Classical concert: “WEBERN, WAJNBERG, MAHLER, BACH – reflections” | MARCIN ZDUNIK / HARMONIUM DUO (Giziewski & Jedynecki)
Line-up: Marcin Zdunik (cello) and accordion duet Harmonium Duo featuring: Hubert Giziewski, Iwo Jedynecki
Concert program:
– Anton Webern – “Langsamer Satz”
– Mieczysław Wajnberg – Jewish songs op. 13 (music for the poetry of I. L. Peretz)
– Gustav Mahler – “Kindertotenlieder” (music for the collection of poems by Friedrich Rückert, written as the “elegy” after the children’s death)
– Johann Sebastian Bach – “Die Kunst der Fuge” (BWV1080) Kontrapunkt no. 1
The concert will open with “Langsamer Satz” (1905), an expressive composition by 21-year-old Anton Webern, who was later consumed by serialism in concise forms. The piece, planned as a part of a composition for string quartet, ultimately remained a stand-alone, influenced by Brahms and early modernism.
It will be followed by Mieczysław Weinberg’s Jewish Songs, op. 13 with the poems of Isaac Leib Peretz, who is considered the father of modern Yiddish literature of modernism. In the context of wars, histories of innocent childhood acquire a new meaning. The composer reaches for the simple rhythms of the simple language of children. The composition can be interpreted as a specific memoir of the author, working on trauma – looking for his space in the realities of the war.
The climax of the concert will be an exceptional piece – Gustav Mahler’s “Kindertotenlieder” in which the author reached for the collection of poems by Friedrich Rückert, written in 1833-34 as laments on the deaths of children. Therefore, today’s, purely instrumental version is a departure from a very special text, based on concrete, traumatic circumstances.
The culmination of the concert will be “Die Kunst der Fuge” (BWV1080) Contrapunctus 1 – the last piece by Johann Sebastian Bach, on which he started working a year before his death. For a long time, the “Die Kunst der Fuge” collection was overshadowed by the composer’s other works, and the lack of any information as to for what instrument or instruments it was intended resulted in it being frequently considered as purely theoretical. Respected music theoreticians also did not appreciate this work of Bach. In an analysis of Das wohltemperierte Klavier, Van Bruyck stated that Kunst der Fuge “is not music, but something barbarian, a degeneration into counterpunctual chivaree of a kind.”
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Today’s project is an attempt at “filtering out” the text from the “sound base”, assuming, however, that the message of the piece – its expression – will maintain its “proper tone.” The listener, in turn, having acquainted themselves with the songs’ content in the written form, may be able to experience their sense, maybe even more profoundly and personally. The performers-authors are cellist Marcin Zdunik, Hubert Giziewski, and Iwo Jedynecki, forming the accordion duo Harmonium Duo, and representing the generation of outstanding young musicians who, in addition to winning spectacular awards in competitions, having a rich repertoire, and appearing in prestigious concert halls, are pursuing new solutions in the field of music performance.
The Nożyk Synagogue 6 Twarda St.
Tickets: 50 PLN, purchases available at: www.ewejsciowki.pl, www.teatr-zydowski.art.pl, in the Audience Office, phone no. +48 22 526 20 34; +48 22 850 64 50 or 51 and in the Jewish Theater box offices at 35 Senatorska St., phone: +48 22 850 64 35 or in the Club of the Command of Garrison in Warsaw, 141a Niepodległości Ave., phone no.: +48 850 56 56; seats are not numbered, men are obliged to wear headgears
