The excellent Polish-Ukrainian string quartet the SZYMANOWSKI QUARTET was founded in 1995. The many prizes and awards that it has received over the last twenty years are as much testament to the quality as they are to the longevity of a group which, since the very start, has found a way to combine passion and intellectualism. Following performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Berlin Konzerthaus, Belgian audiences will now be able to see them at Ghent’s Bijloke, this time in a new line-up which includes Agata SZYMCZEWSKA.

Very much at home in a context of intercultural dialogue, the quartet will now turn its attention to an encounter between Poland and Vienna: the programme for the concert on 23 April will feature Karol SZYMANOWSKI, to whom the quartet owes its name, and Krzysztof PENDERECKI as well as Ludwig VAN BEETHOVEN and Joseph HAYDN. The audience will not be left unmoved by this piece, which is little-known in this part of Europe and will open the concert: a polyphonic renaissance for Wacław of Szamotuły.

PROGRAMME
Wacław de Szamotuły, Trois coraux de la Renaissance polonaise (env. 1550)
Karol Szymanowski, Quatuor à cordes, op 37/1 (1917)
Krzysztof Penderecki, Quatuor à cordes n° 3 (2008)
Jozef Haydn, Quatuor en mi bémol majeur, op. 33/2 (1781)
Ludwig van Beethoven, Quatuor à cordes en do mineur, op. 18 n° 4 (env. 1800)

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
>>> De Bijloke, concertzaal (Jozef Kluyskensstraat 2, 9000 Ghent) – see map
>>> Thursday 23 April 2015 – 20:00
>>> €22 | €18€ (-25/65+) | €7€ (-19/Conservartory and Musicology students)
+++ online boxoffice

SZYMANOWSKI QUARTET

Agata SZYMCZEWSKA – violin
Grzegorz KOTÓW – violin
Vladimir MYKYTKA – alto
Marcin SIENIAWSKI – cello

+++ www.szymanowskiquartet.com

The Szymanowski Quartet’s repertoire houses both classical and Romantic standards and innovative works of contemporary music from the likes of Magnus Lindberg, Elena Kats-Chernin, Philip Cashian, Thomas Larcher and Andrew Toowey. Students of the Hanover Hochschule für Musik und Theater, who studied under Isaac Stern and Walter Levin, have made several recordings (which have been put out by Avie, Cavi-music and Hyperion) which include, in particular, pieces by Haydn, Bacewicz and Dvořák. It devoted one of its albums to the music of Karol Szymanowski and the context of music from Paris, Vienna and Moscow. Another piece included works by Zelenski and Zarębski.

Agata SZYMCZEWSKA was born in 1985 in Koszalin in Poland. The 2006 winner of the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition (Poznań), she also won the London Music Masters Award, which led to her being invited to perform at Wigmore Hall in 2009 and the Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Osmo Vanska. Since then, she has played on three continents and participated in Anne-Sophie Mutter’s tour of North America in November 2014. She plays on a Stradivarius (Cremona, circa 1680), which is on loan to her from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.

Grzegorz KOTÓW was born in Wałbrzych in 1972. After his studies in Poland, he honed his craft at the Hanover Hochschule für Musik und Theater where he worked under the direction of Krzysztof Wegrzyn and Hatto Beyerlee. He plays as a chamber musician and a soloist. In parallel, he teaches chamber music at the Hanover Hochschule für Musik und Theater.

Vladimir MYKYTKA was born in Lviv in 1972. After studying at the Conservatoire in his home town, he continued his training at the Warsaw Fryderyk Chopin Conservatoire under Janusz Kucharski as well as at the Hanover Hochschule für Musik und Theater under Hatto Beyerlee. He also taught chamber music at this university. In addition to his activities with the Szymanowski Quartet, he regularly plays as a duo with the pianist Claudia Rinaldi.

Marcin SIENIAWSKI was born in Warsaw in 1970. A cellist since his childhood, he perfected his craft in Poland and at the P.I. Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatoire before going on to study at the Hanover Hochschule für Musik und Theater (under Hatto Beyerlee), where he also works as a teacher.