Festival of Premieres / NOSPR / Kozlovsky / Walentynowicz / Romańczuk / The Unique Sound of the Theremin - NOSPR

Melancholia and blurred outlines. The last day of the festival will bring sounds replete with subtlety, blurred boundaries and nostalgia. Jacek Sotomski’s piano concerto Melancholia will take the listeners on an intimate journey into the realm of dark emotions and memories. The piece, dedicated to the pianist Małgorzata Walentynowicz, will show, however, that music of such colour can oscillate between sadness itself and the perverted pleasure found in experiencing it. Paweł Hendrich’s composition, in turn, references the Renaissance painting technique of sfumato. In visual arts, this consists of subtle blending of boundaries between various tones and colours. In the musical matter, the crucial thing for the composer is the contour-based orchestral texture and the delicate changeability of timbres. An immensely interesting part of the Sfumato concerto is its solo instrument – the theremin, reworked both electronically and mechanically. This exceptional instrument enables numerous experiments, largely thanks to the fact that it is played without being touched. Therefore, the sounds will blend just like colours in a Renaissance painting: gently and delicately.

[Julia Broniowska]

Concert duration: approximately 60 minutes