The Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival takes place annually during the pre-Easter seaon. Its first edition was launched in 1997 in Kraków, commemorating the 170th anniversary of Beethoven’s death. In 2004, the festival moved to Warsaw and in 2010 it was honoured by the International Festivals & Events Association with the main prize, outrunning more than three thousand cultural events from across the globe. The director of the festival is Elżbieta Penderecka, the spouse of composer Krzysztof Penderecki, and the event is organised by the Ludwig van Beethoven Association.
In an interview for the TOK FM radio, Elżbieta Penderecka revealed that the 17th edition of the festival brings together many anniverasaries. Programmes join the celebrations of Witold Lutosławski’s 100th birthday and commemorate 200 years since the birth of Wagner and Verdi, with other concerts commemorating 80 years since the birth of the late Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, and the 80th birthday of Krzysztof Penderecki.
The works of Witold Lutosławski are featured twice at the festival. On the 24th of March, a unique concert addresses folk inspirations in Lutosławski’s oeuvre, featuring three ensembles: the Jan Smoczyński Trio, the Janusz Prusinowski Trio and the Atom String Quartet featuring Grażyna Auguścik. The composer made numerous references to Polish folk music, with examples including Concerto for Orchestra, which he based on melodies recorded by Oskar Kolberger, and the collecion titled Pięć melodii ludowych / Five Folk Melodies. The other concert features the Cello Concerto on the 26th of March performed by the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra.
On the 23rd of March, the festival audiences are presented with the II Symphony No. 2 by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki. Also known as the Copernican Symphony, the piece reflects the Polish astronomer’s discoveries and its contemplation. Latin texts of biblical psalms are employed in the symphony, as well as excerpts from Copernicus’ Book I De revolutionibus orbium coelestium / On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres. The symphony is performned by the National Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and the Chorus of the Podlasie Opera.
Krzysztof Penderecki makes his festival appearances both as a conductor and a composer. The final concert of the festival, featuring Giusseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, is performed under the baton of Penderecki. The Warsaw Philharmonic will be accompanied by young vocalists who have already made their names on the music scene: the soprano Maria Luigia Borsi, the mezzosoprano Tea Demurishvili and the tenor Francesco Demuro.
On the 27th of March, the MDR Sinfonieorchester from Leipzig perform Penderecki's Violin Concerto No. 2 - Metamorphoses. The piece was written for the virutoso violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, who made a huge impression on the composer with her performance of Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 1, when Penderecki conducted the piece with Mutter as soloist. The piece was performed on Easter Saturday, and performed by the MDR Sinfonieorchester.
In an interview with Mutter, the acclaimed instrumentalist spoke about Penderecki:
The multi-layered complexity of Krzysztof Penderecki’s development is reminiscent of the painter Pablo Picasso. Few composers were capable of proving such a multitude of faces and creating such contrasting works. (…) The fact that as composer like Krzysztof Penderecki is capable of reforming his musical language finds its proof in the Violin Concerto No. 2, ‘Metamorphoses'. The piece demands extreme technical skills from me and at the same time it give me the greatest fulfillment as a musician.
The Beethoven Easter Festival's 17th edition also features the Unknown Operas series, a section of the festival's programming that began in 2008. This year the series presents Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra in its original 1857 version, performed by conductor Łukasz Borowicz and the Polish Radio Orchestra with the Choir of the National Philharmonic.
The 17th annual Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival takes place in Warsaw between the 17th and 29th of March 2013.
For more information on the festival, see: http://www.beethoven.org.pl/en/
Translated by Paulina Schlosser