Recorded at the prestigious Poznan Philharmonic Concert Hall, this concert brings together three major figures of Polish music history. The Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra performs under the baton of Lukasz Borowicz, with celebrated pianist Alim Beisembayev as soloist. The programme opens with Stanislaw Moniuszko’s Overture to the opera Halka, one of the key works of Poland’s national operatic tradition. This is followed by Mieczyslaw Karlowicz’s Eternal Songs, Op. 10, a richly atmospheric symphonic poem and a landmark of the Polish late-Romantic repertoire. The centrepiece of the evening is Fryderyk Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11, a celebrated concerto that combines virtuosic brilliance with lyrical intimacy, placing the solo piano at the heart of an evocative orchestral setting.
Nigel Kennedy – Polish Spirit
In 2000, a stranger handed Nigel Kennedy an album of Mlynarski’s concerto in the street and unwittingly launched Kennedy on a major project to revive this forgotten Romantic music. As Kennedy says in his introduction to the concert, “…none of the musicians in the orchestra had ever played this music before, so even in Poland the Mlynarski is a forgotten concerto. So it’s a new discovery not just for me, but for the orchestra. There’s a whole new energy in this music with the Polish Chamber Orchestra playing it. We have this special connection which I’ve never really experienced with any other orchestra … so to be able to bring a new composer from their own heritage and to be able to take it to the world, I think represents the orchestra very well.” Concert programme: Emil Mlynarski’s Violin Concerto in A Major, Mieczyslaw Karlowicz’s Violin Concerto No.2 in D Major, Vittorio Monti’s Czardas (arr. Kennedy) cadenza by Nigel Kennedy, Trad: Danny Boy (arr. Kennedy)