The central point of the concert of the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra will be the performance of …como el sol y la mar… by Grażyna Pstrokońska–Nawratil. The title of this work – ... like the sun and the sea ... – refers to the artist’s impressions from her trip to Mexico. The programme also features Krzysztof Penderecki’s Chaconne and Felix Mendelssohn’s String Octet in E flat major.

 The elegiac, filled with sadness Chaconne from Krzysztof Penderecki’s A Polish Requiemwas written in 2005 at the news of Pope John Paul II’s death. It was a moment in the artist’s work when he mor and more turned to the past, composing works aesthetically referring to the music of the late Romantic era. Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil worked on …como el sol y la mar… for flute and chamber orchestra in 2007–2008. It is part of a cycle entitled thinking about Vivaldi, and its subtitle is summer. This work is one of the “music reportages” the composer from Wrocław is so fond of, in which she expresses her impressions from travelling around the world. As the artist says about her reportages, they are “a faithful transfer into thesound dimension of unusual places with their colour, temperature, vibration, magic; it is freeze-framing in music, capturing the whole image hot to immortalize it and pass it on. ...como el sol y la mar... is “a composition captured on the Gulf of Mexico, where water, sand and sun swirled in the rhythm of samba.” During the concert, the solo part will be performed by an excellent Polish flautist specializing in contemporary music – Łukasz Długosz.

 The last work in the programme is the String Octet in E flat major op. 20 by Felix Mendelssohn. It is a juvenile work, written in 1825. As a birthday present, the composer gave the piece to Eduard Rietz, an eminent violinist who introduced the young Felix to the secrets of playing the instrument. When Mendelssohn worked on the octet, it was a relatively new genre. For this reason, his piece quickly became a true model for later compositions of this type. It impresses not only with its perfect form, but also with the serene fullness of sound.