RÓŻYCKI | WARS

The 13th of December is the date which, for most of us, has become a permanent part in the recent history of Poland. On this day, we would like to perform works by Polish composers who in a special way refer to the complicated fate of our national community and statehood in the 20th century.

Ludomir Różycki was one of the creators of Young Poland, the interwar period. The Second World War unleashed a series of reflections on our reality – shaped not only by ourselves but also by many factors that we rarely have a direct impact on. Henryk Wars is, in turn, a pioneer of Polish jazz, a soldier of General Anders and one of the creators of the music industry accompanying Hollywood. His story is defined by the search for his own place in the world – an experience common to many generations of Poles once, as well as today.

Janusz Wawrowski will be the soloist of the evening. An outstanding musician connected with a prestigious long-term artistic contract with the Warner Music label. An important field of his activity is the interpretation and research of Polish music, which he has been trying to bring to the public ear for many years as the originator and artistic director of international festivals. This time, the artist will play on the only Polish violin from the Stradivari workshop.

At this point, we would like to give the voice to professor Antoni Dudek:

Many of them [people interned under the martial law and thousands of people repressed for political reasons] lived then in Szczecin, which together with several other major Polish cities belonged to places where already in the first days of the martial law there were organized speeches in defence of imprisoned leaders of Solidarity organized, and where later to further spontaneous and demonstrations against the rule of General Wojciech Jaruzelski took place. Both Szczecin and the entire West Pomeranian region were among the most important places of resistance against the communist authorities in Poland.