Glass, Kulenty and Kilar

Sinfonietta Cracovia hails from the historic city of Kraków where the Polish kings once resided. The chamber orchestra makes its Muziekgebouw debut with American minimalist music and closely related accessible Polish music. Polish composer Hanna Kulenty, a student of Louis Andriessen in the 1980s, wrote a new work for trumpet and string orchestra. The premiere is tonight. The orchestra will perform a true classic by minimalist composer Philip Glass: his Symphony No. 3. 

Whereas American minimalists like Reich and Glass approach the minimalist style with conceptual rigor, the other Polish composers infuse it with a more romantic and improvisational spirit. Andrzej Panufnik and Wojciech Kilar paint landscapes in cinematic atmospheres. Kilar was a celebrated film composer and wrote the award-winning score of the film The Pianist about Władysław Szpilman. Hanna Kulenty writes what she herself calls ‘musique surrealistique’: appealing and evocative music full of repetitive, rhythmic elements reminiscent of Reich and Glass.