K. Stockhausen, O. Messiaen, A. Webern, L. Andriessen, E.Satie, B. Schaeffer, Z. Krauze, J. Bach, L. Beethoven, J.Haydn, F. Chopin.
Most of the pieces performed in fragments, with improvisations.
Zygmunt Krauze & NeoQuartet: Zygmunt Krauze: Piano quintet
The prominent Polish composer and pianist Zygmunt Krauze is among the distinctive compositional figures of the second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, not only in the Polish but also in the international context. He divides his work into several categories: from compositions based on the principle of "unism" inspired by the paintings of Władysław Strzemiński, through spatial installations, to concepts of "music about music." He is the author of ten operas and more than a hundred orchestral and chamber compositions in which the piano holds a crucial place. In 1966, he won first prize in the Gaudeamus international competition for interpreters of contemporary music, and as a concert pianist, he continues to perform on leading world stages today. For a quarter of a century, he led the ensemble Warsztat Muzyczny, for which renowned world creators (e.g., Feldman, Nyman, Andriessen) wrote. At the invitation of Pierre Boulez, he worked at the IRCAM institute in Paris as an artistic advisor and in the late 1980s was the president of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM). He has taught at universities in the USA (Yale, Columbia) and in Tokyo, and is currently active as a professor of composition. He is a recipient of the French National Order of the Legion of Honour and the Polish Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis.
The artist will present himself in a solo recital format, conceived as a single continuous flow of piano improvisation. In it, he will organically connect his own original works with fragments of compositions from various epochs of music history—from J. S. Bach, J. Haydn, L. van Beethoven through F. Chopin and E. Satie to A. Webern, O. Messiaen, K. Stockhausen, B. Schaeffer, and Louis Andriessen. At the end of the recital, he will be joined by the Polish NeoQuartet for a joint performance of Krauze's Quintet for Piano and Strings.
---
Luboš Mrkvička: Smyčcový kvartet č. 1 – a world premiere commissioned by Contempuls Ernst Helmuth Flammer: String quartet No. 3 Tomasz Prasqual: String quartet No. 3 Johannes Kalitzke: Europe – Challenges Still Relevant
The Polish string quartet NeoQuartet, consisting of Karolina Piątkowska-Nowicka (1st violin), Paweł Kapica (2nd violin), Michał Markiewicz (viola), and Antoni Majewski (cello), specializes in the performance of contemporary music. The quartet is among the most active European ensembles in the field of new music and regularly performs at prestigious festivals in Europe, China, South Korea, Japan, and the USA. They often combine a classical sound with visual arts, modern dance, and electronics. They have recorded ten albums for Polish, German, Greek, and American labels, hold the 2018 Pomeranian Artistic Award, and have received several nominations for the Fryderyk Award. Since 2012, they have organized the NeoArte – Synthesizer of Arts festival in Gdańsk, which focuses on popularizing contemporary creation, organizing masterclasses, and commissioning new works from Polish and international authors. Starting in 2026, NeoQuartet will become the new ensemble-in-residence of the Contempuls festival for a three-year period, for which they will annually rehearse a new composition commissioned from a Czech author.
In the standalone part of the closing evening, the ensemble will perform works by Johannes Kalitzke, Ernst Helmuth Flammer, and Tomasz Prasqual. The centerpiece of the concert and the finale of the entire year's edition will subsequently be the world premiere of the new String Quartet No. 1 by Luboš Mrkvička. This composition was commissioned by the festival as the first Czech work within the aforementioned multi-year residency project.