NOSPR / Molęda / Gośka Isphording / Surprises and Syncretism - NOSPR

Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No 94 in G major, ‘The Surprise’ is arguably the best-known of the twelve London symphonies created by the Viennese master. In these works, the composer distilled the essence of his own sense of humour along with other gems of the finest musical wit. During his stays in London, it must have dawned on him that he was no longer writing for some jaded aristocrats, but for the entertainment-hungry bourgeoisie. The musician himself once revealed that he was composing his music with the audience in mind: ‘There are so few happy and contented peoples here below; grief and sorrow are always their lot; perhaps your labors will once be a source from which the care-worn, or the man burdened with affairs, can derive a few moments rest and refreshment’*.

Likewise in the oeuvre of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, the Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra, Op 40 stands out as a striking and stylistically distinct work, diverging from the major compositions which occupied the artist’s attention during that period. What is more, it holds a special place in the history of the Katowice orchestra: It was premiered on 2 March 1980 by the harpsichordist Elżbieta Chojnacka – the very person to whom it had ben dedicated – with the string section from the Grand Symphony Orchestra of Polish Radio and Television (Wielka Orkiestra Symfoniczna Polskiego Radia i Telewizji, abbreviated as WOSPRiTV, which is the former name of NOSPR) in Katowice and Stanisław Wisłocki on the podium.

Symphonic Metamorphosis…, with its rather convoluted title, also makes an indelible impression when it develops Carl Maria von Weber’s modest musical material into a virtuosic display. It offers an excellent introduction to Hindemith’s style where the orchestra shimmers with colour and embraces a fusion of inspirations: Hungarian rhythms, Chinese motifs, and even a touch of jazz in a fugue.

Krzysztof Siwoń

*The quotation from the original text in English is cited here after Robert Reilly, ‘Haydn’s Music of Gratitude and Goodness’, The Imaginative Conservative (accessed on 6th June 2025): https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2025/03/franz-joseph-haydn-music-gratitude-goodness-robert-reilly.html