The rich musical life of Stanisław Firlej, a world-famous cello virtuoso and distinguished music professor at the Łódź Music Academy, was celebrated with an Oct. 6 concert featuring the maestro and his wife, pianist Anna Wesołowska-Firlej. Their joint performance included many of cello and piano favorites with Chopin’s Etude Op. 25 no. 7 (in Glazunov’s transcription), Popper’s Tarantella Op. 33, Tchaikovsky’s Nocturne, Op. 19 no. 4 and excerpts from Chopin’s Sonata Op. 65.
Firlej studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and at Accademia Chigiana in Siena. After his debut with the St. Petersburg Conservatory Orchestra, he entered numerous competitions and toured around Europe with Anna Wesołowska-Firlej. As concertmaster of the fabled Warsaw-based Karol Teutsch Chamber Orchestra, Firley also toured Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and North and South America. His recordings of Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata with Paul Badura-Skoda and Chopin’s cello and piano repertoire with Anna Wesołowska-Firlej have attracted countless fans around the globe. Also a sought-after pedagogue, Stanisław Firley holds professorships in Łódź and Wrocław Music Academies and conducts master classes across Europe. Marek Szpakiewicz, alum of the USC Thornton School of Music, is one of many distinguished cellists who came from Professor Firlej’s studio.
[Source: amuz.lodz.pl]