Silesian String Quartet and Guests / Second Concert in the Series: Alexandre Tansman in France - NOSPR

The Silesian String Quartet first encountered the music of Alexandre Tansman at the very beginning of its artistic journey. In their own concert series, the musicians return to the work of a composer who has remained an important source of inspiration. The concerts under the title Alexandre Tansman in France form a coherent portrait of the Łódź-born composer who found his artistic home among the Parisian intellectual circles of the early 20th century. Together with invited guests, the Silesian String Quartet reveals the richness of Tansman’s chamber music while exploring the work of other composers from his French circle.

The second concert in the series opens with Tansman’s String Quartet No. 3, composed in 1925. In this work, at once light, neoclassical and deeply personal, the composer does not shy away from Polish inspirations: the Scherzo takes the form of a stylised mazurka. The programme, however, is centred on the wind instruments, for which Tansman had a particular fondness. In Musique pour clarinette et quatuor à cordes, his last chamber work, the clarinet displays the full range of its expressive possibilities, from lyrical cantabile to a virtuoso cadenza in the central movement. In Musique à six, the instrument assumes an even more prominent role as the musical guide. Written in 1977, the work recalls Mozart's serenades – music intended above all to delight both performers and listeners. It also echoes Tansman's earlier compositions, the music of Chopin and Klezmer idioms.

The concert concludes with Joachim Mendelson's Piano Quintet, in which the oboe comes to the fore. Tansman met the Polish composer of Jewish descent in Paris and introduced him to the publisher Max Eschig. Thanks to this connection, the quintet was published and today remains one of only two surviving works by Mendelson; the rest of the composer's output was lost after he perished during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Julia Broniowska / NOSPR

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