On the way to Galicia

Galicia is not only a point on the map, but also a space of memory and tangled biographies. Inspirations of Jewish, Ukrainian and Polish traditional music combine the entire repertoire into a story about it as a meeting place of cultures. During the concert we will be guided from salon miniatures to opera arias and Carpathian folk inspirations. The soprano Olena Herneha, the violinist Radosław Pujanek, the pianist and the author of the concept of the event Andrea Linsbauer and the actor Mariusz Bonaszewski will perform.

The evening will be opened by two works by Poles, who gained fame primarily as performers. Henryk Wieniawski was one of the most outstanding violinists of his era, and he composed mainly for his own instrument. Chanson polonaise in G minor is a melancholic salon miniature kept in the rhythm of a mazurka. The idiom of this dance was also used by Emil Młynarski in serene Mazurku in G major. Today, this artist is remembered above all as an excellent conductor and co-creator of the musical life of Warsaw at the beginning of the 20th century. In turn, the figure of Franz Xaver by Wolfgang Mozart reminds us that Galicia was also a meeting place for big names. The son of Wolfgang Amadeus worked in 1813-1838 in Lviv as a pedagogue and pianist, earning the nickname “Mozart of Lviv”. The program included his song Le Baiser Op. 21 No. 6 — an intimate, graceful miniature.

Born in Podolia, Anton Rubinstein was one of the most outstanding pianists of the 19th century. Although he left behind operas and piano concertos, his lyrical Melody in F major won the greatest popularity — a simple and at the same time extremely suggestive piece. The first part of the concert will be crowned with music by Ukrainian composers. Mykola Lysenko, creator of the National Opera of Our Neighbours, will be represented by a fragment of Natalia Poltavka's work, more precisely by the aria Oj ja divczyna Poltavka. The romantic tradition will also be shown by an exception from the catalogue of Semen Hułak-Artemowski — a monologue by Oksana from Zaporozhets on the Danube. The second part of the event will begin with Myrosław Skoryk's Carpathian Rhapsody, in which folk melodies of the Carpathian region sound. It is music rooted in landscape and tradition. From the work of Leo Kolodub, born in Kiev, the compositions Cuckoo called and My lover went to the mill were selected. Although George Perlman was also born in the current capital of Ukraine, he emigrated to the United States as a young man. However, he has maintained a strong bond with the native tradition — its expression is Israeli Concertino, and in NFM we will listen to Nocturne, or the second link. The program also included the work I do not want to sleep by Oles Tschischka, composer and singer. The finale of the evening will include Two Pieces for Violin and Piano Op. 20 by Joel Engel, an artist and esteemed researcher of Jewish folklore.