15th Fe­sti­val of Po­lish Mu­sic

The 15th Fe­sti­val of Po­lish Mu­sic was held from 5-20 July in Kraków. Founded in 2005 by the Po­lish Mu­sic As­so­cia­tion – a gro­up of mu­si­co­lo­gi­sts, cul­tu­re ma­na­gers and music lovers – the es­sen­ce of the festival is not on­ly to present valuable works by Po­lish com­po­sers writ­ten from the Middle Ages to the present day, but also to contrast them with the world’s mu­sic and display them in va­rio­us con­te­xts. The or­ga­ni­zers aim to mo­bi­li­ze com­po­si­tio­nal art by com­mis­sio­ning and premiering works of con­tem­po­ra­ry music.

To da­te, the fe­sti­val’s stars ha­ve in­c­lu­ded pia­ni­sts Ivo Po­go­re­lich and Ni­co­lai Kho­zy­ainov, worl­d-fa­mo­us vio­li­nist Ni­gel Ken­ne­dy, the Aca­de­my of St.-Mar­ti­n-i­n-the­-Fields, the Lon­don Sin­fo­niet­ta, Elż­bie­ta Choj­nac­ka, Aki­ko Su­wa­nai, Piers La­ne, Pe­ter Ja­blon­ski, Jo­na­than Plow­ri­ght, Gri­go­ri Zhy­slin and ma­ny others. Such di­stin­gu­ished per­so­na­li­ties on the Po­lish mu­sic sce­ne as Krzysz­tof Pen­de­rec­ki, Agniesz­ka Ducz­mal, Je­rzy Mak­sy­miuk, Woj­ciech Ki­lar, Hen­ryk Mi­ko­łaj Gó­rec­ki and Pa­weł My­kie­tyn ha­ve al­so ap­pe­ared.

This year’s anniversary edition featured eight concerts and a performance of Stanisław Moniuszko’s Halka in Italian. On 14 July, the Karol Szymanowski Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Franck Chastrusse performed works by Mieczysław Karłowicz and Emil Młynarski. On 18 July, Sinfonietta Cracovia conducted by Jurek Dybała presented works by Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Feliks Janiewicz, Mieczysław Karłowicz, Tadeusz Baird, and Mieczysław Weinberg.

For the full program, visit fmp.org.pl.