The Polish Chamber Orchestra is on tour across the United States with versatile violinist Daniel Hope, "the most exciting British string player since Jacqueline du Pré" (New York Times). The "Journey to Mozart" program includes violin concertos by Haydn and Mozart, Haydn's Symphony No. 49 in F minor 'La passione,' and works by Gluck and the Polish composer Wojciech Kilar. Performances are February 23-March 2 in Vero Beach, FL; West Palm Beach, FL; Atlanta, GA; and Beaver Creek, CO. We spoke with PCO manager Janusz Marynowski about the orchestra’s rich history, the upcoming tour, Polish culture, and more.
As manager of Polish Chamber Orchestra, what are your primary duties and/or goals?
The Polish Chamber Orchestra is an orchestra of great tradition, and as the manager of this ensemble, I consider it my primary task to nurture its 50-year heritage, always ensuring projects and performances of the highest artistic standard. We are a large, independent cultural institution of the capital city of Warsaw, the heart of which is the Sinfonia Varsovia symphony orchestra formed by extending the PCO's chamber ensemble. In addition, we manage several chamber ensembles made up of the orchestra's musicians. However, our activities do not end there. We run an orchestra academy for young musicians, implement a number of educational programmes for little music lovers, organise activities for the local community, and host two major music festivals in Warsaw: La Folle Journée de Varsovie and Sinfonia Varsovia To Its City. The orchestra is very active in Poland and abroad, playing around 70 concerts a year, more than half of them outside Poland. We also make recordings, with over 340 albums in our catalogue of excellent labels. Sinfonia Varsovia is also an investor in the construction of a music complex in Warsaw with the largest concert hall in Poland. Ultimately, we will have four concert halls: the main hall with 1,877 seats, smaller hall with 400 seats and two chamber halls, as well as several halls for educational activities.
Tell me how your role with the orchestra has changed over the years, from your time as a performer to now as the manager.
I started working there in 1987, as a double bass musician. At the time, my job was solely to play the double bass. I remember this period as a period of eternal happiness, because being on stage and performing pieces of music together with my orchestra was the greatest form of expression possible for me, it was one hundred per cent artistic freedom on stage. 21 years ago, the orchestra offered me the position of orchestra manager, and after a year of holding the position of both a musician and a manager, I had to decide to devote all my time to the role of a manager. Since then, I have been involved in administering the institution and charting new courses of action. As a result, I unfortunately no longer have time to play the instrument. My life made a 180° turn and sometimes I really miss being a musician, playing in an orchestra.
How do the Polish Chamber Orchestra musicians, repertoire and performances reflect Polish culture?
From its first concert, the orchestra's repertoire included works by Polish composers such as Grażyna Bacewicz and Andrzej Panufnik. We continue this tradition of performing works by Polish composers. This is a very important part of our repertoire, as the orchestra considers itself to be an ambassador of Polish culture around the world. We are happy to have the chance to present during our upcoming US tour an absolutely phenomenal piece: "Orawa" by Wojciech Kilar, which was written specifically for the Polish Chamber Orchestra. He is a composer known in the US rather as the creator of soundtracks for films such as "Dracula" and "The Pianist". We hope that this piece by a Polish composer in particular will appeal to American audiences. Poland has a long and turbulent revolutionary history, as evidenced by names such as Pułaski and Kościuszko, who also had their contributions to US history. In the world of classical music, the PCO managed by Jerzy Maksymiuk was at its beginnings an equally revolutionary phenomenon, playing expressively and quickly, with the highest technical precision. This was before the wider public got accustomed to playing this way.
Polish Chamber Orchestra has not toured the United States in nearly 20 years.
What are you most looking forward to on this tour?
What do you expect to be challenging or difficult about this tour?
How do you expect it will be different than your last U.S. tour in 2006?
Twenty years is a long time, many young musicians have joined the ensemble, some have retired. This has a huge impact on the sound of the ensemble, on its identity. We hope, however, that we have retained that original energy and style. I wish for it to sit well with audiences who, after all, have also changed a lot over the years and have a different sensibility. Above all, we are looking forward to meeting them, the wonderful American listeners who have given us such an excellent reception in the past.
I see one particular difficulty this tour faces. I mean the concert in Beaver Creek, which is about 2,500 m above sea level, and in Warsaw we are not used to such high altitudes. Rysy, Poland's highest peak, is exactly 2499 m above sea level. I even found out that special oxygen bottles are being sold at the Beaver Creek shops to help with the symptoms of altitude sickness. We need to investigate this matter thoroughly, as our oboists have reported that there may be problems with their reeds at such a high altitude.
We are very happy to be performing with such a great artist as Daniel Hope, I have known him for three decades by the way.
He is a world-class artist who belongs among the great stars playing with the Polish Chamber Orchestra, such as Yehudi Menuhin, James Galway, Gidon Kremer, Maxim Vengerov....
What else would you like us to know about you and the PCO?
As for me, I have been in love with the orchestra for 38 years. It used to be my dream to exchange at least a few words with a musician of this very orchestra, so I am very proud to come to you with this ensemble. The Polish Chamber Orchestra has always prided itself on the highest quality of artistic performance, the precision of chamber music. The credit goes, of course, to its creator, the legendary Jerzy Maksymiuk.
What is coming up next for the Polish Chamber Orchestra?
On our return from the USA with the full symphonic ensemble, Sinfonia Varsovia, we will perform at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and in Istanbul with the legendary violinist Pinchas Zukerman, with whom we have the pleasure of working recently. And in the autumn, a tour in Japan with the legendary Marta Argerich and Ivo Pogorelić.