Polish Kwadrofonik

Polish Concert of Ambassadors’ Concert Series

A joint ACS and Salon Polski concert

Ambassador Jan Pastwa

Prof. Václav Havlíček

Under joint patronage of Ambassador Jan Pastwa of Poland and Prof. Václav Havlíček, Rector of the Czech Technical University, Prague.

In cooperation with the Embassy of Poland in Prague and Instytut Polski w Pradze as co-organizers.

Date: February 8th 2011, 7.30 pm
Venue: CTU Prague Ceremonial Hall, Betlémská Kaple, Prague

KWADROFONIK – Poland

Piano – Emilia Sitarz, Bartłomiej Wąsik
Percussion – Magdalena Kordylasińska, Miłosz Pękala

Concert gallery

„Byłem tu, Fryderyk.“ Inspiracje chopinowskie
”I was here, Frederic.“ Inspiration from Chopin

A concert concluding the International Year of Chopin 2010 in the CR.

“There is no one word to describe the music of Kwadrofonik. No label seems to be appropriate, but the pleasure of listening is exquisite“. Rzeczpospolita

Having scored a spectacular victory at the 9th „New Tradition“ Folk Festival in 2006, this quartet, formed by the fusion of two distinctive duos, started their joint performances in the same year. In 2007 Kwadrofonik was awarded a Special Prize: for contemporary approach, innovation and faithfulness to tradition, the first such award ever granted, at the 3rd Svetozar Stracina European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Competition in Bratislava.
Members of a combination unique both in Poland and worldwide, the musicians are engaged in an extraordinary dialogue, where the roles of the instruments shift almost imperceptibly – the pianos become percussion instruments and the percussion instruments take over to play the melody. Apart from transcriptions of such symphonic works as Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring or Szymanowski´s Mazurkas and Harnasie, the ensemble also performs compositions written for their combination by Béla Bartók, George Crumb, and Rolf Wallin, as well as works composed specially for the ensemble (Różnia by Wojciech Ziemowit Zych, 2010).
Their debut album “Folklove” (2008) has earned them the Folk Recording of the Year Award by critics. The ensemble has played at many festivals in Poland, Germany, Israel and Brazil. In the 2010/2011 season they have performed in Canada and the United States (Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Hall), Italy and Ireland and will make their debut in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall.
Kwadrofonik is widely acclaimed also for their performance skills which turn each concert into a beautiful visual event during which the musicians use several dozen percussion instruments and two pianos in a strikingly attractive way.

Kwadrofonik – about their latest project

“In this project, we try to understand which folk music could have inspired Frederic Chopin when he wrote his greatest works. Is it possible that Chopin was influenced not only by the nuances of the folk melodies but also by their lyrics?
This concert is a story, a fiction, a fantasy on what the composer might have heard in Polish folk music, deeply rooted in his soul, before leaving Poland forever, and which invaluable melodies he chose to keep within himself to use in his preludes, mazurkas and sonatas.
Combining two pianos and a rich variety of percussion instruments we bridge raw music with the quotations of Chopin’s works which belong to the aristocracy of musical literature. We also play with Chopin’s harmonies by juxtaposing them in an unconventional and original way. In our pieces we present a journey from the source, through inspiration, to our fascination with Chopin’s genius”.