Emilia Sitarz and Bartłomiej Wąsik, one of Europe's most unique piano duos, will perform a refined, two-piano repertoire based on the works of Chopin and Lutoslawski. The recital harkens back to the historical concerts of the Lutosławski-Panufnik duo in Nazi German-occupied Warsaw in the period between 1940 and the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising on August 1, 1944.
The program will include:
Claude Debussy - "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun"
Frederic Chopin / Franz Liszt - "The Wish" op 74 no 1
Peter Tchaikovsky / Nicolas Economou - "Waltz of the Flowers" from "The Nutcracker" Suite
Witold Lutosławski - "Paganini Variations"
Sergei Rachmaninoff - "Vocalise" op. 34 no 13
Maurice Ravel - "La valse"
Featured Artists:
The pianists –
Emilia Sitarz
and
Bartłomiej Wąsik
–
are winners of the most important Polish cultural award – Paszport Polityki (Polityka’s Passport).
Their artistic way began in 1999 when they started to learn from renowned piano duos – Bracha Eden and Alexander Tamir (Israel) and Hans-Peter and Volker Stenzl (Germany). The duo took part in many prestigious masterclasses in Poland, Germany, Israel where they had a chance to learn from such outstanding musicians as Yaara Tal, Andreas Groethuysen, Anglika Genova, Luben Dimitrov, Bracha Eden and Alexander Tamir. They are graduates of the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Rostock (piano duo class of Hans-Peter and Volker Stenzl). The musicians are laureates of many chamber music competitions in Poland, Italy, Greece, Lithuania, Czech Republic. Lutosławski Piano Duo is very often invited to prestigious festivals such as New Tradition Festival, Vratislavia Cantans, Sacrum-Profanum, Unsound, Warsaw Autumn, Kwartesencja, Nova Polska (France), Piano Duets Festival (Lithuania), Scelsi Festival (Italy), Israel Spring Festival (Israel), Duettissimo (Belarus), Chain Festival, Two Moors (England), EBU Festival. They premiered several new Polish compositions for four hands, two pianos, electronics, as well as for two pianos with orchestra.
In 2007, the duo released their debut album published by Polish Radio with works by Lutosławski, Poulenc, Stravinsky and Kagel. In 2008, their CD was nominated to the most important Polish music award – Fryderyk – in three categories: the most outstanding Polish music recording, the best debut and the best chamber music album – in this very category the duo was awarded a statuette. In 2014, as the first European pianists they recorded works for two and four pianos by American composer Julius Eastman and Tomasz Sikorski (Bolt Records). They also received a Pizzicato Award for this album.
Lutosławski Piano Duo performed in the most important halls in Poland and abroad (Europe, Asia and both Americas) - the National Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw, Carnegie Hall, Berliner Philharmonie, Lutosławski Polish Radio Studio, Chicago Symphony Hall, Central Conservatory Concert Hall in Beijing, Izumi Hall in Osaka, TheatREpublique in Copenhagen. Playing together, the musicians managed to develop a harmony of their musical shades, articulations, rhythm and feelings. The broad repertoire of the duet contains about a hundred pieces from baroque to contemporary compositions as well as the musicians’ own transcriptions of symphonic pieces.
The concert is co- financed by Poland's Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland under the Multiannual Program INDEPENDENT 2017-2022, as a part of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute "Cultural Bridges" grant program as well as by the Municipality of Warsaw.
