Wow, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's season is off to a big start! We're coming off our first week with new music director, Krzysztof Urbanski, as well as our Opening Night Gala with performances by Garrick Ohlsson and Time for Three. We've just started off a one week sale of all remaining tickets at $28 dollars (Krzysztof's current age!), and our first Symphonic Hits concert is coming up this weekend.
I'm excited to be continuing as the host of Sound Off, the pre-concert event before every Symphonic Hits concert at 6:30PM, and I'm especially happy to have our new music director conducting the first program of the season. For this concert, he's bringing not only one very loved "symphonic hit" (Carmina Burana), but he's introducing ISO audiences to two lesser known works from his homeland of Poland. Both of these works also showcase the ISO string section, something that Krzysztof is doing numerous times in his inaugural season here.
The first is by one of Poland's most well known composers, Henryk Górecki. In the 1990s his Symphony No. 3 "Symphony of Sorowfull Songs" soared to the number six spot on the UK Billboard 200, and it enjoyed the top spot on the US classical charts for 38 weeks. The success of this piece was built on its simple and soothing writing, much different from a lot of 20th century music and from many of Gorecki's earlier works. This weekend we're playing another accessible work of his, "Three Pieces in Old Style" which are also simple pieces with recognizable harmony. Harkening back to earlier styles, it is a nice pairing with Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, which is based on songs of 12th century monks.
The other work is Wojciech Kilar's Orawa. Kilar is maybe best known as a movie composer, having written music for such films as Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula. In addition, his non-film music was used in The Truman Show and The Portrait of a Lady amongst others. This weekend's work is based on a repeating motif that changes slowly throughout the piece. Take a listen, and give yourself a couple of minutes to get into the hypnotizing groove of the work.
I didn't know Orawa or any of Kilar's music before, but I've come to really love this work, and I'm hoping to conduct it myself in the future. I hope others will join me in thanking Krzysztof for introducing this music to us!
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Can you please get Maestro U to comment on whether we will hear Kilar's "Exodus" for Orchestra and Mixed Choir soon? That piece is guaranteed to bring down the house.
Thank you. See you Saturday.
Thanks for your comment. Glad you're a fan of Kilar. I don't believe we have any plans for Exodus, but we are doing another work of Kilar this season. When Krzysztof returns he will be presenting Krzesany the last weekend in March. Also, the ISO has commissioned a new work from Kilar to be presented in an upcoming season. I'll be sure to mention to Krzysztof that there is a demand for Exodus! Hope you enjoyed last weekend's concert.