Entitled Breakthrough, the event marks the 70th birthday of one of the most outstanding Polish contemporary composers, whose music is a blend of the legacy of earlier periods with highly innovative ideas.
The programme of the concert is a cross-section of Szymański’s oeuvre, spanning music from the 1970s to the present, including his Limerics, works for small performance forces as well as with orchestra.
The performers include Jan Jakub Monowid (countertenor), Małgorzata Sarbak (harpsichord), Agnieszka Podłucka (viola, violin), Natalia Reichert (viola), Łukasz Długosz (flute) and the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra under the Ukrainian-Polish conductor Yaroslav Shemet.
In his book Polish Music Since Szymanowski, published in Britain in 2005 and brought out in a Polish translation this year, British musicologist Adrian Thomas wrote: “Of the post-war generation, Szymański is the best known both at home and abroad and has one of the most interesting pedigrees, having studied only with Baird and Kotoński [in Warsaw] but also with Haubenstock-Ramati in Vienna; he is the only one to have a contract with a major Western publisher.
"Like his music, he remains something of an enigma, choosing a reclusive existence in preference to a sustained organisational or educational role in Polish musical life."
Szymański is an honorary member of the Polish Composers’ Union. His honours include the Silver Gloria Artis Medal for Cultural Merit.
The all-Szymański concert is one of the final events of the Eufonie International Music Festival of Central and Eastern Europe.
(mk)