On Wednesday, April 27 in Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, the London Sinfonietta celebrated contemporary musical life in Poland. Entitled “Leaning East: The New Polish School,” the program included two new pieces by Polish composers Wojciech Błażejczyk and Paweł Mykietyn, commissioned by the International Centre for Contemporary Music (ICCM). The Sinfonietta was led by conductor Jonathan Berman, with Wojciech Błażejczyk as soloist on the electric guitar.
The world premiere performances were of the re-orchestrated version of Błażejczyk’s Concerto for Electric Guitar and String Orchestra, originally written in 2016 and now scored with the addition of percussion and live electronics, and Mykietyn’s playful concerto for chamber orchestra, Prank. Also on the program was Krzysztof Penderecki’s Sinfonietta per archi (1992).
Read a review in the London Times here: www.thetimes.co.uk.
[Sources: press release, londonsinfonietta.org.uk, iccmlondon.org]