A concert by the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra will take place at the National Philharmonic in Warsaw on Friday 9 February 2024.

The Kyiv Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1979. Since then, the ensemble has performed in Europe’s most important concert halls: the Berliner Philharmonie, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Cité de la musique in Paris and the National Philharmonic in Warsaw.

Under the direction of its artistic director Luigi Gagger, the ensemble will present an interesting selection of representative works from several eras of Ukrainian musical history – ‘Freaqsuence’ by Kiev-born and London-studied Alisa Zaika, ‘Symphonic Poem’ by 1942-born Yevhen Stankovych and ‘Symphony No. 5’ by 19th-century Ukrainian composer Mykhailo Verbytsky.

The concert programme will also include: “Overture to the opera Power of Destiny” by Giuseppe Verdi from 1862, Witold Lutoslawski’s two-part “Mi-parti” from 1976, regarded as a flagship example of the Polish composer’s use of the original chain technique, and Béla Bartók’s “Four Pieces for Orchestra” Op. 12 – a unique example for this composer of a departure from the idiom of Hungarian folk music. The focal point of the evening will be a performance by Olha Stukalova, by day a soloist with the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, who will perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s ‘Flute Concerto No. 2 in D major’.

The Kyiv Symphony Orchestra had already performed at the National Philharmonic in Warsaw in April 2022, and at that time began its first European tour during the war with this concert.

Luigi Gaggero, who has led the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra as chief conductor since 2018, said at the time that it was not only part of Ukrainian culture, heritage, but also a certain symbol.

„Our relationship, my relationship as an Italian with Ukrainian musicians, is a symbol of what Ukraine wants, which is integration into Europe”, said the conductor.

Adrian Andrzejewski