Paweł Łukaszewski

We have two projects in the coming weeks which include the music of the Polish composer Paweł Łukaszewski.

First, some biographical background: born in 1968, Paweł is a graduate of the Fryderyk Chopin Music in Warsaw, where he studied the cello (with Andrzej Wróbel) and composition (with Marian Borkowski). He also studied at the School for Arts Management at the University in Poznań and took the postgraduate course in choral conducting at the Music Academy in Bydgoszcz. In 2000 he received a Ph.D. in composition.

He won the ‘Fryderyk’ Award of the Polish Phonographic Academy in the ‘vocal music’ category (2005) and the Award of the town of St Quentin at the Concours Europeen de Choeurs et Maitrises de Cathedrales (2006).

He has received the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1998), the award of the Mayor of Częstochowa for outstanding compositional achievements (1995) and the Saint Brother Albert Chmielowski Award (2006).

His works have been performed in many European countries (Britain, Belarus, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Romania, Switzerland, Ukraine, the Vatican), as well as in Argentine, Chile, China, Israel, Cuba, Canada, South Korea, Moldova, Peru, Uruguay and the United States. He has worked as a visiting professor in Chile and Argentina, also performing as a conductor in these two countries. He is Artistic Director and Conductor of the ‘Musica Sacra’ Choir of the Warsaw-Praga Cathedral.

Building on our residency in Krakow, Britten Sinfonia has commissioned Concertino from Paweł Łukaszewski for our At Lunch series in March. Featuring our brass players, it gives us an opportunity to introduce this intriguing composer to wide audience in the UK. Later next month we perform his large-scale work for choir and orchestra Via Crucis , with Polyphony and Stephen Layton. More information will appear in our digiSpace on these concerts.

Polyphony and Britten Sinfonia on Radio 3

We next work with Stephen Layton's Polyphony at the end of March, but you might like to listen to yesterday's The Choir on BBC Radio 3, which was exclusively devoted to them. It features several tracks from CDs Britten Sinfonia has recorded with Polyphony, including works by MacMillan and Lauridsen, and previews our next joint Hyperion release, of works by Poulenc.

Brett Dean's Short Stories

‘A short story is always a disclosure, frequently an evocation.’ Victor Sawdon Pritchett, from his preface to the Oxford Book of Short Stories 1981

‘Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.’ Henry David Thoreau, in a letter from 1857

Brett Dean introduces his note on his work Short Stories - which Britten Sinfonia premieres in the UK in the coming week – with these two quotes, hinting at his own thoughts in the piece.

A composer and viola player, Brett studied in Brisbane before moving to Germany in 1984 where he was a permanent member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for over 15 years. He returned to Australia in 2000 to concentrate on his growing compositional activities, and his works now attract considerable attention, championed by conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Markus Stenz and Daniel Harding. One of the most internationally performed composers of his generation, much of his work draws from literary, political or visual stimuli.

Holloway premiere reviews

There's an excellent review by Richard Morrison in today's Times of our Wigmore Hall performance of Robin Holloway's Five Temperaments, and an equally good one by Michael Church in The Independent.

Music and Business: an exploration

What, you might well ask, were some 30 representatives of businesses and cultural organisations doing working with three of our players in the Radisson SAS hotel in Krakow on Sunday evening? Nicholas Daniel, Joy Farrell and Sarah Burnett stayed on after our lunchtime concert to launch the pilot of our new Music and Business programme, devised by our Creative Learning Director, Sophie Dunn, together with two outside facilitators, the business consultants Howell Schroeder and Sara Howe.

Businesses have much to learn from arts organisations and musicians: some fields of interest are obvious on the surface, such as creativity, leadership and ensemble. But the session demonstrated that there is two-way traffic, and many challenging ideas emerged about management, control, listening and complexity.

The workshop was organised locally by South Poland Business Link, with sponsorship from AG Test HR and the Radisson SAS hotel.

We will be doing more of these sessions in the coming months in both Poland and the UK.

James MacMillan in Cambridge

Britten Sinfonia is always keen to promote new talent, and on Saturday 2 February we are holding a special event showcasing work from the best student composers at the University of Cambridge. The Composers’ Workshop, which will be held in the Recital room at West Road Concert Hall, is a superb opportunity for you to hear new works by up-and-coming young composers, performed by an ensemble comprising Britten Sinfonia musicians and talented students. The group will be conducted by one of the UK’s most respected composers, James MacMillan, who will also be giving advice to the young composers about their work.

The Composers’ Workshop runs from 10.30 to 15.00 and you are welcome to turn up at any time to watch the fascinating process of rehearsing these new pieces. Audience members will also be able to listen to, and join in with, discussions between James MacMillan, Britten Sinfonia musicians and the composers about strengths, weaknesses and improvements which could be made to the music. This should be an intriguing opportunity to eavesdrop on, and perhaps even influence, the compositional process.

At 15.30 there will be a concert performance of these new works by Britten Sinfonia and the student musicians. James MacMillan will introduce each piece and discuss any particular issues which were uncovered during the rehearsal process. The concert will finish at approximately 16.30 and audiences will be able to ask questions of James and the student composers at the end of the concert.

Tickets for both the workshop and concert are free of charge however numbers are limited so we advise you to book should you wish to attend. For further information, please call Sophie Dunn, Creative Learning Director at Britten Sinfonia on 01223 300795 or email info@brittensinfonia.co.uk.

Five Temperaments premiere in Leeds

Our latest commission is from Robin Holloway: Five Temperaments receives its world premiere performance at the Leeds College of Music on Thursday evening: full information and online booking is available here.

Robin Holloway writes: 'Traditionally it's four temperaments, of course. But these five movements do not depict the traditional ‘humours’ (choleric, phlegmatic, sanguine, melancholic) of medieval humanism (though perhaps a couple overlap). Rather, they are five states of mind, evoking human moods shared in varying mixes and proportions by everybody.

I hope I won't be accused of coyness in not revealing them explicitly! I'm relying on the music itself to suggest the individual
temperaments contained within. Which is perhaps a hangover from another piece written at the same time as this wind quintet (Summer 2007): a setting for six-part vocal consort of riddles, conundrums, teases, that deliberately doesn't provide answers.'

There are further performances during our next At Lunch cycle, which begins in Birmingham on Friday. You can find full details on our website.