The experience of truth

“Music is not beautiful. It has beauty in it, but it's just bait. Our ultimate goal is truth, not beauty,” claimed Romanian batting champion Sergiu Celibidache. Every five years, Poznań becomes the arena for the struggle of the best young instrumentalists who participate in the Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition to test their own skills and artistic sensitivity. When the jury announces the verdict and selects the winner, the winner of the tournament will come to Wrocław so that the truth about his craftsmanship and the works presented this evening will be known to the NFM audience.

In the performance of the winner of the 1st prize for artistic struggles, we will hear one of the violin concertos of their patron — Henryk Wieniawski. It will either be considered technically more difficult first — F minor Op. 14 from 1853, or described as a more mature second — D minor Op. 22 issued seventeen years later. The evening will begin with a meeting with the works of Karol Szymanowski. He graduated from Harnasie Ballet in 1931. This colorful composition — and we will listen to it in fragments — presents the story of the love of a Tatra robber to a beautiful highlander. Sophisticated folklore stylization intertwines here with authentic folk melodies saturating the music with the vibrancy of Podhale residents. Born in Tymoszówka, the author, visiting Zakopane many times, came into contact with their culture directly. It was there in 1923 that he was the guest of honor at the wedding of Jerzy Mieczysław Rytar and Helena Roj. This event — and in particular the fight he witnessed — inspired Szymanowski to write a highlander ballet.

“Your piece affects me strangely: the more I delve into it, the more it becomes unfathomable,” pianist Elisabeth von Herzogenberg told Johannes Brahms, referring to his Symphony No. 4. The four-part composition is the last work of the German creator in this genre. A particularly impressive display of artistry is its finale, which is a nod to Johann Sebastian Bach. Brahms draws on the Baroque form of chaconne, within its strictly defined framework showing remarkable inventiveness in terms of both melody and harmony. However, the use of this type of structure was not an expression of a conservative creative attitude. Arnold Schönberg saw in the Brahms way of shaping music a foreshadowing of radical modernity — the very modernity of which the figure of the evoked artist would later become a symbol.