Pachelbel — Canon, Tchaikovsky — Serenade | Swimmer | Sawicka | Chamber Orchestra

Performers: Agnieszka Sawicka — violin

Piotr Pławner — violin/conductor

Silesian Chamber Orchestra

Program: Johann Pachelbel — Canon & Gigue in D major

Arvo Pärt — Tabula rasa

Piotr Czajkowski — Serenade in C major, Op. 48

Johann Pachelbel's Canon is a piece that from an intimate baroque composition has become one of the greatest phenomena of classical music. Based on the simple, repetitive bass scheme, Canon & Gigue in D major has been impressing with mathematical precision, subtle polyphony and hypnotic serenity for more than three centuries.

Next to the famous Canon, the Serenade in C major by Peter Tchaikovsky and the meditative Tabula rasa by Arvo Pärt will be played — considered by many to be the most beautiful serenade of all time. The soloists in the piece will be concertmaster of the Silesian Chamber Orchestra Agnieszek Sawicka and Piotr Pławner — winner of the Henryk Wieniawski International Competition and winner of the ARD Competition in Munich, who will also conduct the concert as conductor.

Serenade in C major Op. 48 by Piotr Tchaikovsky is one of the most beautiful works written for string orchestra. The composer admitted that it was a piece especially close to him, written “from an inner impulse”, therefore the music is filled with extremely melodic themes and a wealth of string sound. Tchaikovsky was able to extract from the string orchestra such fullness and variety of colors that, as critics wrote, there is almost no lack of other instruments.

The whole is kept in a serene and lyrical mood, although a special contrast is brought by the melancholic Elegy. The serenade also impresses with the elegance of the famous Waltz, the subtlety of the dialogues of the instruments and the finale inspired by Russian folk music, full of energy and dance temperament.

Arvo Pärt's tabula rasa became a real breakthrough in the work of the Estonian composer. Written in 1977, the double concerto for two violins, string orchestra and prepared piano revealed for the first time the characteristic tintinnabuli style — an ascetic musical language based on simplicity, silence and focus. Violinist Gidon Kremer, for whom the piece was composed, spoke of Tabula rasa as a “declaration of silence” and a work that changed his life.

Pärt's music develops with extremely sparing means, requiring a special kind of concentration from performers and listeners. Two contrasting parts — the tense Ludus and the almost motionless, meditative Silentium — build a space of concentration in which silence becomes as important as the sound itself. The composer himself emphasized that his music is born precisely from silence, which he treated as an almost sacred and spiritual space.

CONCERT INFORMANT