New Year matinee concert - NOSPR

For many years now, New Year has been associated with the 19th century swaying across the ballroom – a world that is no more, but one that has become a beautiful myth. Maurice Ravel commemorated it in his exquisite poem La valse. Vienna in that period was predominantly occupied with the Strauss dynasty, but they were not without successful competitors, such as Karl Michael Ziehrer, who composed over six hundred pieces in highly varying genres. A little further, in Copenhagen, the leading figure of the period was Hans Christian Lumbye. It is hard to believe that the „Johann Strauss of the North” would begin his career as a military orchestra trumpeter. Richard Heuberger’s career seems even more fascinating, as it began in engineering, with the greatest musical career coming just before his 50th birthday with Der Opernball, an operetta. Carl Nielsen and Robert Stolz represent the 20th century already – the world of opera and… film, although musically and aesthetically still looking back at the light muse of the previous century, the wonderful Belle époque. Let us be entertained!

Marcin Majchrowski

Concert duration: approximately 70 minutes