It is rare for such phenomenal comets to appear in the firmament of contemporary music, hypnotising us with their beauty and dramaturgically accomplished narration, using clearly polished and precise means. Nevertheless, these same qualities apply to the works of another composer, older by a single generation, someone Mykietyn chose at the outset of his career to be his main point of reference – Paweł Szymański. This is why his music is here the counterpoint to the main Mykietyn theme.

These four concerts are a chance to hear both early compositions as well as Mykietyn's newest works, the whole festival allowing us to engage with the newest histories of Polish music and its fascinating genetic threads.

Vocal-piano concert

The first Festival concert brings together masterpieces by Mykietyn and Szymański – those for the piano with those for vocals. Songs to lyrics by Trakla and Shakespearean Sonnets represent two extremely different types of thinking about vocal expression and aesthetics, while at the same time in a congenial way evoking the poetic worlds of a bygone era, a loving ecstasy on the one hand and the melancholy of an ending world on the other. In turn, the piano works by Szymański are ideal constructions which hypnotise with their musical purity.