20th Anniversary of Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra Filharmonia Narodowa

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20th Anniversary of Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra
Mischa Maisky, fot. Kasskara / Deutsche Grammophon

Two decades of uninterrupted professional activity in these rather turbulent times is an achievement worth commemorating, especially as anniversaries are January that one must wait for and deserve. The Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra will formally celebrate its twentieth anniversary on 10 January 2022. It was exactly twenty years ago that the ensemble gave its first concert. The Orchestra was led by the violinist Jan Lewtak, an alumnus of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music (his professors were Zenon Brzewski and Mirosław Ławrynowicz), and it all fitted in with the extravagant celebrations of another jubilee – the 100th anniversary of the Warsaw Philharmonic. The inception of the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra should therefore be treated as a moment of reactivation and be inscribed into the much longer and richer tradition of chamber music played by musicians performing as members of the country’s first ever philharmonic orchestra. After all, its history is an eventful one – the building on Jasna Street was previously the seat of an ensemble led by Karol Teutsch. Twenty years ago, some of the members of the present orchestra could still remember this now legendary violinist and conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Musicians Ensemble. Over these two decades, the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra has collaborated with a galaxy of outstanding artists, representing a truly diverse range of trends in both music and performance. After all, this list includes such names as Salvatore Accardo and Łukasz Długosz, Urszula Dudziak and Evelyn Glennie, Ilya Gringolts and Andrzej Jagodziński, Jakub and Krzysztof Jakowicz and Shlomo Mintz, Isabelle van Keulen and Jadwiga Kotnowska, Konstanty Andrzej Kulka and Roby Lakatos, Adam Makowicz and Ewa Małas-Godlewska. A lasting testimony to the work of the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra to date can be found in its discography, featuring, for example, Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (Lipinski Sound), recorded with the violinist Mariusz Patyra (2008), and an album of Krzysztof Penderecki’s works for string orchestra conducted by Antoni Wit, for which the latter was awarded a Grammy in February 2013. The album included a work entitled Fonogrammi, performed by the Chamber Orchestra. Happy birthday!

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Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra

The Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra continues the long and rich tradition of chamber music performed by artists associated with the Warsaw Philharmonic. The first chamber ensembles were founded in the Philharmonic early in the twentieth century. In the 1960s and 70s, the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Musicians’ Ensemble under Karol Teutsch scored numerous successes on the world’s concert stages. In the 1990s, a string orchestra gave concerts with eminent soloists (Konstanty Andrzej Kulka, Nigel Kennedy) as well as recording for record companies and television.

The Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra was reactivated for the Philharmonic’s centenary celebrations and gave its first concert on 10 February 2002. It was formed by leading Warsaw Philharmonic instrumentalists, including former members of Karol Teutsch’s ensemble.

The Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra has performed with such outstanding artists as Salvatore Accardo, Hrachya Avanesyan, Jean-Louis Capezzali, Marek Drewnowski, Urszula Dudziak, Chiara Enderle, Lorenzo Gatto, Eva Gevorgyan, Philippe Giusiano, Evelyn Glennie, Ilya Gringolts, Krzysztof Herdzin, Ian Hobson, Yossif Ivanov, Andrzej Jagodziński, Jakub Jakowicz, Krzysztof Jakowicz, Isabelle van Keulen, Jacek Kortus, Rafał Kwiatkowski, Roby Lakatos, Mischa Maisky, Adam Makowicz, Waldemar Malicki, Shlomo Mintz, Grzegorz Nowak, Artur Pachlewski, Mariusz Patyra, Piotr Pławner, Baiba Skride, Agata Szymczewska, Mikhail Voskresensky and Edward Zienkowski.

In February 2009, the Orchestra celebrated the centenary of Grażyna Bacewicz’s birth with a programme composed entirely of that eminent composer’s works, including the premieres of two recently discovered pieces: the Symphoniette of 1929 and Symphony of 1946. That Symphony and Simfonietta (from 1935) were released on a CD devoted to Bacewicz’s music for string orchestra which the Orchestra recorded for Sony Music. The Orchestra’s tenth anniversary in December 2011 was celebrated with a concert, released on CD by Warsaw Philharmonic / CD Accord (a Fryderyk Award nomination in 2013). The Orchestra under Antoni Wit also recorded Krzysztof Penderecki’s Fonogrammi for a Grammy-winning CD of Penderecki’s works, released by Naxos (2013).

In the 2021/2022 artistic season, the ensemble celebrated its twentieth anniversary. The Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra’s latest album (2023) of music by Mikołaj Piotr Górecki has been nominated for the Fryderyk Award.

 

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