Chicago Philharmonic 2018-2019

18 FALL 2018 | THE CHICAGO PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY 2018 2019 SEASON: CONCERT FOR PEACE Chicago Philharmonic Festival: Poland 2018 Concert for Peace Sunday, November 11 2018, 1:30pm St. Hyacinth Basilica, Chicago Consul General of the Republic of Poland in Chicago Piotr Janicki speaker Chicago Philharmonic with members of Paderewski Symphony Chorus Marek Moś conductor Natalia Rubiś soprano Katarzyna Sądej mezzo-soprano Jesse Donner tenor Kurt Link bass Andrzej Białko organ Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) Fanfara WORLD PREMIERE Wojciech Kilar (1932 – 2013) Missa pro pace I. Kyrie II. Gloria III. Credo IV. Sanctus Benedictus V. Agnus Dei Dona nobis pacem Mass for Peace is presented in a liturgical setting with Reverend Stanislaw Janowski C.R. o ciating. e Mass will be presented in English, Polish and Latin. Approximate time 2 hours. Supported in part by Support also provided by the Friends of the Festival, the Robert B. Kyts and Jadwiga Roguska-Kyts, M.D. Charitable Foundation and the Most Reverend Andrew P. Wypych, Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) Fanfara (2018) e tradition of writing fanfares for wind instruments to be played during hunts and various celebrations goes back at least to the Middle Ages. It ourished at the Renaissance courts of England, France and Denmark, was used in operas by Beethoven and Wagner, and is doing ne today as well. e best example of this is the Fanfara, or Fanfare for the Independent Poland, commissioned by PWM Edition from Krzysztof Penderecki to celebrate the centenary of Poland’s regained independence. e composer avoids grandiloquence, using instead a lucid texture and clear form in the heroic key of E- at major. A two-bar introduction of the timpani and side drum with a characteristic rhythmic gure is followed by a French horn solo with descending second passages. e motif, in a chord-based arrangement, is taken up by three trumpets, which are joined in the coda by the other instruments: French horn, trombones and percussion. Less than a minute of music and one page of an elegant score, full stop. is world premiere will be performed in 11 cities on the 11 th of November, 2018. Wojciech Kilar (1932 -2013) Missa pro pace (2000) “What are the tasks of music? First of all, it should give joy, a sense of well-being, hope…” - Wojciech Kilar, excerpt from I Enjoy the Gi of Life. Conversations with Wojciech Kilar roughout Polish composer Wojciech Kilar’s ex- traordinary career, his life and work were insepara- ble from his homeland’s history and culture. Born in Lviv (in what is now Ukraine) and musically trained in Kraków and Paris, the composer fell in love with the southern Polish city Katowice and spent most of his life there. Kilar is the rare composer whose work reached success in both the concert hall and the movie theater. In the concert hall, Kilar belonged to the “New Polish School”, an avant-garde music movement of the 1960's that produced some of the most daring and experimental music of that era. Kilar, like many avant-garde composers, dabbled in serialism, extended technique, and other experimental practices, but his signature style later settled into minimalism with repeated melodic patterns and rich, layered textures. As a lm composer, Kilar created music for over 130 lms, including many by Roman Polanski ( e Pianist, Death and the Maiden, e Ninth Gate) and Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Wojciech Kilar enjoyed a long and happy marriage with his wife of 41 years, Barbara Kilar. She was a spiritual person and incited a religious fervor in her husband who later said “My wife – like Mary – led me to God”. Many of Kilar’s compositions were inspired by his devout Catholicism and the Polish city of Katowice, including his rst full-length Mass, Missa pro pace. e Mass premiered in 2001 as a part of the centennial celebration of the National Philharmonic in Warsaw. When Missa pro pace was later performed in the Vatican for Pope John Paul II, the rst Polish pope, Kilar later recounted the experience as one of the most deeply moving and humbling moments of his life. Missa pro pace is inspired by Gregorian chants, which can be heard immediately upon the despondent opening notes of the Kyrie . Forgoing compositional virtuosity, Kilar instead employs the Baroque technique of basso ostinato , repeating the same sequence of notes over and over in unison in the lower orchestral register then later adding higher registers. e melody is later taken up by the vocal soloists, and nally in the violins. e jubilant, rhythmic Gloria comes as a welcome contrast to the Kyrie , accentuated traditionally with brass and timpani