International Youth Orchestra – International Lutosławski Youth Orchestra (ILYO) on the 30th anniversary of Witold Lutosławski's death. The project was co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.
Organizer
Mieczysław Karłowicz Philharmonic in Szczecin - Municipal Institution of Culture is co-led by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
Realizacja koncertów 22 i 24 sierpnia 2024 we współpracy z Polskim Wydawnictwem Muzycznym w ramach programu TUTTI.pl promującego wykonawstwo muzyki polskiej.
If the world of classical music ever had a "renaissance man", it was certainly Leonard Bernstein. Composer, pianist, conductor and music popularizer. As a composer, he found his place in both the world of "classical" and popular music. He was a giant of conducting, loved by audiences and admired by classical musicians.
This year, ILYO will perform the Overture to Candide written by Leonard Bernstein for the operetta of the same title. Candide was premiered in 1955 and was a collaboration between Bernstein and playwright Lillian Hellman. The operetta was based on Voltaire's novella from 1758, which was a satire on superstitions and fashionable philosophical views of his time, especially the Inquisition of the Catholic Church. Although Candide was a moderate success, the overture to it has become a permanent part of the repertoire of most symphony orchestras in the world and is probably Bernstein's most frequently performed work. It is a tribute to a life full of passion, emotion, enthusiasm and spontaneity. And performing it requires extraordinary speed and precision from the musicians.
Leonard Bernstein, fot. Jack Mitchell
25-04-2024, 11:15:04
Antonín Dvořák - Symphony No. 9 From the New World
The year 2024 is officially the Year of Czech Music, so the repertoire of the 12th edition of the International Lutosławski Youth Orchestra must include a great work of a Czech master. For the first time in our history and 120 years after the death of Antonín Dvořák (1841-1094), we will play his greatest and most famous symphony.
Symphony No. 9 in E minor, From the New World, Op. 95, B. 178 by Dvořák is the work of a mature composer. It is both the greatest and most popular of all his symphonies. The enthusiasm that accompanied its premiere at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1893 meant that its fame quickly eclipsed all the composer's previous symphonic achievements.
Here we hear Dvořák fully in control of his ideas and musical means of expression. The piece was written in 1892-93, during the composer's short three-year stay in America, where he served as director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York. Striving to create a symphonic foundation for "American" music, its national idiom, he accepted and adapted ideas from a new world that he absorbed with all his senses. The musical inspirations of Native Americans and African Americans combine here with his own European and Czech sensibilities, resulting in a symphony full of thrilling energy and melodic invention. This is undoubtedly one of the greatest classical music hits of all time. It was also the first symphony to ever leave the earth. It was taken to the Moon by Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. From the New World to the new world – the title finally obliges.
Antonín Dvořák
19-03-2024, 12:24:08
Witold Lutosławski - Partita
Originally Witold Lutoslawski’s Partita was written for violin and piano, and dedicated to Pinchas Zukerman and Marc Neikrug in 1984. But three years later the composer arranged an orchestrated concerto version of the piece for Anne Sophie Mutter, who premiered it on January 10, 1990 in Munich with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the composer himself.
The Partita is typical of Lutosławski’s late style, his angular asperity, and bursts of forceful aggression alternating with Impressionistic lyrical fragments and bluesy note-bending passages.
As the composer described it himself: The work consists of five movements. Of these, the main movements are the first (Allegro giusto), the third (Largo) and the fifth (Presto). The second and fourth are but short interludes to be played ad libitum. A short ad libitum section also appears before the end of the last movement.
The three major movements follow, rhythmically at least, the tradition of pre-classical (18th-century) keyboard music. This, however, is no more than an allusion. Harmonically and melodically, Partita clearly belongs to the same group of my contemporaneous compositions as Symphony No. 3 and Chain 1.
Witold Lutosławski
25-03-2024, 12:16:03
Krzysztof Penderecki - Serenade 1996 - 1997
Krzysztof Penderecki (1933-2020) was undoubtedly the most important Polish composer of the late 20th century and one of the most inspiring and influential musicians to emerge in Eastern Europe after World War II. His work is usually divided into two characteristic periods: the period of the avant-garde and the turn towards the late Romantic tradition (from the mid-1970s).
The Serenade 1996 – 1997 for string orchestra comes from the second period of Penderecki's compositional career. However, it differs significantly from the calm, soft and lyrical nature of the work of typical serenades. It begins with a rather short, though gloomy Passacaglia, followed by Larghetto, which, despite a slightly more romantic mood, still has some dark aspects. In response to critical comments about the work, regarding the means of expression it used, Penderecki made the famous remark: It does not matter to me how it is defined. Whether as music immersed in tradition or avant-garde. For me it is simply authentic. And that's enough. It's hard to find a more eloquent criticism of reviewers who are often more focused on pigeonholing the music than on the music itself.
Leonard Bernstein, fot. Jack Mitchell
