Venue: Concert Hall

Dates: October 17, 2018

About

From September 13th to November 28th, world-renowned symphony orchestras and in-demand maestros will enchant the audiences at the “NCPA Pure Classical 2018”, a NCPA series that presents absolute essentials of classical music in the autumn. The star-studded classical music feast invites orchestras Berliner Philharmoniker, the Staatskapelle Dresden, Das Orchester Der Staatsoper Berlin, Orchestra dell´Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, conductors Gustavo Dudamel, Christian Thielemann, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Antonio Pappano, artists Lang Lang, Annie-Sophie Mutter and Emmanuel Pahud, to name just a few.

Programme

Antonín Dvořák

Symphony No.7

Conductor: Maestro Penderecki

Penderecki

La Follia

Violinist: Anne-Sophie Mutter

Penderecki

Violin Concerto No. 2, "Metamorphosen"

Conductor: Maciej Tworek

Violinist: Anne-Sophie Mutter

Conductor

Krzysztof Penderecki

Born on November 23rd, 1933 in Dębica, Poland, Krzysztof Penderecki studied composition under Franciszek Skołyszewski, and later at the Kraków Academy of Music under Artur Malawski and Stanisław Wiechowicz. In 1959, he composed Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, one of his best known and most often performed compositions, which received the UNESCO prize in 1961. This piece was followed by Anaklasis (Donaueschinger Musiktage), Polymorphia (commissioned by the Norddeutscher Rundfunk Hamburg), Fluorescences (Donaueschinger Musiktage), and, in 1966, St. Luke Passion, the first major work of his career. It was written for the Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne to mark the 700 years of the Münster Cathedral, where it had its premiere on March 30th, 1966. This performance brought Penderecki to international fame and started a run of success.

Artist

Anne-Sophie Mutter

Anne-Sophie Mutter is a musical phenomenon: for more than 40 years the virtuoso has now been a fixture in all the world’s major concert halls, making her mark on the classical music scene as a soloist, mentor and visionary.

The four-time Grammy Award winner is equally committed to the performance of traditional composers as to the future of music: so far she has given world premieres of 26 works – Sebastian Currier, Henri Dutilleux, Sofia Gubaidulina, Witold Lutoslawski, Norbert Moret, Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir André Previn, Wolfgang Rihm and John Williams have all composed for Anne-Sophie Mutter. Furthermore, she dedicates herself to numerous benefit projects and to supporting tomorrow’s musical elite: in the autumn of 1997, she founded the “Association of Friends of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation e.V.”, to which the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation was added in 2008. These two charitable institutions provide support for the scholarship recipients, support which is tailored to the fellows’ individual needs. Since 2011, Anne-Sophie Mutter has regularly shared the spotlight on stage with her ensemble of fellows, “Mutter’s Virtuosi”.

Anne-Sophie Mutter’s 2018 concert calendar features performances in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, once again reflecting the violinist’s musical versatility and her unparalleled prominence in the world of classical music: in March she performed the world premiere of André Previn’s composition The Fifth Season for violin and piano at Carnegie Hall. In November, she will introduce the world to musical terra incognita again, premiering a work for two violins by the South Korean composer Chin Un-suk. Throughout the year, the violin works by Krzysztof Penderecki form a great thematic focus, commemorating the composer’s 85th birthday in 2018 and the many years of friendship between him and Anne-Sophie Mutter. In honour of the Polish composer, she will play those works he has dedicated to her, the Violin Concerto No. 2 “Metamorphoses” (which she premiered in 1995) and the Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 (premiered by her in 2000), the Duo concertante per violino e contrabbasso (premiered by her in 2011) as well as La Follia for solo violin (which she premiered in 2013). A double CD with all the works Penderecki has dedicated to her will be released on August 10th 2018, also including her first recording of the Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2.

In March 2018 Poland bestowed the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis upon her. In February 2018, she was named an Honourary Member of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Romania awarded the Order of Cultural Merit in the rank of a Grand Officer to Anne-Sophie Mutter in November 2017; during the same month France honoured her by presenting her with the insignia of a Commander of the French Order of the Arts and Literature. In December 2016, the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports awarded her the “Medalla de oro al Mérito en las Bellas Artes” (Gold Medal for Merits in the Fine Arts). In January 2015 Anne-Sophie Mutter was named an Honourary Fellow of Keble College at the University of Oxford. In October 2013, she became a Foreign Honourary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, after winning the medal of the Lutoslawski Society (Warsaw) in January. In 2012, the Atlantic Council bestowed the Distinguished Artistic Leadership Award upon her. In 2011, she received the Brahms Prize as well as the Erich Fromm Prize and the Gustav Adolf Prize for her social activism. In 2010, the Technical-Scientific University of Norway in Trondheim bestowed an honourary doctorate upon her; in 2009, she won the European St. Ulrich Award as well as the Cristobal Gabarron Award. In 2008, Anne-Sophie Mutter was the recipient of the International Ernst von Siemens Music Prize as well as the Leipzig Mendelssohn Prize. The violinist has been awarded the German Grand Order of Merit, the French Medal of the Legion of Honour, the Bavarian Order of Merit, the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria, and numerous other honours.

Presenter

Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra

“...work with no other orchestra has ever given me as much satisfaction as my work as soloist and conductor for the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra.” - Yehudi Menuhin (August 29th, 1991)

Sinfonia Varsovia has made numerous recordings on compact disc and for radio and television. The orchestra boasts a discography of more than 280 albums, recorded for famous international labels: Decca, Denon Nippon Columbia, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Naïve, Naxos, Sony, Virgin Classics and for Polish labels, including BeArTon, CD Accord, NIFC, Polskie Nagrania and Polskie Radio. Many of these recordings received prestigious music awards, including the Diapason d’Or, Diapason Découverte, Grand Prix du Disque and the Polish Fryderyk award, which the Orchestra received nine times.

In 2015, in the presence of the President of the capital city of Warsaw, Ms. Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, architect Thomas Pucher and Janusz Marynowski, director of the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra signed a contract for the delivery of design documentation for a new concert hall for Sinfonia Varsovia and for the development of the property at 272 Grochowska Street. The first concert in the new facility is to take place in Spring 2024.

China Tour is organized and managed by Armstrong International Music and Arts Enterprises Ltd.