News - NOSPR

Zbigniew Herbert once said that “we are all seekers of paradises lost.” He was not the only one to hold such an opinion. People of all cultures and eras have had similar intuitions. In Europe those could be perceived particularly in the Greek legend of the golden age and the biblical myth of the garden of Eden: even though it is our fate to live in a fallen world, there is solace in the vague and melancholic memory of the era of happiness and the hope that this old order will once be restored. 

Music plays a particular role in bringing those intuitions to life. Opening the gates of an enchanted garden, its gentle power brings the bitter-sweet sense that the idyllic Arcadia is within our reach. There will be numerous such pieces to be heard at the Katowice Culture Nature Festival, both established masterpieces (such as Gustav Mahler’s Song of the Earth, Franz Schubert’s The Fair Maid of the Mill, Maurice Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Béla Bartók’s Out of Doors) and lesser-known compositions, hidden like a forgotten treasure (such as Zygmunt Noskowski’s Symphony No. 3“From Spring to Spring” to crown the Festival). 

We will enjoy performances from a host of most exquisite soloists (Joshua Bell, Ian Bostridge, Joyce DiDonato, Adam Ben Ezra, Sasha Cooke, Seong-Jin Cho, Michael Spyres), ensembles (Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Il Pomo d’Oro, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra) and conductors (Marin Alsop, Francesco Corti, Carolyn Kuan, Daniel Harding).

Marcin Trzęsiok

Programme