Contemporary music for everyone!

Artists:

• Paweł Gusnar – saxophone
• Leszek Lorent – percussion
• Paweł Przytocki – conductor
• The Łódź Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra
• ...and the audience!

Program:

• Béla Bartók – Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116, BB 123
  • Introduzione. Andante non troppo – Allegro vivace
  • Presentando le coppie. Allegro scherzando
  • Elegia. Andante non troppo
  • Intermezzo interrotto. Allegretto
  • Finale. Presto
• Ignacy Zalewski – Rogue-like Symphony for saxophones, multipercussion, audience & orchestra (comissioned by the Łódź Philharmonic, premiere) [25']

What is the best way to understand contemporary music? Performing it yourself! In the Rogue-like Symphony by Ignacy Zalewski the audience determines the course of the composition with the use of small percussion instruments. The piece, comissioned by the Łódź Philharmonic, is an allusion to video games: rogue-like is a genre of RPG games where every playthrough is different. Let’s hear from the composer himself: ”I noticed an interesting similarity between the elements of well-designed gameplay in the rogue-like genre and the satisfying form of classical music which utilizes motives and modulation. In both cases the quality and attractiveness of the final product for the audience is dependent on the gathered »equipment« and the way it is used: in the case of the game this will encompass swords, shields, healing elixirs etc., in music – melodic and rhythmic motives, counterpoint and the instrumentation”. Zalewski (born in 1990) is a composer of classical, film, theatre and video game music, a conductor and a pedagogue. He is an artist familiar to our audience: in 2021 our Philharmonic hosted the premiere performance of his ”Concert in the form of dance”. The composer has won over 20 awards at various competitions for his creations. His pieces are available for purchase as CD albums, they are also performed in several countries on different continents.

At 6:15 PM we invite you to the Henryk Czyż Chamber Room for a pre-concert meeting led by Piotr Mika (”Ruch Muzyczny”/”The Music Movement”)

Photo: Paweł Przytocki, phot. Dariusz Kulesza

The Concerto for Orchestra by Béla Bartók performed by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Cristian Măcelaru: