a fragment of the soundtrack for In Desert and Wilderness from 2001, as well as one of the masterpieces of French music of the 20th century.

The concert will begin with the performance of the song My Fantasy with lyrics by Ewa Chotomska and music by Sławomir Kowalewski. It was written for the children’s vocal and dance group Fasolki and has enjoyed unflagging popularity for many years. The first two films with Mr Blot – Academy of Mr Blot and Mr Blot’s Travels - were based on a novel by Jan Brzechwa; the third – Mr Blot in Space – was based on an original screenplay. The role of the title character was played by Piotr Fronczewski, and the movies were directed by Krzysztof Gradowski. The latter is also (next to Brzechwa) the author of the lyrics to some of the songs, and Andrzej Korzyński wrote the music. Based on the soundtrack to these films, a colourful suite was arranged, consisting of six movements: Introduction, Welcome to Our Fairy Tale, On the Bergamuta Islands, Weird Duck, Farewell to the Fairy Tale and Doctor Pai-Chi-Wo’s Spell. The last piece of film music to be heard during the concert will be the song A River of Dreams from the screen adaptation of In Desert and Wilderness directed by Gavin Hood. Jacek Skubikowski is the author of the words of this hit, while the music was written by a well-known and respected composer, Krzesimir Dębski.

Maurice Ravel’s My Mother Goose is a piece inspired by fairy tales, including by Charles Perrault, written for the children of the composer’s friends, Jean and Mimi Godebski, grandsons of the Polish sculptor Cyprian Godebski. The suite, originally intended for a piano for four hands, soon got an orchestral version, which became one of Ravel’s most popular works. It consists of five parts: the dreamy Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty, Little Tom Thumb with a playful imitation of birds singing, sounding oriental thanks to the use of a pentatonic scale and the sound of gong, Little Ugly Girl, the Empress of Pagodas, Conversation of Beauty and the Beast, rendered by the contrast between the sounds of the clarinet and the double-bass, and The Fairy Garden. The extraordinary melodic inventiveness, colourful and suggestive orchestration as well as the specific, oneiric mood of this music have made it enchant generations of listeners.