Ladies and Gentleman,

due to reasons beyond the Warsaw Philharmonic, Alexis Kossenko will not perform in the concert on 4 December 2024. Concerto in G minor, QV 5:206 by Johann Joachim Quantz and the fragments of the Overture in F major, GWV 447 by Christoph Graupner will be replaced in the programme by Concerto in D minor, RV 525 and Concerto in A minor, RV 522 from the collection L’Estro Armonico by Antonio Vivaldi.

Other pieces in the programme and performers remain unchanged.

Simply… Philharmonic! Project 2:

The figure of Johann Sebastian Bach is associated mainly with Leipzig. He moved there in 1723, taking up the post of cantor at St Thomas’s, and remained there for the rest of his life. Although Bach never left the German states, he was certainly familiar with the greatest achievements of the French and Italian composers of his time.

Born in the city of Halle, not far from Leipzig, was Bach’s peer George Frideric Handel. Handel’s path as a composer began in his hometown, from which, after a stay in Hamburg, he went to Italy. He then returned to Germany, before eventually ending up in England.

Connections with the Electorate of Saxony in the first half of the eighteenth century can also be found with other composers. Christoph Graupner studied in Leipzig, and the student ensemble Collegium Musicum, which gave public concerts, was founded in this city by Georg Philipp Telemann. In Dresden, the court flautist was Joseph Joachim Quantz, and the aforementioned Telemann, after leaving Leipzig, became Kapellmeister in the service of Erdmann II Promnitz in Sorau (now Żary) – a privy councillor to the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland Augustus II. It is not surprising that so many eminent artists had links to this region, since one of the finest ensembles in Europe was active at the Wettin court in Dresden at that time.

Daniel Laskowski