Chicago Philharmonic 2018-2019

THE CHICAGO PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY | FALL 2018 9 2018 2019 SEASON: THE SILESIAN QUARTET Chicago Philharmonic Festival: Poland 2018 e Silesian Quartet Wednesday, November 7 2018, 7:30pm Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago The Chicago Philharmonic Society Executive Director Donna Milanovich speaker Karol Szymanowski (1882 – 1937) String Quartet No. 2, Op. 56 I. Moderato, dolce e tranquillo II. Vivace, scherzando III. Lento Grażyna Bacewicz (1909 – 1969) String Quartet No. 4 I. Andante - Allegro moderato II. Andante III. Allegro giocoso Intermission Henryk Górecki (1933 – 2010) String Quartet No. 1, Op. 62 “Already it is dusk” Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) String Quartet No. 3 “Leaves of an Unwritten Diary” Performance time approximately 1 hour 45 minutes. Supported in part by the Polish Cultural Institute NewYork and organized in collaboration with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music program. Additional support in part provided by Karol Szymanowski (1882 -1937) String Quartet No. 2, Op. 56 (1927) Karol Szymanowski is considered one of the greatest Polish composers of the early 20 th century, despite the fact that his compositions are tragically under-programmed in the United States. A passionate advocate for Polish classical music, Szymanowski was a member of Young Poland in Music, a group of composers whose aim was to organize concerts of Polish music and to publish new Polish music. Szymanowski wrote his second string quartet for the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia’s chamber work competition in 1927. e piece was unfortunately not chosen as a winner (composers Bela Bartók and Alfred Casellas took home prizes instead), but Szymanowski was unfazed, unsure of the string quartet’s merit. He later said, “I have somehow come to dislike this 'Quartet' and am in serious doubt about its value.” Whatever his doubts, the string quartet is now frequently performed around the world, as it allows performers to showcase the virtuosic range and sheer physicality of stringed instruments. Indeed, String Quartet No. 2 is one of Szymanowski’s most technically demanding and avant-garde chamber works. Like somany other composers before and a er, Szymanowski drew inspiration from the Tatra Mountains in southern Poland and the folk music and culture of that region; this can be heard clearly in the second and third movements of String Quartet No. 2. e Vivace, scherzando , drives forward with a rugged intensity, taking melodies from Tatra folk music and evoking the work of Hungarian composer Bela Bartók (known for his work preserving the music of eastern European folk music). e Lento begins slowly as a fugue based on a Tatra highland melody, but quickly builds to an abrasive, energetic nale. Grażyna Bacewicz (1909 -1969) String Quartet No. 4 (1951) Grażyna Bacewicz was a Polish violin virtuoso, pianist, and composer whose output contributed greatly to the 20 th century Polish neo-classical movement. Her compositions, alongside those of more well-known composers such as Lutosławski and Panufnik, represent the massive political and cultural upheaval in Poland before, during, and a er World War II. Bacewicz was one of the leading composers of her time (especially in the 1950s), and was certainly the only female Polish composer of her stature and paved the way for Polish woman musicians and composers a er her. (She received countless letters addressed to “Mister Bacewicz” as many assumed such a talented and successful composer must be male.) String Quartet No. 4 is composed masterfully for string instruments, in part because of Bacewicz’s career as a virtuoso violinist. e second move- ment, a classically slow Andante , is particularly well-cra ed, displaying harmonic richness and a folk-like melody. In the Allegro giocoso the strings play out a quick, cheerful folk melody (a Polish oberek dance in three) interspersed with slower meditations.