Week 3: Warsaw National Philharmonic (Filharmonia Narodowa)

This past week was spent mostly organizing myself and working out a composition schedule for the next several months. There are many projects that I would like to work on, it has been difficult to nail down exactly what I want to accomplish while in Poland. Since my teacher is an expert of sacred choral music, I've decided to focus almost exclusively on this kind of music to get the most out of my time with him. There is a set of piano works, Paisajes del Poeta, that I also need to compose while here to fulfill a commission. My choral projects will include a set of motets set to be sung in either Latin or English, which I will call Warsaw Motets. My main dissertation project will be Missa Resurrexit, a mass form based on the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ for Mixed Chorus, Soloists, and Organ. I will also orchestrate the work to give it more performance flexibility, like the Faure or Durufle Requiem settings. Additionally, I have a couple other small choral pieces that I'd like to prepare include a handfull of LDS hymn arrangements for chorus.

Some of these composition decisions were aided by my experience this week with the Warsaw National Philharmonic, or Filharmonia Naradowa, as it is called here. As I've mentioned in previous posts, my teacher Paweł Łukaszewski is the composer in residence with the orchestra this season. I did not before realize how exciting this really is. This was the season opening week and the main feature of the concerts was Paweł's Symphony No. 1 "Symphony of Providence" for chorus, soloists, and orchestra. I attended the final rehearsal on Thursday and met the conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic Chorus, Henryk Wojnarowski. This is a fully professional choir that rehearses M-F from 9am-1pm. They have a wonderful rich tone and excellent blend.

The concert performance was really wonderful. It is a very beautiful and somewhat somber piece. I sat with Paweł, his wife Joana, and a conductor friend of their's from Cologne, Germany, Richard Mailaender. Richard was very fun to talk with. He works for the Archbishop of Cologne as his director of music and choirs. He is extremely well connected and always working on new exciting projects. He knows quite well and has worked on several choral projects with Arvo Pärt, one of my favorite living composers. He asked what I was working on at I mentioned the Missa Resurrexit project. He perked up at this and informed me that he performs a new resurrection work every year with his choir in Cologne. Part of the reason he was visiting Warsaw was to discuss a new commission project with Paweł for his resurrection project in 2013. He asked that I send him my Missa Resurrexit when I'm finished. Hopefully I can be a part of his annual Easter project in a few years to come.

After the concert, Paweł invited us back stage to meet the conductor of the orchestra, Antoni Wit. What I later learned is that Mr. Wit is the most important conductor in all of Poland and the Warsaw National Philharmonic is the most important orchestra in the country. This was the first of several concerts this season that feature Paweł's orchestral works.

Paweł told me a funny story while we were at the rehearsal that illustrates the importance of this orchestra. Poland has had many fine composers in the last 50-60 years. The 3 most famous of these are Lutoslawski, Penderecki, and Gorecki. Whenever Paweł talks about meeting them or bumping into them, he says "he was like God." One time, when Paweł was a student at the Chopin University of Music, he purchased a ticket to see a concert at the National Philharmonic who had given many important premieres of these 3 great Polish contemporary composers. His ticket was for a seat in the very back of the upper balcony. As the concert was about to begin, he saw that one of the seats in the first row of the balcony, one of the best seats in the house, was still vacant. He decided to go sit there because no one else seemed to belong to it. A few minutes after he sat down, he felt a tap on his shoulder. An old man's voice said, "excuse me, I believe you're in my seat." Paweł turned to apologize to the man and saw that it was Lutoslawski himself. Then came that line again, "he was like God!" 

A couple weeks ago, the King's Singers gave the premiere of a new work the Paweł was commissioned to write for them, Tenebrae Responsories. They will perform the work again in London this November, which I will be attending. Here are a couple pictures of him at the concert and afterwards backstage with the group and his wife. She is the lady on the right. She is the vocal coach for our Musica Sacra choir and does an excellent job warming us up before each rehearsal and performance (we always warm up for 30 minutes, it's pretty serious).

I don't think I've shared any Paweł's music yet on this blog. He has 2 very fine discs of choral music performed by Stephen Layton and his choirs Polyphony and the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge. You can hear samples of the pieces by following these links. His Nunc Dimitis and Crucem tuam adoramus, Domine. 

On Monday, Paweł flies to Los Angeles for 10 days to lecture at a convention of Polish Music at the USC Thorton School of Music. He his hoping to meet Morten Lauridsen who teaches there. Lauridsen is one of his favorite composers of sacred choral music.

The other highlight of my week has been the LDS General Conference where our prophet, apostles, and other general church officers have spoken to the worldwide church over live satellite and internet broadcast. The 5, 2 hour sessions have been really wonderful. It seemed like many of the talks were directed to me personally. It was a very needed emotional and spiritual support. The Tabernacle Choir and other choirs sang very well and added greatly to the spirit of the meetings.

I'm looking forward to getting started on my big projects this week and the start of the school year at the Chopin University. Though I'm only taking lessons, it will be fun to be around the school once a week and a part of it all.

That's all for now!!