During the Sunday evening preceding Valentine Day celebrated every year, we will hear the most beautiful songs about love written in the 19th and 20th centuries. During his debut in Poland, they will be performed by a young, talented tenor Caspar Singh, who works for the Munich-based Bayerische Staatsoper. The singer will be accompanied by the West Side Sinfonietta, directed by Marcin Danilewski.

The concert will begin with the dignified Kaiser-Walzer op. 437 – a piece by Johann Strauss II arranged by Arnold Schönberg. It will be preceded by a series of colourful and, at the same time, very emotional songs by composers active, among others, in Great Britain, the United States, Italy, and France. The artists will perform works based on belles-lettres and well-known performances, such as O Mistress Mine from the Three Shakespeare Songs op. 6 by Roger Quilter or Veggio co 'bei vostri occhi un dolce lume from the cycle Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo op. 22 by Benjamin Britten. Léo Delibes, creating Le roi s'amuse, drew on the famous play by Victor Hugo of the same title – The King is Having Fun. Inspired by its plot, Delibes composed six charming dances with graceful sound. Singh will also sing Wie eine Rosenknospe – a romantic aria with a rose bud blooming like a sprouting love from Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow. The melody of Sole e amore by Giacomo Puccini from 1888 is a well-known motif, which the composer then used in his famous opera La Bohème. At that time, the piece was dedicated to Francesco Paolo Tosti, the author of Marechiare, a piece featuring in tonight’s programme. The salon Serenata op. 6 by Enrico Toselli will also sound, typical of the French fin de siècle. It is characterized by nostalgia and sweet sentimentality, just like the rest of the English-language songs presented – Gerald Finzi’s It Was a Lover and His Lass, A Green Lowland of Pianos from Samuel Barber’s Three Songs series and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Silent Noon.