Listen and indulge yourself!

Sensuality is the unifying theme of the summer's orchestral concerts. The centrepiece, on 10 August, is a concert performance of Act Two of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde – perhaps the most rapturous love poem ever written. The featured composer at this year's festival is Karol Szymanowski, whose lush and opulent harmonic language begins where Tristan and Isolde leaves off. Szymanowski explored the sensuous possibilities of the orchestra to the utmost – with some remarkable results. In his deservedly famous Stabat Mater, on the other hand, he probes the sensual side of religious ecstasy. This of course is also the subject of Alexander Skriabin's Poème de l'extase, which rounds off our second concert on August 2. Szymanowski's predecessor and fellow Pole Frédéric Chopin will be heard in the same concert, with the celebrated pianist Emanuel Ax performing a selection of pieces. In the July 27 concert, Mozart's Clarinet Concerto demonstrates that there can be as much sensual power in restraint as there can in excess.

27 July 2009 - 7.30 p.m.

Conductor: Paul Daniel
Soloists: Tatjana Serjan (soprano), Liubov Sokolova (contralto), Will Hartmann (tenor), Scott Hendricks (baritone), Martin Fröst (basset clarinet)

Camerata Silesia – The Katowice Singers' Ensemble, conducted by Anna Szostak
Polish Radio Choir of Krakow, conducted by Wlodzimierz Siedlik

Programme

• Karol Szymanowski: Stabat Mater op. 53
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra in A major KV 622
• Karol Szymanowski: Symphony No. 3 in B flat major op. 27, Song of the Night
  

2 August 2009 – 11 a.m.

Conductor: Kirill Petrenko
Soloist: Emanuel Ax, piano

Programme

• Karol Szymanowski: Sinfonia concertante op. 60
• Frédéric Chopin: Nocturnes op. 27 No 1 & 2
• Alexander Skriabin: Le poème de l’extase op. 54
  

10 August 2009 – 7.30 p.m.

Conductor: Markus Stenz
Tristan: Ian Storey, tenor
Isolde: Violeta Urmana, soprano
Brangäne: Petra Lang, mezzo-soprano
König Marke: Günther Groissböck, bas
Kurwenal: Iain Paterson, baritone
Melot: Ronald Samm, tenor

Programme

• Richard Wagner: Act II from Tristan and Isolde

Introductory talk in the Festival Opera House one hour before the performance begins

Orchestral concert discount: If you book tickets for at least three of the orchestral concerts at the same time, you will qualify for a discount of 20%!