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“The Ukrainian shooting star”, “brilliant soloist” – these were the words after the New Year’s concert with Polina Tarasenko and the Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie conducted by Ewa Strusińska, which was streamed live from the Gerhart Hauptmann Theatre Görlitz/Zittau on the first day of the New Year. In the concerto by the British composer Derek Bourgeois, with its echoes of pop and jazz, the trombonist showed all her versatility. On 18 January, the next concert follows right away: Polina returns – after her streaming debut in January 2021 – to the Nikolaisaal Potsdam, this time live on stage with her “Anima” trombone quartet in a programme ranging from Verdi to Webern.

After her appearance with the Staatskapelle Halle in August 2021, Ewa Strusińska continues the series of her successful concert debuts: at the end of November she gave a guest performance with the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra in a French-Spanish programme and from December 10 – 15 she gave four concerts with the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz with works by Mozart, Strauss, Mahler and Schubert/Berio, about which “Der Südkurier” wrote: “Ewa Strusińska convinced with physical conducting and rousing commitment”.

Zofia Neugebauer’s debut CD has just been released! Together with musicians from Warsaw, she has recorded rarities of Polish chamber music from the 19th century. The live recording (Dux label) was made at the Józef Elsner Festival of Romantic Music Warsaw in September 2021, in cooperation with the Beethoven Organisation Warsaw and the Polish Radio, supported by the national cultural fund “musical traces”. An exciting journey of discovery!

ELSNER, KROGULSKI, DOBRZYŃSKI • CHAMBER WORKS (dux.pl)

Piotr Pławner was awarded the “Gloria Artis” medal in Katowice on November 19 for his services to Polish culture. The festive setting for the award was a concert celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Silesian Chamber Orchestra, whose artistic director Piotr Pławner has been since the beginning of the 2020/2021 season. In addition to Tchaikovsky’s “Souvenir de Florence” in the version for string orchestra and a work by Henryk Mikołaj Gorecki, Piotr Pławner played and conducted the world premiere of “Angels’ Songs” by Adam Wesołowski.

The Polish violinist Piotr Pławner, known for his love of musical discovery, made his debut in the Chamber Music Hall of the Berlin Philharmonie on October 22nd in the three-part concert series “Unterm Radar – Musik im Ostblock”. Accompanied by the Kammersymphonie Berlin and the Silesian Chamber Orchestra Katowice conducted by Jürgen Bruns, he played works by Adam Wesełowski, Michał Spisak and Andrzej Panufnik. The concert will be repeated in Katowice on November 28 and was recorded by Deutschlandradio Kultur.

After many years, the Spanish cellist Adolfo Gutiérrez Arenas finally returned to Germany: on October 6 and 7, he was acclaimed by the audience for his interpretation of the rarely performed 2nd Cello Concerto by Dmitri Kabalevsky with the Robert Schumann Philharmonie Chemnitz conducted by Guillermo García Calvo;  and between October 19 and 24, he gave five brilliant performances of Edouard Lalo’s Cello Concerto, together with the New Lausitz Philharmonic Orchestra and Ewa Strusińska.

Great joy among all artists that with the start of the new season concerts and performances for live audiences are possible again!

For example, Svetoslav Borisov conducted a new production of Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Magdeburg Theatre on September 19; Zofia Neugebauer made her debut at the Konzerthaus Dortmund with the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin on September 12 and performed with the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra conducted by Johannes Klumpp on 21 September. Piotr Pławner was enthusiastically acclaimed at the season opening concert of his Silesian Chamber Orchestra Katowice and Ewa Strusińska made her debut at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen in August, conducted the Staatskapelle Halle for the first time as well as five symphony concerts of the New Lausitz Philharmonic in September. Ania Vegry sang Gilda in a new production of Rigoletto at the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau on September 11. And it continues in October and November!

Several instrumentalists have joined UR classics during the last months. Now UR classics is adding another conductor to her roster: As an artist, Florian Csizmadia holds the position of Music Director at the Theater Vorpommern and Philharmonisches Orchester Vorpommern, located in the cities of Stralsund and Greifswald. As a researcher, he is the author of significant works of music history and performance practice. „With wonderful sound intensity, captivating, inspiring“ (Beethoven), „really grandiose and with unheard intensity“ (Britten), „singing, gripping romantic tone“ (Elgar) – writes the press about his performances. We are looking forward to our collaboration!