Zakopane is also hosting the Polish premiere of Roxanna Panufnik's composition Memories of My Father and a performance of Arbor Cosmica for orchestra. Both Roxanna Panufnik and Lady Camilla Panufnik – the widow of Andrzej Panufnik – are to answer a series of questions in a talk with the festival audience.
Warsaw Autumn
Since its first edition in 1956, the Warsaw Autumn festival (Warszawska Jesień in the original Polish) has provided an annual dose of the latest in contemporary music from across the globe. The sole exceptions to the festival's continuity were made in 1958 – when the event was planned to become a biennale – and 1982, during the period of Martial Law. The Warsaw Autumn has always been an occasion for premiere performances of leading composers from both Poland and across the globe. What can we expect from the event this year?
Among the premiere performances, there will be Artur Zagajewski's brut, based on the life of Le Corbusier; Opływ/Przypływ/Upływ by Wojciech Ziemowit Zych; Ode to Maulana Rumi – a piece about the encounter of the mystic Rumi with the great philosopher Ibn-Arabi, written by a native of Damascus, Zaid Jabri; van for four hands, written by Hanna Kulenty; (one)[year](later) – Wojtek Blecharz's piece for Chinese instruments written after his two years of collaboration with the Forbidden City Orchestra in Beijing; a piece commissioned by the Warsaw Autumn festival from Wenchen Qin titled Listen to the Valleys (which draws inspiration from the painting traditions of the Song and Yuan periods); and also Crépuscule du soire mystique written by Jakub Sarwas, under the influence of Paul Verlaine's poetry.
Another interesting concert will be the performance of REKA (meaning "background" in Hebrew). written by Yuval Avital for the Chorus of Non-musicians – the squad of which does include great musicians, such as the percussionist Simone Benevent, the vocalist Sainko Namtchylak, and Omar Bandinu, a bassu singer of the canto a tenores tradition from Sardinia.
In a description of the commissioned piece, Nicola Scaldaferri states:
- The Choir of Non-Musicians in REKA is made up of hundreds of residents of the city where the work is performed. But unlike a traditional choir, the members of this 'crowd' aren't required to have either musical experience or education, because the graphic and text-based score points out all of the required musical elements, as well as imitations of nature's sounds, and onomatopoeicphonems (…) instead of a hierarchy of sound, there is the diversity. (…) Avital chose soloists from among the world's most important vocal traditions which have ancient roots and a strong sense of value. -
Folles Journees de la Musique – America
Szalone Dni Muzyki is the Polish edition of the international La Folle Journée festival (the name of which means Crazy Days of Music), first held in 1995 at the initiative of René Martin, and organised in France, Spain, and Japan. Its main aim is to overcome biases against classical music through encouraging and facilitating participation in concerts. The organisers always strive to maintain the highest possible standard of performances. Short concerts take place from the early hours through to the evening in several auditoriums at the same time. Low ticket prices and an unparallelled atmosphere make the Szalone Dni Muzyki truly open to any and everyone.
It will be the fifth time the festival takes place in Warsaw. The previous editions, which ran under the themes Chopin Open (2010), Les Titans (2011), Russia (2012), French and Spanish Music (2013), met with great interest. The programme of this year's edition includes pieces by American composers, such as Bernstein, Cage Reich, Copland, Ellington, Joplin, and others. Among the performers are Abdel Rahman El Bacha, Paul Lay, Elisabeth Rossiter, Anna Patalong, Gordon Goodwin, Jacek Kasprzyk, Tadeusz Wojciechowski, Sinfonia Varsovia, Hob-beats Percussion Group, and many others.
Avant Art Festival
Various musicians will meet on stage as part of this Wrocław festival. There will be those who have marked their presence on the experimental scene for years, whose ideas and methods we have already grown familiar with. There will also be young performers who are just beginning to conquer stages across the world. Through the 12 days of the festival, many various artists will present their work. There will be Ryoji Ikeda, usually associated with glitch aesthetics. There will also be the Zeitkratzer collective – an ensemble of many musicians who mingle the achievements of academic composers with some of the most avant-garde and alternative genres. Zeitkratzer will perform with Kaiji Haino, the Japanese master of experimental guitar, and together they will play one of the Metal Machine Music pieces by the recently-deceased Lou Reed. Haino is also to perform in a duo with Steven O'Malley, while Norwegian improvisers from Supersilent will join Led Zeppelin's bassist John Paul Jones.
Among the endeavours prepared especially for this year's Avant Art (and also produced by the festival) is a piece called In Between – word and music destroyer. It is a multi-disciplinary installation which includes live music, light, video art, set design, specially constructed instruments, and an installation of 12 loudspeakers. This installation will also later be presented in Turkey, as part of the Polish/Turkish Avant Art project. The piece was created by composers Cezary Duchnowski, Paweł Romańczuk from Małe Instrumenty, Kostas Georgakopulos, and playwright Michał Walczak.
Unsound
The leading theme of the festival – one loved by audiences across the world, the tickets for which usually sell out within minutes – is ''The Dream''. What does it mean?
- The Dream is an (unintentional) result of 100 years of counter-culture.
- The Dream is an actualisation of status.
- The Dream is an unceasing creation and sharing of content.
- The Dream is the history of music available at one click.
- The Dream is an ephemeral state on the verge of exploding.
It's impossible to name all the headliners of the event: Swans, Księżyc, Carter Tutti Void, Joey Anderson, Bjørn Torske, DJ Stingray, Robert Hood – the above list is only a small portion of the artists thus far annouced. It's best to concentrate on the projects which were put together especially for Unsound.
Ren Schofield (known to techno-lovers as Container) is to perform in a trio with Kenneth Kapstad and Tomas Järmyr, two Norwegian percussionists connected to the jazz and metal scenes. Craig Leon (the producer of Blondie, Ramones, Suicide, and many others) will give a live performance of Nommos, his 1981 album which was just recently re-released by the RVNG label. Nommos was initially written for an orchestra, and in Kraków the pieces will be presented live by musicians from the Sinfonietta Cracovia. The concert will be accompanied by mysterious visuals, created especially for the Kraków festival. Atom™ and Robin Fox will show their ability to combine lasers and video projections, as well as experimental audio technology and deconstructed forms of popular music. Richard Pinhas, one of the most renowned figures in French rock and instrumental music, will perform together with the Polish duo Kapital.
The Polish premiere of Andrzej Czajkowski's "The Merchant of Venice"
Czajkowski worked on his opera from 1968 through to 1982, when he died. He managed to finish almost all of the composition, apart from a few orchestration pages. The author of the libretto was John O'Brien, a friend of the composer. This forgotten piece enjoyed a premiere performance at the music festival in Bregenz. David Poutney, who headed the festival, described The Merchant as a "polytonal piece, situated somewhere between the world of Britten and that of Berg." One of the main protagonists of the opera is Shylock – a Venetian moneylender who has become an icon of antisemitic imagery. Many commentators ponder why Czajkowski, a Jew who survived the Second World War in the Warsaw Ghetto, decided to occupy himself with this controversial piece. In Czajkowski's opera, Shylock is first and foremost a tragic figure, one which can easily be placed alongside Hamlet and King Lear. Belated by more than 30 years, the premiere showing of this piece, directed by Keith Warner, took place at the International Opera Award in April, 2014.
Soundedit Festival
Soundedit is an international festival of music producers, and an event that offers an array of workshops and meetings for professionals alongside fascinating concerts. One such gig is a performance by Laibach, who have recently recorded an album inspired by the events of the Warsaw Uprising, as well as a performance by Karl Bartos, known for his work in the iconic Kraftwerk. There will also be three masters of song-writing, each representing an entirely different aesthetic: Lech Janerka, John Cale, and Patrick Wolf.
Beth Gibbons, Krzysztof Penderecki and NOSPR perform Górecki's III Symphony
Gibbons is a vocalist, author, producer, and the co-founder of trip-hop legend Portishead. During the concert, she will perform the famous solo piece in Górecki's symphony, while Penderecki will conduct the National Symphonic Orchestra of the Polish Radio. It won't be the first time for Penderecki to collaborate with young musicians. In 2011, he performed with Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood, as well as the electronic music artist Aphex Twin.
The programme will also include compositions by Penderecki, Greenwood, Lutosławski and a piece commissioned by the National Audiovisual Institute from the New York-based guitarist and composer, Bryce Dessner. Dessner, who has Polish roots, is the guitar player of indie rock band The National, and he is to present his own variation on one of Witold Lutosławski's compositions.
Sources: press release
Edited by Filip Lech, 28/08/2014, translated by Paulina Schlosser, 29/08/2014