NOSPR / Liebreich / Raubo / The 90th Anniversary of the Orchestra - NOSPR

It was on 2 October 1935 when the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Grzegorz Fitelberg, gave its inaugural concert. These ninety years of the NOSPR represent more than the mere passage of time: they embody a sound that has evolved with successive generations. It is a history marked by a varied repertoire, numerous premieres of new compositions, and, above all, countless musicians across the decades for whom the orchestra has become a second home. 

The jubilee concert will inaugurate the celebrations marking the 90th anniversary of the NOSPR. Step by step, as we delve into the programme, we shall discover traces linking the present to the orchestra’s rich history. Two compositions will be performed, which the NOSPR had the honour of premiering decades ago. The evening will open with Little Overture by Wojciech Kilar, a composer closely connected with Katowice. It was the National Symphony Orchestra of Polish Radio – then known as the Grand Symphony Orchestra of Polish Radio and Television (Wielka Orkiestra Symfoniczna Polskiego Radia i Telewizji) – conducted by Jan Krenz, that gave its first performance on 25 June 1955. Likewise, the symphonic version of Little Suite by Witold Lutosławski was first performed by the NOSPR in 1951, under the baton of its founder, Grzegorz Fitelberg. 

Alongside works by 20th-century Polish composers, we shall also hear the Symphony No 1 in C minor, Op 68 by Johannes Brahms – a monumental work whose completion took the composer well over a decade. Was this because of the weight of expectation, the pressure to live up to Beethoven’s genius, that slowed his progress? We shall never know for certain. Undoubtedly, his First has often been dubbed the ‘Tenth Symphony’, and Eduard Hanslick pointed to its ‘spiritual kinship between Brahms and Beethoven’. The concert will be complemented by Fryderyk Chopin’s Variations in B-flat major, Op 2 on the theme of Là ci darem la mano from Mozart’s Don Giovanni. This piece brought Chopin fame and stirred the admiration of Robert Schumann himself. As the theme for his variations, the Polish composer chose the famous duet between Zerlina and Don Giovanni, in which the power of seduction clashes with girlish naivety. The work is considered a perfect example of the virtuoso brillant style, but it is also imbued with romantic emotions. 

[Julia Broniowska]

Concert duration (intermission included): approximately 120 minutes