During the series (one of two projects of the Il Nuovo l’Antico concert programme), seven concerts will take place at the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. The thread linking these concerts is the music of Fryderyk Chopin, Karol Szymanowski, and Witold Lutosławski. It’s the biggest cross-sectional presentation of the composers’ works in recent years.
The review was organized at the initiative of Mario Messinis, the Bologna Festival’s artistic director and a renowned music critic and contemporary music promoter. The organizers’ idea is to present the works of the composers representative of Polish music of the 19th and 20th century in their mutual connections and in juxtaposition with other European music from that period (Schubert, Liszt, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel).
Artists predominantly from Poland and Italy were invited to take part in this project, the first being Pietro De Maria. This outstanding Italian pianist, widely renowned and highly-rated for his Chopin recordings for the DECCA label, performed etudes by all three of the composers. His recital was preceded by a conference, during which Giovanni Bietti and Monika Prusak introduced the works of Chopin, Szymanowski and Lutosławski.
The next concert took place on 25th September and featured Luca Fiorentini and Jakub Tchórzewski. The subsequent concerts (on 3rd, 15th and 31st October, and 5th and 6th November) are to feature such artists as Filippo Faes, Pierpaolo Maurzzi, the Italy-based Polish vocalist Joanna Klisowska (soprano), the Meccorre quartet, Bayerische Staatsoper Streichquartett, Coro del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and Ensemble da Camera del Conservatorio “A. Boito” di Parma.
The review’s programme will feature also very rarely performed works of the Polish artists, such as Songs and Sonata for Violin and Piano by Chopin, and Myths, Metopes, Etudes, Songs of a Fairytale Princess and Kurpian Songs by Szymanowski, as well as Lutosławski's Sacher Variation, Etudes, Grave, String Quartet, and Songs to the Poems of Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna. Canzona by Krzysztof Meyer and Polish Suite – Hommage à Chopin by Andrzej Panufnik will also be performed.
The review was organized by the Bologna Festival Association in cooperation with the Polish Institute in Rome.
For more information, visit the festival’s website.
Source: press materials, ed. szm, 29 September