Polish orchestra taps into power of a renaissance
The programme on November 11 includes two popular favourites, by Bruch and Beethoven, and gives us a taste of the upsurge of creative energy and originality that characterised Polish music in the late 1940s and 50s, and beyond.
Warsaw-born Andrzej Panufnik looked set for a brilliant composing and conducting career until increasing friction with the political authorities led to him leaving Poland in 1954. He settled in the UK and, for a few years, was music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, before resigning to concentrate on composition.
His Nocturne won a prestigious Polish composition prize in 1947. He later described it as "a kind of night vision, as in a dream – seeing at the beginning cloudy and mysterious images, which gradually emerge clearer and clearer, building very slowly and irrevocably up into an orgiastic climax, then transforming little by little back into the misty images as at the beginning, softly dispersing until they fade out completely".
Bruch's Violin Concerto no 1 is by far his best-known work, although he was irritated by the way it overshadowed his other works.
The main reason why the concerto is so popular is the middle movement, with its remarkable flow of melodic inspiration. The opening movement is headed Prelude, indicating that Bruch thought of the second movement as the concerto's centre of gravity. The lively finale is a nod to the Hungarian gypsy style so popular at the time.
The solo violinist tackling the work will be Priya Mitchell. The British representative in the European Concert Halls Organisation Rising Stars Series has given highly acclaimed performances with, amongst others, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.
The concert ends with the extraordinary burst of sustained vitality that is Beethoven's 7th Symphony. The composer's obsession with rhythm reaches a peak in this work, driving the music forward from its tension-building introduction to its rampaging finale.
POLISH NATIONAL RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
WHERE: Derby Assembly Rooms.
WHEN: Wednesday, November 11, 7.30pm.
TICKETS: £17-£26.
BOX OFFICE: 01332 255800.
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