NOSPR, Alexander Liebreich & Garrick Ohlsson / Szymanowski, Lutosławski, Brahms - NOSPR

The premiere of Karol Szymanowski’s Overture in E major took place within an initiative which proved a breakthrough from the historical perspective. It was the first concert of the members of the Young Polish Composers’ Publishing Company, with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Grzegorz Fitelberg, in 1906. Ripe with expression, in a Strauss-inspired style, the Overture was then considered an aspect of Szymanowski’s ultramodern attitude. Reinstrumentated in 1912-1913, it became a staple of the orchestral canon, although many have found it difficult to see a genuine authorial individuality in its composition. The above cannot be said either about the Livre pour orchestre, a masterpiece of the controlled aleatorism period in Lutosławski’s work, or about Brahms’ symphony-like Piano Concerto No. 2, composed 22 years after the success of the Concerto No. 1 in D minor.  We will experience an encounter between impetous youth and the maturity of middle age, no less energetic.

Dorota Kozińska

Approximate time of concert (including a break): 100 min