One of the leading classical guitar players in Poland today, Łukasz Kuropaczewski (above left) is not only an active concertizing musician but also a teacher at the Academy of Music in Poznań and a great driving force of cultural life in Poland, especially amongst guitar enthusiasts. What separates him from other players is his ambition and lack of hesitation to participate in even the most challenging projects, which he has proven many times over by premiering works by Mikołaj Górecki or Krzysztof Meyer’s Triptych Sonata for solo guitar and Concerto for Guitar, String Orchestra and Timpani.

Kuropaczewski’s newest project surrounds the towering figure of Krzysztof Penderecki(above right), and it derives from Kuropaczewski’s inspiration to meet and work with the composer. Kuropaczewski currently plays three pieces by Penderecki, all of which are transcriptions made in cooperation with the composer. The first of them, Cadenza, was originally written for solo viola and a video recording of the transcription was recently published on YouTube. It is also the piece which started the cooperation between Kuropaczewski and Penderecki. Kuropaczewski says:

I had been trying for a few years to meet Penderecki and finally it worked. I went to his house in Kraków and played him an excerpt from my transcription of the Cadenza. He liked it a lot then quickly gave me the music for his Aria and proposed that I also do the Concerto [originally written for viola with strings, percussion and celesta].

And this is how it started…”

Kuropaczewski performed the Concerto in March of 2016 with the Sinfonia Varsovia under the baton of Maximiano Valdés. All the pieces will be published in the near future by Schott Music.

[Source: facebook.com]