“Touch of the Master’s Hand” – new concert series at the Warsaw Chamber Opera
The series was launched with the New Year’s Concert presenting flagship works by Baroque composers: Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Friedrich Händel, Arcangelo Corelli and Jean-Baptiste Lully. The cast on January 25 featured Dorota Szczepańska (soprano), Justyna Rekść-Raubo (viola da gamba) and Filip Pysz (trumpet). The Period Instrument Orchestra Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense (MACV) was conducted by Adam Banaszak.
Instead of the “Radetzky March”, we will hear Lully’s “Turkish March”, known to the wider audience from the film “All the Mornings of the World.” Film lovers will also recognize the overture from “Ballet de la nuit”, also by Jean-Baptiste Lully, used as the soundtrack from the film “The King Dances”. Instead of the waltzes and polkas of the Strauss family played in Vienna, we offer other orchestral performances: Suite in D major BWV 1068 by Johann Sebastian Bach, “Fireworks Music” by Georg Friedrich Händel, or Concerto grosso op. 6 No. 8 “Fatto per la notte di Natale” by Arcangelo Corelli. That is, a piece particularly related to Christmas but corresponding with the concept of the upcoming concert – Adam Banaszak, conductor and originator of the series, explains the concept of the New Year’s Concert to PAP.
The program of future events held in the series feature a concert titled “Love and Death” – with atmospheric and subtle pieces selected from “Book VI of Madrigals” by Carl Gesualdo da Venosa (February 22) and two compositions based around the text of “Stabat Mater” (March 1). The author of the first one is Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, the second one was composed by Antonio Vivaldi. The soloists include soprano Gabriela Legun, winner of the Polityka’s Passport award, and countertenor Jan Jakub Monowid. The whole thing will be conducted by Ana Liz Ojeda Hernández on the violin. All concerts will take place at the WOK Theater at Aleja Solidarności 76b in Warsaw.