We invite you to an evening with the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, which will perform masterpieces of American music under the baton of Giancarlo Guerrero. A perfect culmination of the concert will be the well-known composition of George Gershwin, An American in Paris, full of jazz inspirations.
The concert will begin with the famous Adagio by Samuel Barber, the second part of the String Quartet in B minor op. 11. The composer was rightly proud of his work, and he quickly prepared a version of this movement for string orchestra. It was first performed in November 1938 under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. This melancholic piece, full of pathos and suspense, quickly gained enormous popularity and was arranged in a great number of ways. Billy the Kid is a 1938 ballet composed by Aaron Copland on commission from Lincoln Kirstein. It tells the story of one of the most famous criminals in the Wild West. To a large extent, the work gained fame thanks to the composer’s weaving of a few cowboy melodies and tunes typical of American folk music. The artists will present one of the most popular fragments of the ballet – the suite.
Next will be the Symphonic Dances from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story. This versatile artist is now remembered mainly as an excellent conductor, an outstanding interpreter of Gustav Mahler or Ludwig van Beethoven’s symphonies, but his extensive legacy also includes lighter music written for Broadway theatres. The most famous is West Side Story, a part of which are these brilliant, excellently orchestrated, lively and imaginative dances.
The evening will be crowned with An American in Paris by George Gershwin written in 1928 and following the composer’s stay in the French capital. According to Gershwin’s commentary, the work presents the impressions of the eponymous American walking along the streets of the metropolis. There are echoes of blues here, symbolizing homesickness, and sensual saxophone solos intertwine with the sounds of genuine taxi horns. transported across the ocean with a view to the world premiere of the piece. The light, melodic and accessible composition immediately won the hearts of the audience and is very popular to this day.