Concert celebrating the 100th anniversary of Andrzej Wajda's birth and the 150th anniversary of Mieczysław Karłowicz's birth

• Wojciech Waleczek - piano
• Magdalena Miśka-Jackowska - host

Programme:

• F. Chopin – Romance from Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 (arr. Wojciech Waleczek)
• F. Chopin – Polonaise in A major, Op. 40, No. 1 (featured in A. Wajda's film Ashes)
• I. J. Paderewski – Humoresques de concert, Op. 14 (1. Menuet célèbre, 2. Sarabande, 6. Cracovienne fantastique)
• S. Moniuszko – Chime Aria from the opera The Haunted Manor
• S. Moniuszko – Mazurka from the opera The Haunted Manor (featured in A. Wajda's film Ashes)
• W. Kilar – Vocalise from the film The Ninth Gate
• W. Kilar – Theme from the film The Pianist
• W. Kilar – Waltz from A. Wajda's film The Promised Land
• W. Kilar – Polonaise from A. Wajda's film Pan Tadeusz
• M. Karłowicz – Chant de Mai (tytuł oryginalnie francuski, zachowywany w angielskim)
• M. Karłowicz – Andante in F major
• Fryderyk Chopin / Franz Liszt – 6 chants polonais, S. 480 (2. Spring, 3. The Ring, 4. Merrymaking)

On 26 June, we will celebrate with a programme devoted entirely to Polish music. The evening will honour two remarkable figures whose anniversaries fall in 2026. 

The first is Andrzej Wajda, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday this year. The concert will feature music from The Promised Land and Pan Tadeusz, two landmark films for which the scores were composed by Wojciech Kilar. The artistic partnership between Kilar and Wajda began with the adaptation of Władysław Reymont’s The Promised Land and soon became one of the most celebrated collaborations in the history of Polish cinema. Released in 1975, the film marked the beginning of a long and creative relationship between the composer and the director. In addition to The Promised Land, Kilar wrote music for four other Wajda films: Korczak (1990), A Chronicle of Amorous Accidents (1995), Pan Tadeusz (1999), and The Revenge (2002). 

Kilar’s deep fascination with the Tatra Mountains and the musical traditions of the Polish highlanders found a parallel in the life of the evening’s second honouree, Mieczysław Karłowicz, whose 150th birth anniversary falls in 2026. Karłowicz is remembered not only for his symphonic poems, but also as an avid mountaineer and passionate lover of the Tatras. Tragically, his life was cut short in 1909 when he was killed by an avalanche in the mountains he so dearly loved. The concert will offer a glimpse into the composer’s earliest creative years. The audience will hear Chant de Mai for piano, composed between 1883 and 1884 and regarded as Karłowicz’s earliest surviving work, as well as the Andante in F major from 1896, another miniature for solo piano. 

Let us return for a moment to the world of Andrzej Wajda. The concert programme will also feature operatic works by Stanisław Moniuszko and compositions by Frédéric Chopin that appeared in Wajda’s film Ashes. Anyone who has ever listened to Polish Radio Programme 1 will instantly recognise the opening bars of Chopin’s Polonaise in A major, Op. 40 No. 1. It is quite possible that Chopin perfected the piece in the studio of the painter Eugène Delacroix, who at the time was working on his famous double portrait of the composer and George Sand. So eager was Chopin to continue his work that a piano was specially brought to the studio for his use. The pianist and composer Jan Kleczyński wrote of the Polonaise in A major that “every note, every accent here is seething with life and vigour.”

The same vitality and spirit can be found in the other works featured in the programme, including Ignacy Jan Paderewski’s Humoresques de Concert and Chopin’s Polish Songs, Op. 74, which bring the evening to a fitting conclusion. 

Guiding audiences through the Musical Portrait of Poland will be Wojciech Waleczek – pianist, professor of arts, and an artist renowned for an uncompromising approach to performance arts. Equally at home as a soloist and chamber musician, he has performed with orchestras across the globe and appeared in prestigious concert halls throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Mecenas Główny: Miasto Toruń 
Partner Główny: Samorząd Województwa Kujawsko-Pomorskiego
Dofinansowano z Funduszy Europejskich
Patronat honorowy: Marszałek Województwa Kujawsko-Pomorskiego Piotr Całbecki, Prezydent Miasta Torunia Paweł Gulewski
Mecenas Kultury - Główny Sponsor: PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna S.A.
Mecenas Strategiczny: Strabag Sp. z o.o.
Darczyńca: Konsul Honorowy Finlandii w Toruniu - Tadeusz Pająk 
Partnerzy: Pneuma Jarosław Pawlicki, Pirmedia Sp. z o.o., Maciej Zieliński - fotograf, KM Transport Jadwiga Łączyńska, Fisheye Production Marcin Rybicki, MZK w Toruniu Sp. z o.o., Filharmonia Pomorska im. Ignacego Jana Paderewskiego w Bydgoszczy
Partner motoryzacyjny: Toyota Bednarscy
Partner technologiczny: Vobacom Sp. z o.o.
Patronat medialny: TVP3 Bydgoszcz, TV Toruń, Nowości - Dziennik Toruński , Toruń Nasze Miasto, Polskie Radio PiK, POLMIC 
Organizator: Toruńska Orkiestra Symfoniczna Instytucja finansowana ze środków Gminy Miasta Toruń