An acclaimed conductor of the young generation, Marta Gardolińska will debut with the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic. The programme features works by Grażyna Bacewicz and the masters of German Romanticism: Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms.

The concert will begin with the sounds of the impressive Overture for symphony orchestra, by one of the most notable Polish composers and eminent violinist, Grażyna Bacewicz. Created in 1943, the work, consisting of three movements, delights with its colourful vitality from the very first bars. Its dynamic sound-enhancing character makes the Overture the most representative of the artist’s orchestral compositions.

The mid-19th century was a time of philosophical and aesthetic changes in the history of music, sparking inevitable disputes in the contemporary artistic circles. The disputes influenced the views of Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms, composers with different approaches, professing contradictory ideas. Tonight, we will listen to the Fünf Gedichte für eine Frauenstimme WWV 91 “Wesendonck Lieder” by Wagner, a collection of five songs to texts by Mathilde Wesendonck – the writer who was the composer’s muse. She was married to Otto Wesendonck, who supported Wagner financially, and the love feelings Wagner felt for her became the incentive for creating his most personal masterpiece – Tristan and Isolde, a trailblazing piece in the history of music.

Work on Symphony No. 2 in D major op. 73 by Johannes Brahms lasted only a few months, which is particularly impressive in comparison to Symphony No. 1 in C minor op. 68, which the composer wrote over the course of about twenty years. The Second was created in the summer of 1877 during Brahms’s stay in the picturesque Austrian Carinthia. The cheerful symphony is often compared with Symphony No. 6 in F major op. 68 “Pastoral” by Ludwig van Beethoven. The work was premiered by the Vienna Philharmonic in December 1877, the musicians were then led by the esteemed conductor Hans Richter. The enthusiastic reception of the work strengthened Brahms’s position as a promising symphonist.