Some sounds were never meant for the concert hall, yet they have found their way into the repertoire of the world's greatest orchestras, championed by its most eminent conductors. When folk tradition and symphonic music meet in the works of Wojciech Kilar, Mieczysław Weinberg and Witold Lutosławski, it is difficult to remain unmoved.
All three composers were fascinated by traditional music – its rawness, rhythm and primal energy. From the simplest of motifs, they were able to create sound worlds of extraordinary expressive power: sensual, unsettling and, at times, almost trance-like. It is hardly surprising that Kilar's music resonated so strongly with cinema. Can we already hear in Krzesany the first seeds of the ideas that would later reappear in his legendary score for Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker's Dracula? The work unfolds gradually, growing from short, austere motifs into a monumental musical statement of almost physical intensity. Here, folklore escapes the confines of aesthetic convention. It becomes an elemental force, captured in repetitive rhythms and the energy of dance – an ancient rite concealed within the orchestra's sound.
Mieczysław Weinberg’s Symphony No. 3 in B minor, Op. 45 is a beautiful musical tale of longing and hope. The second movement, Allegro giocoso, of this monumental work is, however, a joyful, dance-like celebration of the Polish folk tradition. Driven far from his native Warsaw by the course of history, the composer returned in this way to the world of his childhood, seeking there a spiritual refuge.
Lutosławski’s Little Suite pulses with movement and colour. Light and dance-like, it creates a space that evokes a world far removed from the rush of modern life – communal, immersed in nature and the rhythms of everyday rituals. Yet this music is underpinned by remarkable structural precision and the composer’s distinctive imagination in shaping sound.
Under Krzysztof Urbański’s baton, this repertoire takes on a particular intensity – fresh, dynamic and free from any museum-like detachment. Rather than reconstructing tradition, the music reveals its contemporary power.
Maria Peryt