The concert, conducted by the ensemble’s Music Director Vasily Petrenko, features Chopin’s Piano Concerto in F minor, the Second Symphony by Jean Sibelius, and the overture to Paria, a less well-known opera by Stanisław Moniuszko, a composer known as the father of Polish national opera.
The soloist in the Chopin concerto is Canadian pianist Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu, the winner of last year’s International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.
Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu. Photo: PAP/Rafał Guz
Wednesday's concert at the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall rounds off the 18th annual Chopin and His Europe festival, which comprised more than 30 symphonic and chamber concerts as well as vocal recitals.
The over two-week-long event included a concert performance of Verdi’s opera Un giorno di regno, ossia Il finto Stanislao (A One-Day Reign, or The Pretend Stanislaus), whose main protagonist, a French officer named Belfiore, impersonates 18th-century Polish king Stanisław Leszczyński.
The 18th Chopin and His Europe Festival featured pianists such as Yulianna Avdeeva, Maria João Pires, Leonora Armellini, Cyprien Katsaris, Barry Douglas, Kate Liu and Szymon Nehring.
Other performers included the Europa Galante ensemble, the European Union Youth Orchestra and the Warsaw Philharmonic orchestra.
(mk/gs)