46th International Wratislavia Cantans Festival - part 3 report

"Every private has a marshal's baton in his backpack and thinks he will be a general. I knew immediately what I wrote in 1976 and now I know too," said Henryk Mikołaj Górecki about his III Symphony - "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" in 1993. Today, almost a year after the composer's death, during the concert of the Wratislavia Cantans festival, we have the opportunity to recall one of the most important musical works of the second half of the 20th century.

III Symphony is a legendary piece. Critics, as often happens in the history of music, did not immediately recognize it. They wrote about boredom, the loss of the outstanding artist's talent, ostentatious simplicity, "liturgical socialist realism" with which the composer teases the audience. The importance of this work was appreciated and understood (or maybe not fully?) only 20 years later, thanks to its unprecedented commercial success. In the early 90s, III Symphony in the recording of Dawn Upshaw and the London Sinfonietta orchestra conducted by David Zinman made it to the world charts, not only of serious music.

Jacek Kaspszyk, who will conduct today's performance of the piece, sees the success of III Symphony in Górecki's creative poetics. - His works allow for reflection, provide peace. After all avant-garde achievements, after deforming musical matter, it was time for calm, reflection, mastering the rush of life. Górecki was a master of planning expression, built on a seemingly endless repetition of the same motif. Every time I conducted this piece, it always evoked the same impression in people: on the one hand, great concentration and peace, and on the other hand - the numbness of the skin and bringing to some extraordinary tension. The beauty of Górecki's music - emphasizes the conductor - allows you to immerse yourself in some infinite space, which brings a sense of inner peace.

The moody context for Górecki's III Symphony will be created in the Polish-Catholic Cathedral of St. Mary Magdalene (7 pm) by the works of Józef Świder, Paweł Łukaszewski, Marek Jasiński, and Witold Lutosławski. Among the performers: singer Ewa Vesin, who made her debut at the Wrocław Opera a few years ago, outstanding Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey, and the Choir and Symphony Orchestra of the Wrocław Philharmonic under the direction of Jacek Kapszyk.

An interesting conclusion to the evening will be the next concert (9:30 pm) - one of the series of solo instrumental recitals of this year's Wratislavia. The interior of the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross will again be filled with the sound of violins. Henning Kraggerud, a Norwegian instrumentalist, a rising star of European violin playing, will perform an extraordinary program, which is a kind of continuation of the baroque violin polyphony played yesterday by Rachel Podger.

Yehudi Menuhin reportedly once said that Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin are the Old Testament of violin music, while Paganini's Caprices are the New Testament. So what to call Six Sonatas for solo violin op. 27 by Henryk Wieniawski's student, Eugène Ysaÿe? Maybe just a "catechism of the contemporary violinist"?

This catechism was created in the early 20s of the 20th century, and the music that fills it is a sophisticated, very individual play with the violin and not only the violin tradition. It is a separate, unlike any other world of violin music, which - in the times when post-romantic virtuosos were still active, led by Fritz Kreisler - was created by a Belgian creator. Each of the Sonatas was dedicated to one of the great violinists of those times, and each - directly or only allusively - refers to the playing style of the chosen artist. In them, you can find quotes from Bach's music, echoes of Enescu's works, the theme of the medieval sequence Dies irae, references to Viennese fin de siècle and violin miniatures by Kreisler, and stylizations reminiscent of the images of the old masters of Dutch painting.

The most popular, integral, and most frequently played in concerts is the Sonata in D minor "Ballad". Violinists often perform it as an encore. However, few have heard the entire cycle of these fascinating, "postmodernist" works by Ysaÿe live, as few musicians have it in their repertoire. We should not miss this opportunity today.

More information at: www.wratislaviacantans.pl