12 August 2011 - Concert in Berlin, Konzerthaus

When the Polish arrive, the festival begins.
One could almost say that only when the young Poles come to the Konzerthaus stage does the "young.euro.classic" festival begin. So it was this time. "The Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra", in a sense, does not value its youth and is almost immediately recognized as a professional ensemble. It plays nonsuperficiallly, with conviction, vigor, and temperament. Therefore, it aptly chose Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique" as a strong finale to its program and for nearly an hour confidently fulfilled its requirements.
Polish youth have been for a long time strongly and deservedly placed among professional orchestras. And in this sense, during this wonderful Berlin festival of the future at Gendarmenmarkt, they are somehow in the wrong place.

Musical obstacles.
Tadeusz Wojciechowski, an experienced conductor, opened the concert with Hindemith's "News of the Day" overture. The title is a little misleading today because the news which the composer refers to is 82 years old. What happened in these bitter times, here and there? This "news" was proved to be, too often, the atrocity of the century. But not by Hindemith. In 1929, at least in his music, the world seems to still be in order, is careless and might be traversed in joyful jumps. Only musical obstacles must be considered, and they are carefully integrated into the work. Hindemith scattered a lot of these obstacles throughout the piece with a light hand, not simply to irritate the orchestra. In addition to Berlioz, the main work of the evening was Symphony No 4 for piano and orchestra, "Symphonie concentrate" by Karol Szymanowski: a piano concerto which seemed to be somewhat afraid of itself. The piano part appears often as nothing more than just a musically powerful element, the piano as an instrument of the orchestra which would willingly remain a part of it. Jan Krzysztof Broja performed his part perfectly, with taste and artistry. It is a great pity that in Germany Szymanowski's works can be heard so rarely. They are exceptionally unique, in every way charming and worth listening to, even if not immediately catchy. They spare no charms but willingly hide them under the advantages of the orchestra. It seems that their author was not characterized by the greatest faith in himself. But it was in Poland always particularly difficult to compose around Chopin's divine music. With all the admiration for his exceptional work, the work seemed almost insurmountable. For this reason, Szymanowski had to suffer. The time will come that the music world will finally offer a permanent and appropriate place to him.

Source: Klaus Geitel, Berliner Morgenpost, Sunday, 14 August 2011