Sea — Debussy, Noskowski, Mendelssohn | Shemet | Symphony Orchestra

Performers: Yaroslav Shemet — conductor

Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra

Program: Zygmunt Noskowski — Sea Eye

Feliks Nowowiejski — Legend of the Baltic (ballet scenes)

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy — Hebrides

Claude Debussy — The Sea

The sea — mysterious, threatening, full of constant movement and variability — will become the protagonist of a concert inspired by musical landscapes of water and the element of nature. The programme will include Claude Debussy's Impressionist Sea, Felix Mendelssohn's romantic Hebrides, Zygmunt Noskowski's Sea Eye inspired by the Tatra landscape, and ballet scenes from Felix Nowowiejski's Legend of the Baltic. It will be led by Yaroslav Shemet.

Claude Debussy's Sea is one of the most important works of musical impressionism. The artist gave the composition the subtitle Three Symphonic Sketches, emphasizing that this is not a literal musical painting, but rather a suggestion of moods, light and the constant movement of the marine element. Debussy impresses with his extraordinary orchestral imagination — he builds music from short motifs, subtle color changes and flickering textures, creating a sound full of lightness, clarity and constant variability.

The inspiration for Felix Mendelssohn's concert overture of the Hebrides was the composer's trip to Scotland and a visit to Fingal's grotto on Staffa Island. The characteristic undulating motif that opens the work is today one of the most recognizable musical images of the sea in all of romantic literature. Here Mendelssohn combined painterly suggestibility with classical clarity of form, creating a work full of melancholy and space.

A special place in the program will be occupied by Zygmunt Noskowski's Sea Eye — one of the most important works of Polish symphony of the 19th century inspired by the landscape of the Tatras. The composer accompanied the score with a brief description of the lake: a dark sheet of water surrounded by rocky walls, above which the sounds of a storm and the bagpipes of the juhas resound. For Noskowski, however, it was not only a musical illustration of nature. Created years after his youthful wanderings in the Tatras, the composition became rather an emotional return to a place deeply recorded in his memory. The piece impresses with its elaborate orchestration, evocative tension building and subtle references to highlander music, among other things through imitations of the sound of bagpipes in oboe parts.

The concert will be completed by ballet scenes from Felix Nowowiejski's opera Legend of the Baltic — one of the greatest successes of Polish interwar opera. Inspired by Slavic legends about the sunken city of Wineta, the work combines monumental symphonic momentum with clear influences of folk music and the maritime climate of the Baltic. Nowowiejski created music full of dance energy, spectacular climaxes and wide cantinoles, and extensive choral and orchestral parts gave the opera the character of a great national musical fresco.

CONCERT INFORMANT