The 44th Karol Szymanowski Days in Zakopane will run from 25 July to 1 August 2021. This year’s edition is dedicated to the Stalowa Wola Generation on their 70th anniversary. It is organized by the Karol Szymanowski Museum at Willa Atma (ul. Kasprusie 19, 34-500 Zakopane, Poland).
In 2021, the Polish artistic community will celebrate the 70th birthday of the composers of the Stalowa Wola Generation, also known as the ’51 Generation: Eugeniusz Knapik, Aleksander Lasoń and Andrzej Krzanowski. The music of these artists is a natural continuation of the work of Karol Szymanowski, the father of 20th-century Polish music. Andrzej Chłopecki coined the term “new romanticism” to refer to the works written by these three Silesians composers. The festival program will include a selection of their most representative chamber works for various instrumental ensembles.
Performers & Premieres
The Festival will feature outstanding performers who have been tirelessly promoting the work of today’s 70-year-olds for many years. The young age of these artists only confirms that the music of the ’51 Generation still enjoys the interest of both the next generation of artists and the listeners. The inaugural concert will feature soprano Joanna Freszel and the Silesian Quartet (pictured above)—both recognized and lauded as leaders in their respective fields of music—in a program of works by Szymanowski, Knapik and Krzanowski. Other performers include pianists Radosław Kurek, Piotr Sałajczyk, Marcin Koziak and Michał Szymanowski; violinists Aleksandra Kuls and Zuzanna Budzyńska; and the Airis String Quartet, who will close out the Festival.
A highlight of the 44th Karol Szymanowski Music Days will be the premiere of Aleksander Lasoń’s Ananda for piano and string quartet by Tymoteusz Bies and the Silesian Quartet on 28 July, as well as the “late premiere” of Relief VIII for solo accordion and tape by Andrzej Krzanowski, who died prematurely in 1990, by Maciej Frąckiewicz on 29 July.
In addition to the works of this year’s jubilarians, the festival’s repertoire will include, among others, works of composers who were especially important to them at different moments of their artistic path, such as Zygmunt Stojowski, Henryk Wieniawski, Emil Młynarski, Grażyna Bacewicz and Roman Palester.
The Festival is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as part of the “Music” and “Composing Commissions” programs, carried out by the National Institute of Music and Dance.
25 July to 1 August 2021 | Various times
44th Karol Szymanowski Music Days
Various venues in Zakopane, Poland
Admission is FREE
More information: www.szymanowski.zakopane.pl
[Sources: mnk.pl, polmic.pl, mapofcomposers.pl]