Chopin | Strauss - concert premiere at LiveFilharmonia

[We bring] the friends of music and native talents a nice piece of(...) news: Fryderyk Chopin has finished his second great concert. (…) It is a work of a genius. The originality and grace of thoughts, lush imagination, instrumentation talent, and finally masterful execution delighted the audience. Chopin's genius promises him extraordinary and lasting fame. (...) Soon, because apparently before the end of the month, he is to go abroad. (…) Mr Chopin would deprive the Warsaw audience of real pleasure if he had left without letting them hear his second concert.

This is how the General National Journal announced the first public performance of Fryderyk Chopin's Piano Concerto in E minor. The exceptional year of 1830 ended. In May, Sejm was officially opened, attended by Tsar Nicholas I, King of Prussia Wilhelm, Prince Antoni Radziwiłł, Prince Adam Czartoryski, Aleksander Humbolt and many famous personalities. On this occasion, many attractive social and artistic events were organized throughout the artistic season. Reviewers and critics competed in paean to honor the stars of the stage. All the more eagerly awaited for the new Concerto by "Chopin's greatest pianist", especially since the premiere of the previous one, in the same 1830, which was remarkably successful.

Chopin himself was already then absorbed in thoughts of the imminent departure from the country. On October 12th, the day after the concert, he wrote to Tytus Woyciechowski:

My dearest life! Yesterday's concert was successful for me – I hurry with this report. I am telling you that I was not afraid at all, I played as when I am alone, and it was good. (...) I don't think about anything anymore, but about packing, either on Saturday or Wednesday I am going through Krakow. "

The soloist of the evening will be Andrzej Wierciński – the winner of the Saint-Priest International Piano Competition (2019) and of the Fryderyk Chopin in Warsaw (2015) and also the winner of the 3rd Prize at the Hong Kong International Piano Competition (2019). In July this year, he will represent Poland in the qualifying rounds for the 18th Chopin Competition in Warsaw.

The Szczecin Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Josep Caballe Domenech – the director of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic in the USA, the chief conductor of the Moritzburg Festival and the former director of the Staatskapelle Halle in Germany.

The programme will include:
Fryderyk Chopin - Piano Concerto in E minor, Op. 11
Richard Strauss - Four symphonic interludes from the opera Intermezzo, Op. 72

CHOPIN concert | STRAUSS on Friday, May 7th at 7 PM at LiveFilharmonia.szczecin.pl.
Access to the platform costs PLN 10/20.

The partner of the concert is Szczecińska Izba Adwokacka