Silesian Quartet / Piotr Lato / Piotr Sałajczyk Generation '51 on their 70th birthday - NOSPR

The Generation ‘51 composers began a current in Polish music which Andrzej Chłopecki called neoromanticism. You will have a chance to verify this view while listening to the first two pieces in this next concert of our series.

It will begin with Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s masterpiece, his last String Quartet, referencing Beethoven’s Quartet in F minor, Op. 95 not only with its key, but also with the brevity of utterance. This work, a full-scale Romantic one in every respect, enables both the listeners and the performers to experience the spirit of Romanticism without any limitations. The slow part of op. 80 is a heartbreaking requiem for Fanny, Felix’s beloved sister. He died of longing a few months after her death.

The instruments featured in Eugeniusz Knapik’s Trio for violin, clarinet and piano provide a connection with Béla Bartók’s Contrasts, but also with Darius Milhaud’s and Alexander Arutiunian’s suites, Stravinsky’s Soldier's Tale and Khachaturian’s Trio, written for the same type of ensemble. Yet, it was not referencing history that mattered for the composer. It was the sum of timbres offered by such an ensemble and reaching for the essence of the trio genre. The piece, commissioned by Walter Verdehr in 2003, premiered at the “Warsaw Autumn” International Festival of Contemporary Music.

Can performers provide inspiration for the composer? Two years ago, we performed Bettina Skrzypczak’s String Quartet No. 4 and Mieczysław Weinberg’s Piano Quintet in one concert in Bern. It was after the concert, at which the composer was present, that the idea of writing a new piece for the same classical type of ensemble, piano and string quartet, burdened with a long tradition, yet also letting one’s sonic-timbre imagination wander freely. Let us listen...

We play safe! Click and learn more about the public health rules in force during the coming concerts – more

Duration of the concert: approx. 80 minutes