A symphony of fate by Antoni Wit

Artists:

• Hyuk Lee – piano
• Antoni Wit – conductor
• The Łódź Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra

Program:

• Sergey Prokofiev – Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat major, Op. 10 [15']
• Sergey Prokofiev – Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26 [35']
  • Andante – Allegro
  • Tema con variazioni
  • Allegro, ma non troppo

BREAK [20']

• Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 [35']
  • Allegro con brio
  • Andante con moto
  • Scherzo: Allegro
  • Allegro - Presto

Compere: Agata Kwiecińska (The Polish Radio)

At 6:15 PM we invite you to the Henryk Czyż Chamber Hall for a pre-concert meeting led by Agata Kwiecińska

Top photo: Antoni Wit, phot. Dariusz Kulesza

“Conducting: a matter of life and death” – such was the life motto of Antoni Wit and the title of his book where he details his love for music and his road to the biggest stages of the world. The doyen of Polish conducting, who celebrated his 80^th birthday with a concert tour two years ago, is currently the honorary conductor of the Cracow Philharmonic. Before taking on this function he was the general and artistic director of the NOSPR in Katowice (1983-2000) and the National Philharmonic in Warsaw (2002-2013). His biography reveals connections to Łódź: Wit studied conducting under Henryk Czyż, whose tenure as the artistic director in the Łódź Philharmonic went down in history as a golden era for this institution. He recorded a multitude of albums which sold in the combined amount of over 5 million copies! For him, this was one of the ways to popularize Polish music in the world, which he always considered an important goal. This time he will conduct Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 and two piano concertos of Prokofiev. It is worth mentioning that the full series of Prokofiev’s piano concertos conducted by Wit won the Diapason d’Or and the Grand Prix du Disque de la Nouvelle Academie prizes in 1993. The piano part will be played by Hyuk Lee, a Korean audience favourite living in Poland since 2022.

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op, 67 performed by the Gewandhaus Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig conducted by Herbert Blomstedt: