A pianist of Hungarian origin on his mother's side, Piotr Anderszewski has long expressed his interest in the works of Karol Szymanowski, a significant representative of 20th century Polish music. He will now take the stage as a soloist in Symphony No. 4 - also known as Symphonie Concertante, a work Szymanowski wrote in 1932 as a piano concerto that he dedicated to Arthur Rubinstein. The other Polish piece on the programme, Witold Lutosławski's orchestral Concerto, is a document of the composer's early folklore-inspired period of composition in the early 1950s (which contains noticeable influences from Bartók).
Before the works by these two deceased Polish composers, we'll hear music from a living Baltic composer. In his repetitive, neo-Baroque contrapuntal opus Collage sur B-A-C-H (1964), the Estonian Arvo Pärt, one of the most-performed contemporary composers, reflects on the music of the central figure of the great European tradition. Kodály's piece in the programme is a true rarity: Ballet Music was originally included in Háry János, but the composer ultimately omitted it from the opera and it is thus all-but forgotten, so this performance is indeed a special occasion.
Sinfonia Varsovia was founded by Yehudi Menuhin and has been performing since 1984. In 2003, Krzysztof Penderecki took over the artistic direction of the orchestra. The Russian conductor for the evening, 61-year-old Andrey Boreyko, was educated at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.

Commissioned by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music programme and POLSKA 100 - the international cultural program celebrating 100 years of Polish Independence. Financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland as part of the multi-annual programme NIEPODLEGŁA 2017-2021.

The official carrier of the program is LOT Polish Airlines.

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