The Czech and Polish Consulates of Washington State invite you to an evening of classical music from Central Europe. Slavic Postcards is a musical journey from Warsaw to Brno and Prague, and on to Cape Cod. Each piece is a postcard sent home from a different time and place.
The Program
Door opens 7 pm
From Poland 7:30 pm
- Frédéric Chopin: Variations for Flute and Piano in E major
- Witold Lutosławski: 3 Fragments for Flute and Piano
- Wojciech Kilar: Sonatina for Flute and Piano
Intermission 8 pm
From the Czech lands 8:20 pm
- Leoš Janáček: March of the Bluebirds
- Antonín Dvořák: Romance in F minor, Op. 11
- Bohuslav Martinů: First Sonata for Flute and Piano
The Music
The evening opens with a young Chopin. Before he became the poet of the piano, the teenage composer wrote a lively set of variations for flute and piano on an aria from Rossini’s opera Cinderella. Two 20th-century Polish voices follow. Lutosławski, one of the great modernists of his era, wrote his Three Fragments as music for radio plays. Kilar, known worldwide for his film scores to The Pianist and Dracula, wrote his Sonatina early in his career, before turning to film.
After the intermission, we travel to the Czech lands. Janáček’s playful March of the Bluebirds opens the second half. Dvořák’s lyrical Romance in F minor comes next; it grew out of one of his early string quartets. The evening closes with Martinů’s First Flute Sonata, written in 1945 on Cape Cod while the composer lived in exile in America. It is a postcard from the New World that still sounds unmistakably Czech.
The Performers
We are excited to welcome two esteemed musicians to the stage:
- Gosia Szemelak-Pellant – flute
- Yuchen Qi – piano
Program curated by Jan Pelant.
