Ladies and gentlemen,
We regret to inform you that the symphony concerts scheduled for 29 and 30 October 2021 have been cancelled.
Tickets purchased for cancelled concerts are refundable - at the Warsaw Philharmonic box offices or via the bilety24.pl service, if you have made an online purchase.
For more information, please contact bilety@filharmonia.pl
The first of a series of organ concerts with which the Warsaw Philharmonic will be celebrating its 120th anniversary features several appealing works by three great German neo-Romantics and Wojciech Kilar, who was always very closely associated with our institution (in 2001 he honoured its centenary with his Missa pro pace). His hypnotic Exodus (1981) is a vocal-symphonic poem, a great “crescendo” for choir and orchestra, similar in this regard to Ravel’s Bolero.
Following the Overture to Wagner’s Tannhäuser we will hear Bacchanal – a scene added specially to the Parisian staging of the piece to allow room for a display of dance and in this way meet the demands of the French capital. Unfortunately, it diverged so greatly from the audience’s expectations that it caused a scandal, which long cast a shadow over the reception of Wagner’s music in France.
Born in the Principality of Liechtenstein, Joseph Rheinberger proved himself to be a child prodigy; he later pursued (mainly in Munich) a career as an organ player, conductor, chorus master, and respected teacher. His works are characterised by perfect technique and subtle harmony, with a particular penchant for euphony – these features are evident in his extensive and spectacular Organ Concerto, the first of two such works he composed, and one of only a few ever written for organ and orchestra.
The programme of the 1913 inaugural concert of the Wiener Konzerthaus, attended by Emperor Franz Joseph, included Beethoven’s Ninth and a new piece written especially for this occasion by Richard Strauss – the solemn Festliches Präludium, which opens with the sound of the organ. The Philharmonic’s jubilee is a perfect occasion to reacquaint our audiences with this relatively rarely performed work.