The Play of Waves | 61st International Wratislavia Cantans Festival in honour of Andrzej Markowski

Jerzy Maksymiuk - celebrated for the vitality and expressiveness of his interpretations - marks this year his seventieth anniversary of artistic work and his ninetieth birthday. For this occasion, the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic will perform under his baton, presenting compositions by Benjamin Britten and Claude Debussy; when the NFM Choir joins the orchestra, Igor Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms will resound.

The evening opens with The Call of Wisdom by Will Todd - a work commissioned for a thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral in London in 2012, marking the sixtieth anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's reign. It will be conducted by Małgorzata Podzielny, with Mikołaj Szczęsny at the organ; alongside the NFM Choir, the NFM Girls' Choir and NFM Boys' Choir will perform. The orchestra then presents Debussy's symphonic poem The Sea - premiered in 1905, comprising three movements: From Dawn to Noon on the Sea, The Play of Waves, and Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea.

The second part of the concert features Britten's Four Sea Interludes - four fragments extracted by the composer from the opera Peter Grimes, depicting dawn, morning, moonlit night, and storm. The programme concludes with Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms from 1930, based on three passages from the biblical Liber Psalmorum.

Programme:
Will Todd The Call of Wisdom*
Claude Debussy The Sea - symphonic poem
***
Benjamin Britten Four Sea Interludes from the opera Peter Grimes op. 33a
Igor Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms

Performers:
Jerzy Maksymiuk - conductor
Małgorzata Podzielny - conductor*
NFM Choir
Lionel Sow - artistic director of the NFM Choir
NFM Girls' Choir*
NFM Boys' Choir*
Mikołaj Szczęsny - organ*
NFM Wrocław Philharmonic