Orkiestra Muzyki Nowej / Minimal music / Journeys into the unknown - NOSPR

Overture – solo concerto – symphony. Every melomaniac has probably participated in an evening composed in this manner at least once. Nevertheless, some of them are certainly unaware of their indebtedness to Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in this area. It was he who proposed the simple pattern in 1835, when he became music director of the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, and his fame soon helped it to become accepted throughout Europe. Does it, however, remain effective to this day – after Anton Webern’s aphorisms, Morton Feldman’s six-hour string concerto and Zygmunt Krauze’s infinite sonic installations?

History shows that there are forms which easily accept content and functions typical for highly varied eras, thus standing the test of time brilliantly. One of those is the literary novel, known as early as in ancient Rome, another one being… the contemporary technique of tying shoelaces, patented five years after the “Mendelssohnian concert”. Since all the three heroes of our concert – Lutosławski, Ligeti and Reich – enjoyed musical explorations based on well-established solutions, it is likely that they would not feel offended at such an attempt at classicising their work.

Let us, then, begin with an overture, but one that replaces the decisiveness and clarity characteristic for the genre with a pinch of uncertainty and instability so typical for mature Lutosławski. After the  Venetian games comes the time for Ligeti’s Piano concerto, a feat of virtuosity, but one with West-African roots. Eventually, there is Reich’s symphony of the big city, reconciling the mechanical rhythms and hectic noises of New York with melodies and harmonies that often reach back as far as to the days of Stravinsky’s youth.

It would be interesting to learn whether Mendelssohn would enjoy our concert…

Michał Mendyk

Concert duration: approximately 80 minutes