The Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra has been in Poland since Friday where this weekend they have a double performance in Krakow as part of the Echoes of the World cycle which is part of OML’s current season. The two concerts can be seen in Lisbon next week.
“It is one more step in the internationalisation of Metropolitana and in the affirmation of the quality of our orchestra and the universality of music, which we have defended so much”. This is how the conductor Pedro Neves, artistic director of Metropolitana, sees this double presentation for the musicians of the Orchestra on this tour on Poland, which began on Friday.
The first of the two programmes dedicated this season to Poland, as part of the Echoes of the World Cycle, takes place this Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Krakow Philharmonic Auditorium, with the Lubomirski Festiwal programme, which includes three Polish composers from the 19th century, who are not known to the general Portuguese public: Stanisław Moniuszko (author of three works – Winter’s Tale, Overture-Fantasy; As clear as the wind’s sigh, an aria from the opera Halka; and Let the invigorating Sun shine, aria from the opera Verbum nobile), Franciszek Mirecki (Priest’s Aria from the opera Rymund Xiąże Litewski and Symphony in C Minor) and Karol Kurpiński (Aria from the opera Jadwiga, Queen of Poland (King Jagiełłło).
Sebastian Perłowski, a conductor who is well known to the Metropolitan audience, needs no introduction. In this concert he is accompanied by the baritone Victor Yankovsky.
On Sunday, Metropolitan will once again take the stage at the Auditorium of the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra, at 6 p.m., for the programme Muzyka Polska OdNova, which brings together sounds from Poland, Portugal and Austria. The conductor Pedro Neves is the artistic director and the soloists will be Nuno Silva (clarinet) and Piotr Salaczyk (piano).
OML will perform works by the composers Karol Kurpiński, Franciszek Mirecki, Luís Freitas Branco and Franz Schubert.
“The fact that there will be music by Polish composers, by Portuguese composer Luís de Freitas Branco and by Schubert, also means an opportunity to mix and deepen the unusual repertoire with the more common repertoire of classical music”, says Pedro Neves. The conductor adds that “to be able to make this symbiosis in two distinct but now musically united cities, Krakow and Lisbon, is a redoubled pleasure” for Metropolitana.
The programme taking place in Poland will be repeated next week in Lisbon, in the Royal Riding Arena of the Coach Museum. The first concert will be at 7pm on Friday and the second at 5pm on Saturday.