The performance of the Tansman Trio will be an excellent opportunity to listen to a work for violin, viola and cello by Aleksander Tansman. The programme also includes works by three other composers, Ernst von Dohnányi, Franz Schubert and Krzysztof Penderecki.

The night will begin with the performance of the five-movement brilliant and joyful Serenade in C major op. 10 by Dohnányi, composed in 1902. Although the Hungarian artist belonged to the same generation as the musical revolutionaries drawing handfuls from their native folklore – Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály – Dohnányi remained faithful to Romantic aesthetics throughout his long life. He created tonal and accessible music, which paradoxically made it fall into oblivion, as it was considered old-fashioned and therefore uninteresting. How much truth there is in this – you will be able to see for yourself during the concert at the National Forum of Music.

Although Franz Schubert’s music now belongs to the canon and enjoys great popularity, some of his compositions were considered by his contemporaries as long-winded and intricate, there were even reports of “heavenly lengths” in his compositions. These opinions may arouse surprise when listening to this ear-friendly, lyrical music, in which the melody plays the leading role. It is no different in the case of the cheerful and charming String Trio in B flat major.

This evening we will also hear Aleksander Tansman’s String Trio, completed in 1946. This brilliant composition consists of four movements: a motoric Toccata, Elegy filled with sadness, Scherzo full of nervous energy and a solemn finale. Although the composer, born in 1897 in Łódź, was a true citizen of the world and achieved great success as a pianist quite early, until recently his work was almost completely forgotten in his homeland. Thanks to the interest of the young generation of performers who are open to new things, this situation is now changing, and Aleksander Tansman’s music is more and more often heard in concert halls.

The last composition performed by the artists will be Krzysztof Penderecki’s intensely expressive String Trio, created in the 1990s – at a time when chamber music was Penderecki’s main focus.