The NFM Wrocław Philharmonic ends its season with a programme featuring the last piano concerto by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in which the solo part will be performed by the Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires. The last work tonight will be a masterpiece of Polish music of the early 20th century by Karol Szymanowski. The orchestra will be conducted by its Artistic Director Giancarlo Guerrero.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is for us a synonym of a versatile composer, creating in all forms and genres. However, during his lifetime, Mozart was known primarily as a composer of operas, as well as ... a piano virtuoso – he composed as many as twenty-seven concertos for this instrument. At the end of the season of the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, we will hear the last of them, the Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major KV 595. This late work was first heard in 1791, probably in March, during Mozart’s last public concert. The orchestra used by the composer is small – a flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two French horns, strings and the piano. The music is full of warmth and cheerfulness, but also has some more melancholic moments.
Karol Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 3 “Song of the Night” was written at a time when the composer was vividly fascinated by the culture of Persia. This fascination was reflected both in the lavish, bold and sensual colours of the sound, as well as in his choice of the text. Szymanowski reached for a poem by the thirteenth-century Persian poet and mystic Jalaluddin Rumi, translated by Tadeusz Miciński. This one-movement composition can be divided into three sections. The first is a slow-paced introduction using a full orchestra, followed by a lively dance with a colourful vocalizing choir singing the vowel “a”, and then a slow, mysterious ending. The rich sound of the orchestra, flexible melodic lines, excellent orchestration, ecstatic culminations with the participation of all the performers create a composition with a distinctive character, effective and very memorable.