© Cezary Aszkiełowicz
The International Lutosławski Youth Orchestra (ILYO) was founded in Szczecin in 2013 to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Witold Lutosławski – apart from Penderecki, the most important Polish composer of the second half of the 20th century. This made it the first international youth orchestra to be founded in Poland. Here, young musicians from Poland and all of Europe meet for a summer workshop crowned with a concert at the Szczecin Philharmonic, a prize-winning concert hall opened in 2014. The working periods are organized in cooperation with the tradition-steeped Szczecin Philharmonic Orchestra. Intense coaching of the orchestra sections by experienced tutors is a main element of the ILYO’s work. One focus of its concert programmes is on contemporary works, especially those by its namesake, Witold Lutosławski.
Konzerthaus, Berlin
© Adil Yusifov
The Azerbaijani conductor Ayyub Guliyev began his training at the Baku Music Academy at the age of 15; he subsequently moved to St. Petersburg for further studies, then to Vienna and Prague for three further years. In 2006 he won the orchestral prize at the Lutosławski Competition in Poland; this was followed by awards in Athens, Parma and at the “Debut at the Laeisz Hall” Competition in Hamburg. In 2011 Guliyev first conducted the Azerbaijani State Opera, where he was appointed artistic director in 2018. Since then, he has conducted a broad repertoire here, ranging from Mozart to Tchaikovsky, Verdi and Azerbaijani composers such as Kara Karabayev and Uzeyir Hajibeyli. As an orchestral conductor, the 38-year-old has been invited by renowned ensembles in Great Britain, France, Austria, Poland, Russia and Ukraine as well as Kirgizstan and Kazakhstan. On the occasion of the 100-year-anniversary of the birth of the Azerbaijani composer Fikret Amirov, Guliyev conducted several performances of his ballet Arabian Nights at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in January 2022.
© privat
The 34-year-old Polish cellist Marcin Zdunik has made a name for himself in recent years throughout Europe as a soloist and chamber musician with a broad repertoire ranging from renaissance to modern music. He has been invited to renowned festivals, such as the BBC Proms in London, the Chamber Music Festival in Kronberg/Taunus and the Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano. At the same time, he performs as an improviser and composer of his own arrangements. Zdunik studied with Andrzej Bauer at the Chopin Academy in Warsaw and with Julius Berger in Augsburg. In 2007 he won the first prize at the International Lutosławski Cello Competition in Warsaw. He also received the special award for the best interpretation of his Cello Concerto, which he will also perform in Berlin. The multitude of his CD productions demonstrates the range of Zdunik’s artistic interests: they range from cello concerti by Haydn and Denissov to Schumann’s complete works for cello and Weinberg’s Fantasy for Cello and Orchestra to the CD Bach Stories, featuring works by the composer and Zdunik’s own arrangements.
”Bianca da molena” Op. 6 (1900)
Cello Concerto (1970)
Concerto for Orchestra Sz. 116 (1943-44)
About the concert
In 2013, the International Lutosławski Youth Orchestra was founded in the Polish port town of Szczecin – in homage to the outstanding composer Witold Lutosławski and the centenary of his birth. Thus, the composer’s oeuvre is the special focus of this summer academy, which students from Poland and all of Europe attend in Szczecin – this year, this means the intriguing Cello Concerto, which the winner of the 2007 Lutosławski Competition, Marcin Zdunik, will perform. The concert, which marks the debut of the International Lutosławski Youth Orchestra at Young Euro Classic, opens with another Polish composer who is far too rarely heard in Germany: Mieczesław Karłowicz. The sonorous orchestral overture Bianca da molena was even written when the composer lived in Berlin, in 1900! After the interval, the orchestra under the baton of the Azerbaijani conductor Ayyub Guliyev rises to the challenge of Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. As the name implies, this last major work by the composer in his American exile gives the individual sections of the orchestra a chance to shine.
Broadcast
The concert will be recorded and broadcasted German wide on August, 23rd on 20:03 in “Konzert” by Deutschlandfunk Kultur – through Dlf Audiothek app, UKW, DAB+ and deutschlandfunkkultur.de