Kwartet Śląski / Tymoteusz Bies Generation '51 on their 70th birthday - NOSPR

In the first of the concerts, you will hear the '51 Generation's 40-year acquaintance with Silesian String Quartet.

Andrzej Krzanowski wrote the Salve Regina for choir in 1981, but it was only in 2020, after Grażyna Krzanowska had arranged it for string quartet, that we played it in the „Silesian misterioso” cycle, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of St John Paul II’s birth.

Relief for Andrzej is Aleksander Lasoń’s tribute to his friend taken away by premature death. We first played it in 1995 to celebrate the Chamber Hall of the M. Karłowicz Music School in Katowice being named after Andrzej Krzanowski. A short piece, yet one most moving in its message...

Eugeniusz Knapik’s 1980 String Quartet No. 1 is today considered a classic of 20th-century music, but in the year of its creation it was a challenge for us to perform, forced us to get over our habits, and working with its most demanding composer was a true test for us. The piece had two premieres on the same day at the 1st Elżbieta and Krzysztof Penderecki Chamber Music Festival in Lusławice. On 28th August 1980, the Vilnius String Quartet played at 6 p.m. and the Silesian String Quartet played at 10 p.m. The form of the piece is twofold, as in Lutosławski’s work, only put together in reverse order. It is dense, dynamic, stormy, to the point of virtuosity, at first. Then, there comes the calm of the song arising from and aiming for the chorale chords. In his author’s commentary, Knapik mentions a reference to the gravity of Beethoven’s masterpieces.

The concert will close with a second performance of Aleksander Lasoń’s Ananda for piano and string quartet commissioned for the 44th Karol Szymanowski’s Music Days in Zakopane.

The first and the last piece of this evening are proof that the ‘51 generation is not an ideology, but wonderful active composers.

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