• Poles in Presteigne
Wednesday, 7 May 2014 2 Comments
The 2014 Presteigne Festival in mid-Wales (21-26 August) has designed a special focus on Polish music. This includes a new commission and premieres as well as sampling the music of composers such as Bacewicz, Lutosławski, Penderecki and Górecki. There is a particular emphasis on the music of Andrzej Panufnik, on the centenary of his birth. The full schedule may be found at: https://www.presteignefestival.com/PDFs/PF2014_brochure_for_web.pdf.
Here is an alphabetical-by-composer list of the Polish repertoire plus details of relevant talks and discussions
(** World premiere, * UK premiere):
Grażyna Bacewicz
• Concerto for String Orchestra (1948)
• Two Etudes for piano (1956)
Henryk Mikołaj Górecki
• Two Sacred Songs for baritone and piano (1971)
• String Quartet no.1 ‘Already It Is Dusk’ (1988)
Witold Lutosławski
• Dance Preludes for clarinet and piano (1954)
• Grave for cello and piano (1981)
• Partita for violin and piano (1984)
Paweł Łukaszewski
• Piano Trio (2008)
• Requiem** (2014, Festival commission)
Andrzej Panufnik
• Miniature Etudes (Circle of Fifths), Book II, for piano (1947)
• Landscape for string orchestra (1962/65)
• Song to the Virgin Mary for choir (1964/69)
• Sinfonia Concertante for flute, harp and strings (1973)
• Love Song for mezzo-soprano and piano (1976)
• String Quartet no.3 ‘Wycinanki’ (1990)
Krzysztof Penderecki
• Prelude for solo clarinet (1987)
• Quartet for clarinet and string trio (1993)
• Serenade for string orchestra (1997)
Maciej Zieliński
• Lutosławski in memoriam for oboe and piano (1999)
• Trio for MB for clarinet, violin and piano (2004)
• Concello* (2013)
Talks and Discussions
• Warsaw Variations (award-winning Fallingtree Production, first broadcast on BBC R4 in 2012, with contributions by Beata Bolesławska-Lewandowska, Camilla Panufnik and Adrian Thomas), followed by a discussion with Camilla and Roxanna Panufnik, radio producer Alan Hall, chaired by David Wordsworth
• Pre-concert event: Roxanna Panufnik, with Stephen Johnson
• Pre-concert event: Paweł Łukaszewski, with Thomas Hyde
• Pre-concert event: Paweł Łukaszewski, with Adrian Thomas
• Talk: Three Generations of Polish Composers (Adrian Thomas)
• Pre-concert event: Maciej Zieliński, with Adrian Thomas
On Polish Music 
Great idea! I miss any polish artist.
You’re right, Marek. I think, like many small festivals, Presteigne must run on a very tight budget. But, that said, you’ve just been at an even smaller one here!