Almost 600 artists from twelve countries are presenting their skills at the Fourth “Euphonie” International Festival of Central and Eastern European Music. Until 26 November, Warsaw will be the capital of multicultural music, with five symphony orchestras, seven ensembles, a choir and outstanding soloists performing before a festival audience.

“The idea that inspired the creators of the Eufonie Festival is this year’s leitmotif, namely the music of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, within borders many nations coexisted and created extraordinary music: Hungarians, Czechs, Poles, Ukrainians, Romanians, Croats or Austrians themselves. It is this multinationality, stylistic and genre diversity that is the strength of the festival”, said Deputy Minister of Culture and National Heritage Jarosław Sellin.

The programme includes 13 exceptional concerts including three world premieres of works created on special orders for the festival and three Polish premiere performances of Hungarian, Ukrainian and Slovak music.

Invitations to participate in the festival have been accepted by Vienna Symphonists with Omer Meir Wellber, Andrzej Boreyko, Jan Lisiecki, Piotr Sałajczyk, Antonii Baryshevsky, Marc Coppey of the Zagreb Soloists, László Fassang, Miranda Liu with the V4 Quartet, Javier Zafra, Pavol Breslik, Ars Antiqua Austria, the Orchestra of the State Philharmonic of Transylvania in Cluj-Napoca conducted by Gabriel Bebeşelei, Capella Cracoviensis, or the Slovak composer Iris Szeghy.

As every year, Eufonie will mix different musical worlds. The original sounds of experimental instruments will be presented by the ensemble Small Instruments. Ars Antiqua Austria will introduce the audience to the music of 17th-century Austrian courts, played on period instruments, while Capella Cracoviensis will present rarely played symphonies by Joseph Haydn and works by composers not usually found in the concert repertoire, but definitely worth attention.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński