2002-2004 Seasons

In accepting Leopoldinum’s invitation to cooperate during the 2002/2003 and 2003/2004 seasons, Maestro Jerzy Maksymiuk proposed the project the Musical Alterations. Maksymiuk describes the project:

„The old must connect with the new, this enables and warrants real advancement. The alteration – exchange, being side by side, should be a result of this effort…. The art of music is created by geniuses. Without them there are no nations. Without those gifted persons there are no brave and sensitive generations.”

In all those concerts Leopoldinum hosted great Polish artists: Krzysztof and Kuba Jakowicz, Zofia Kilanowicz, Jadwiga Kotnowska, Anna Górecka, Anna Sikorzak and Mariusz Pędziałek. For the orchestra, every concert in this ongoing project is a challenge of working with the new repertoire, both classical and modern, often especially for this project. Among other works, J. Haydn’s symphonies (nr 42, 44, 58 and 85), W.A. Mozart’s (nr 3 KV 22, nr 36 KV 425, nr 40 KV 550), compositions of Pawel Mykietyn, Pawel Sydor, Miłosz Bembinow and Jerzy Kornowicz were presented to the Wrocław audience.

Cooperation with Stefan Bevier, conductor and organizer of concerts in the Berlin Philharmonic, continued successfully. The orchestra performs there a few times every year, both as a chamber ensemble and in larger configurations with German musicians. Depending on the instrumentation, Leopoldinum is called Festival Orchestra or Baroque Orchestra. Besides the Berlin Philharmonic’s hall, some of concerts are performed in the Berliner Dom (for 1619 listeners) and for over 1000 music lovers in the Apostel Kirche in Berlin.

Under the direction of its concertmaster, Zbigniew Szufłat, Leopoldinum again performed in Germany with Reinhold Friedrich, one of the best trumpet soloists of our time, and with singer Ruth Ziesack. In Bocholt, violinist Konstanty Andrzej Kulka played solo, and in Reutlingen, saxophone virtuoso John-Edward Kelly. Clarinetist Martin Spangenberg and bassethornist Johannes Peitz were soloists at the concert in Rheda-Wiedenbrűck, and in Köln and Emden flutist Gaby-van Rieth and harpist Maria Stange played under the direction of Ian Brown.

For many years orchestra Leopoldinum has participated in many concerts organised by the Fryderyk Chopin Society (Wrocław branch). This includes a concert for the purpose of building Chopin’s monument in Wrocław, and at the 90th birthday celebration of Wojciech hr. Dzieduszycki, the society’s Honorable Chief of Organization Committee. One of the concerts of the IV Chopin Forum was to memorialize Bogna Huskowska, who died in 2003. She was a very active member of the Chopin society for many years. Marek Drewnowski was a soloist at this concert. Conductor Zbigniew Graca performed with Leopoldinum at one of the orchestra’s 25th year celebration concerts, devoted to the memory of Leopoldinum’s leader, Maestro Karol Teutsch. The first CD in Leopoldinum’s history under his direction —Grande Sarabande—was just reissued in France by the label Auvidis.

Two young talented violinists from Wrocław, Kinga Augustyn, a student from the Juilliard School of Music and Maksymilian Grzesiak, of the Wrocław Music Lyzeum, were soloists at the Rotarian Concert under the direction of Stanisław Rybarczyk.

Every year Leopoldinum performs at the International Festival of Organ and Chamber Music and the Stage Song Festival, both organised by the Art Center Impart. One of the concerts, Shakespeare’s Sonets, composed by Włodek Pawlik and performed by Elżbieta Wojnowska under the direction of Maciej Nałęcz-Niesiołowski, was just issued on CD.

In Summer 2004, the orchestra will represent Poland during the project representing Polish culture in France, Polish Season in France Nova Polska. The orchestra was invited by the Festival du Perigord Noir and will visit Poitiers, in the exchange program between Department la Vienne and the Wrocław Promotion Bureau at the City Government