Fryderyk 2024 Gala of Classical Music - NOSPR

Baroque, contemporary, chamber and orchestral music, the core of classical music and lighter sounds from South America – this, in brief, is the program of the Fryderyk 2024 Classical Music Gala. The 30th anniversary Fryderyk award ceremony will be accompanied by solo, chamber and vocal performances of the most outstanding Polish musicians.

The 30th Classical Music Gala, crowning this year's edition of the Fryderyk Festival, will begin with a musical performance of the evening’s host – the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice (NOSPR) led by Łukasz Borowicz. We will hear the visionary music of Benjamin Britten: The Tempest, one of his sea interludes from the opera Peter Grimes. One of the greatest composers of the 20th century, he masterfully showed the unleashed elements of sky and water, which in the opera are a metaphor for the emotional states of the title character.

The {oh!} Trio under the direction of the outstanding violinist Martyna Pastuszka will take the audience to the world of French music - elegant and refined. Pastuszka plays the wonderful instrument of the Italian luthier Giuseppe Guarneri "del Gesù", and she will be accompanied by Krzysztof Firlus (viola da gamba) and Anna Firlus (harpsichord). The artists will perform a fragment from one of the suites of Joseph Marchand, a Chapelle Royale musician from the times of Louis XIV - the Prelude combines many fascinating musical worlds.

We will continue with French music with the violin virtuoso Jakub Jakowicz. The soloist, accompanied by the NOSPR conducted by Łukasz Borowicz, will perform Meditation from the opera Thaïs by Jules Massenet. This will lead us further to the world of opera and the performance of the renowned baritone Szymon Mechliński. We will be able to admire his powerful voice in dramatic arias from operas by Zygmunt Noskowski (The Judgment) and Giacomo Puccini (The Coat).

Before we move on to lighter dance rhythms and tones in the second part of the gala, we will hear Marta Gidaszewska and Robert Łaguniak, who together form the internationally recognized Polish Violin Duo, perform Two contrasts for a duo composed by Anna Rocławska-Musiałczyk – the winner of last year’s ZAiKS award.

In the second part of the gala the temperature of music will only rise with Marcin Masecki - pianist, composer, arranger, daring improviser, man of many talents, including vocal and oratory – taking the stage. The artist grew up in the musical culture of South America and knows a wide range of various Latin American rhythms and dances, starting from their early, 19th-century prototypes. He recently recorded Merengue, bolero and tango in his own arrangement on the excellent album Boleros y más, fragments of which he will share with the audience at the Fryderyk Gala. Anyone who heard Masecki sing in Spanish will admit it is unforgettable.

The evening’s finale will continue with a classical arrangement of a tango: the third part of Astor Piazzolla's Double concert, performed by the excellent clarinetist Jan Jakub Bokun and his musical companion, guitarist Jakub Kościuszko.

More information can be found on the Fryderyk Festival social channels and website: www.fryderyki.pl.

Concert duration (including intermission): approx.140 minutes

Event Organizers: Polish Recording Industry Association ZPAV, Polish Recording Academy, dajprawokulturze.pl.

Main Partner: Silesian Voivodeship.

Co-hosts of the event: Upper Silesia-Zagłębie Metropolis.

Event Partners: STOART Association of Performing Artists, Skoda, Orlen Group, House of Diamond, Tymbark, IMS sensory media, LaBiostetique.

Media Patrons: PRESTO

Event Producer: High Events.