Chamber Concert 1.12.2026 at 19:00

Chamber Hall / Chamber Tuesdays (formerly K1)

Performers:
Mateusz Mati Zubik - piano
Jan Peszek - actor
Karol Szymanowski Quartet:
Agata Szymczewska - violin
Robert Kowalski - violin
Volodia Mykytka - viola
Gustaw Bafeltowski - cello
Piotr Lato - clarinet
Damian Lipień - bassoon
Paweł Cal - French horn

Programme:
Jan Ladislav Dussek - The Sufferings of the Queen of France op. 23 [12']
Erik Satie - Sports et divertissements (arrangement by Douglas Young, Polish text: Piotr Kamiński) [26']
... intermission [15']
Olivier Messiaen - Tawny Owl from the cycle Catalogue of Birds [8']
Leoš Janáček - Concertino [18']

The programme brings together stylistically and thematically diverse works united by their illustrative quality - extra-musical content expressed through titles, verbal commentary, and in one case visual elements as well.

Dussek's cycle of piano miniatures The Sufferings of the Queen of France (1793) is a dramatized account of Marie Antoinette's tragic fate, divided into ten scenes with titles and programme notes - culminating in "The Guillotine Falls". Satie's Sports et divertissements (1914) comprises twenty-one satirical miniatures, performed here in an arrangement for instrumental ensemble; the cycle combines music, a recited part, and illustrations from the original publication, evoking the world of fashion magazines and advertising. The piano miniature Tawny Owl comes from Messiaen's celebrated Catalogue of Birds (1958) - the composer and passionate ornithologist drew from bird songs he had collected, though the music is far from literal quotation. The concert closes with Leoš Janáček's Concertino (1925), written for piano and instrumental ensemble.

Programme notes: Robert Losiak