La Folle Journée in Warsaw for the Fourth Time
Warsaw’s edition ofLa Folle Journéewill be held for the fourth time, on 27-29 September. Approximately 1000 artists will perform in the course of three days in 60 concerts.
La Folle Journée– “Music from France and Spain” is the fourth edition of the international La Folle Journée festival, founded by its artistic director, René Martin. The Festival was held for the first time in Nantesin 1995. Soon, its annual editions moved to Portugal, Spain, Japan,Brazil and Poland.
The festival’s most important premise and challenge is to overcome the stereotype of inaccessibility of classical music by encouraging and facilitating the participation of a large audience in concerts, while providing a high level of performance. This is assured by the choice of works and of the performing Polish and foreign artists.
Previous Warsaw editions of La Folle Journée were devoted to the music of Chopin (“Chopin Open” in 2010), Brahms, Mahler, Liszt, Strauss and Szymanowski (“Les Titans” in 2011) and Russian music (“La Folle Journée–RUSSIA” in 2012). Each time, the festival attracted an audience of tens of thousands. Last year, 60 concerts were attended by more than 36 000 persons.
The fourth Polish edition of the international La Folle Journée2013 Festival will take place on 27-29 September 2013 and will be devoted to French and Spanish music.
Debussy, Bizet, Ravel, Fauré, Albeniz, Poulenc, de Falla and Rodrigo are the composers whose works will be performed at the festival concerts the most often.
There are 60 concerts scheduled this year in four halls within the Opera and in a tent set up in the Theatre Square. The festival concerts with hundreds of artists will also feature special performances by young performers, the best ensembles from 11 music schools from all of Poland. The festival also includes concerts for the youngest audience – the Smykofonia [Toddler Philharmonic] project.
The Festival inPolandis organised by the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra, CREA (Centre de Réalisations et d’Études Artistiques àNantes), the Grand Theatre-Polish National Opera and by the “Ogrody Muzyczne” [MusicalGardens] Foundation.
This year’s edition ofLa Folle Journéewill feature soloists Luis Fernando Pérez, Philippe Giusiano, Augustin Dumay, Juan Manuel Cañizares and Olga Pasiecznik.
orchestras: Sinfonia Varsovia, The National Philharmonic Orchestra, the orchestra of the Grand Theatre-National Opera, the Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra
conductors: Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Arie van Beek, Antoni Wit, Tadeusz Wojciechowski
chamber ensembles: Silesian String Quartet, Quatuor Modigliani
There are also many other attractions: flamenco music and dance and performances by Mariusz “Wilk” [“The Wolf”] Wilczyński – film animations to accompany the live music.