Poetry for children has a special charm - it is full of magic, colors, incredible stories and surprising solutions. Grateful is a material for composers who recreate images full of originality enchanted in poems with the use of sounds. In the case of the song cycles of Karol Szymanowski and Witold Lutosławski, taking up children's themes does not interfere with the shaping of sophisticated musical solutions, and the artistic craftsmanship of this work ensures its permanent place in the repertoire of the most outstanding singers.
From the book, Children's Rhymes , containing forty-nine lines , which - according to Iłłakowiczówna's intention - "a child could write, and what a poet has the right to write", Szymanowski selected and made musical twenty texts. Just as the poet looked at the world through the eyes of Krysia and Lalka, who showed the reader what was closest to them, Szymanowski also illustrated the experiences of the little heroines with the help of humorous and pensive melodies.
The subject of children was also close to Lutosławski, the author of several dozen songs and songs in this trend. One can see their diversity on the basis of the two series presented during this concert. Children's songs from 1947, intended for children , to the words of Julian Tuwim, delight with their extraordinary simplicity and natural charm. The pieces from the 1989-1990 collection of Chantefleurs et chantefables to surreal texts by Robert Desnos are also full of humor . However, the degree of their complexity and sophisticated melodic and harmonic solutions make them classified as works aimed at adults - both performers and listeners.
