• Polish Independence Day
Once again, Armistice/Remembrance Day on 11 November reminds us of the sacrifice of millions in 1914-18 and in subsequent conflicts. It is rightly a moment of reflection. Who, though, is ‘us’? The...
View Article• New Polish Pantheon in Kraków
Last week it was announced that a new Polish Pantheon would be established in Kraków. The existing Krypta/ Panteon Zasłużonych (Crypt/Pantheon of the Distinguished), under St Stanisław’s Church on...
View Article• New Web Page for Marek Stachowski
A new web page for Marek Stachowski (1936-2004) has just appeared. It’s partly in English – Biography, Works (an essay by Maciej Jabłoński), Compositions, Prizes and Awards – and partly in Polish –...
View Article• Lutosławski @sacrum+profanum, 22.09.13
Hot on the heels of my recent posts about the re-imagining of Lutosławski’s music by Polish musicians, news has come through of a potentially more far-reaching project involving non-Polish musicians at...
View Article• WL100/53: Trio, **2 September 1945
With this programme leaflet, the precise date of the premiere of Lutosławski’s Trio for oboe, clarinet and bassoon (1944-45) can be determined. It has long been known that it was given its first...
View Article• WL100/54: Lutosławski and Panufnik (1945)
Here are two forgotten assessments of Lutosławski and Panufnik from 1945. I think that this is the first time that this material has been seen in modern times. On one of my rummages in second-hand...
View Article• WL100/66: Overture, **9 November 1949
One of Lutosławski’s forgotten works is his Overture for strings, premiered on this day 64 years ago in Prague, by the city’s Radio Symphony Orchestra under the Polish conductor, and Lutosławski...
View Article• Collegium Maius, Kraków
My favourite building in Poland: the fourteenth-century Collegium Maius of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Even on a wet, colour-draining November day, it is still magnificent.
View Article• Panufnik Revised: 2. Nocturne & Lullaby
For the second of five articles on Panufnik’s revisions made after he had fled to England in 1954, I have combined two works from 1947: Nocturne and Lullaby. They remain two of his most enduring...
View Article• Unsound = Satanic?
The ‘Unsound’ festival in Kraków has established itself as a major force for musical exploration since its first appearance in 2006. It has since had offshoot festivals in New York, London, Adelaide...
View Article• Górecki World Premiere, Kraków
A week today – on Wednesday 4 November 2015 – the last of Gorecki’s major posthumous works will receive its first performance, in Kraków. It is Sanctus Adalbertus, an hour-long ‘oratorio’ composed...
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