The December concert at the Chamber Hall of the National Forum of Music will be filled with the sounds of works by contemporary Polish composers – Mirosław Gąsieniec and Mateusz Ryczek, as well as Karol Rathaus and Tadeusz Szeligowski, whose careers developed most dynamically at the beginning of the last century. The concert will begin with a piece by Irène Wieniawska, who composed under the mysterious pseudonym “Poldowski”, the daughter of the violinist and composer Henryk Wieniawski.

Irène Wieniawska gained international fame and recognition as a composer and pianist during her lifetime. Her work was valued for its extraordinary expression and subtlety. Her songs used to be exceptionally popular, and in them she drew on the poetry of French authors, although she also did not shy from the achievements of musical modernism. Throughout her life, she wanted to remain anonymous, which is why she signed her compositions with various pseudonyms. Suite miniature de chansons à danser for wind quintet, the sounds of which will open the concert, is a small, colourful composition, clearly inspired by the music of the Impressionists: Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré, and Maurice Ravel.

The musicians will also perform a work by Karol Rathaus. Eine kleine Serenade op. 23 for trumpet, French horn, clarinet, bassoon and piano was written in 1927, when the composer was based in Berlin, where various artistic and scientific trends intertwined at that time. It was a moment when his career flourished, filled with experiments affecting his individual composing language. This evening, we will also hear the impressive Sonata for flute and piano by Tadeusz Szeligowski, a student of Nadia Boulanger. Last but not least, the concert will premiere works by composers associated with the Wrocław artistic community: Mirosław Gąsieniec and Mateusz Ryczek.