Inauguracja sezonu artystycznego 2020/2021 by Beethoven, Magin, Brahms, Schubert, No (2020/2020), Diriģents Andrzej Boreyko, Filharmonia Narodowa, Warsaw, Poland

The majority of the works that will feature in the attractive programme we have prepared for the opening concert of the new season were penned by composers associated with Vienna. The second “central theme” of the evening will be a number of interesting orchestral transcriptions of piano and chamber pieces that are very rarely performed today. One genuine master of such transcriptions was the great conductor Stanisław Skrowaczewski. The programme will also include an arrangement of Beethoven’s youthful rondo by the Czech-German composer Erwin Schulhoff. The title of the piece, Rage Over a Lost Penny, most probably refers to an obscure anecdote. The audience will also hear Schubert’s immortal Symphony in B minor – to this day critics continue to argue over why it was left unfinished after only two movements (after all, we know that Schubert had different ideas for this symphony – both the beginning of a scherzo and some sketches “suspected” of being intended for the cycle have survived). This great riddle in the history of music is an integral part of the romantic legend surrounding a composer who met an untimely death. It has also been the object of many hypothetical endings. One great admirer of Schubert’s oeuvre was Johannes Brahms, who would prove a worthy heir to his song legacy. As an experienced choral conductor he also composed many pieces for choirs, the most stunning and ambitious of which is the moving ode Nänie composed to Schiller’s text. This work was Brahms’ farewell gesture to his deceased friend, the painter Anselm Feuerbach. Following a traumatic accident in which he severely injured his hand, the career of the Polish pianist and composer Miłosz Magin appeared at one time to be over; and yet, following several years of intensive rehabilitation the artist began to perform and record once again. Indeed, he took advantage of his enforced break from the concert stage to compose a great deal. The opening concert of the new season will reacquaint listeners with his Concerto No. 3 for Piano, String Orchestra and Timpani from 1970 – a work of intense postmodern expression that echoes the “Golden Age” of great concertos written by virtuosos, who knew perfectly the secrets of their instruments.