International Lutosławski Youth Orchestra | FINAL

"I do not want to raise hearts, but I want to find those who feel the same way as I do" – this is probably the most beautiful sentence uttered by the composer that we came across in preparing the new concert season at the Philharmonic in Szczecin. And it is not a coincidence that as its prelude we will once again have the International Lutosławski Youth Orchestra ensemble, led by our artistic director Rune Bergmann, during the next edition of this international project.

In the memoirs about Lutosławski we read that he did not want listeners to feel left out in the company of his music, hence the frequent presence of quotations from other famous works in his music – such is the case with Variations on a Theme by Paganini. And we, following the words of the Master, want you to feel at home with us!

Since our Philharmonic has been a place for experiencing joint emotions and important moments in the life of the city and the country for many years, the International Lutosławski Youth Orchestra will perform Symphony no. 7, ‘Leningrad‘, by Dimitri Shostakovich on the eve of commemorations of the outbreak of World War II. It would seem that by creating a monumental work in honor of the suffering and the fighting city, the composer would have been awarded recognition during the times of the terrible communist regime. However, this was not the case. Shostakovitch had lived in constant fear of arrest and a death sentence until Stalin's death. His music was branded as corrupt, and yet, in its sounds, is all the drama of the war-induced madness and human fate, shaped, changed, and interrupted by the war.