From profound questions about the meaning of existence, through the pure experience of sound, to emotion and embodiment, this concert transforms not only the way we listen, but also what we regard as meaningful. Music made famous by Stanley Kubrick’s iconic film 2001: A Space Odyssey opens the Thursday Concert Series in the Warsaw Philharmonic’s new concert season.

Together with Richard Strauss’ monumental Also sprach Zarathustra and György Ligeti’s hypnotic yet untamed Atmosphères, we can almost feel as though we were almost travelling through space. In Atmosphères, the human being disappears – and with it narrative, emotion and familiar points of reference. We are launched into a sound world without direction or support, without a clear beginning, destination or familiar framework. It is an experience of pure, non-linear duration, in which the music both disorients and opens us to new ways of listening. By contrast, the cinematic Adagio from Aram Khachaturian’s ballet Gayane and Johann Strauss II’s The Blue Danube – one of the greatest hits of classical music – offer consolation and bring us back to what is human. Narrative, rhythm and vivid expression restore our sense of reality and meaning.

A large orchestra of several dozen musicians offers listeners an extraordinarily intense, almost physical experience. ‘Ladies and gentlemen – let’s rock!’ wrote the influential German daily Der Tagesspiegel after one of Krzysztof Urbański’s performances. There is every reason to expect an electrifying performance under the baton of this charismatic Polish conductor, whose freshness, authenticity and dynamic interpretations have earned him international acclaim.

Maria Peryt