The programme of this exceptional concert within the Central Music Square Festival will evoke iconic works of film music, highlighting one of its key inspirations: Romantic programmatic music. It was in the 19th century that a fully developed way of thinking about music as a carrier of image, narrative, and symbol emerged – capable of telling stories, building dramatic tension, and powerfully stimulating the listener’s imagination. This aesthetic, developed particularly in operatic overtures and symphonic poems, found a natural continuation in 20th-century film music.
A prime example of musical narration is Gioachino Rossini’s overture to William Tell, moving from a pastoral depiction of nature, through a violent storm, to a triumphant finale. A similar evocative power can be found in Paul Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – a brilliant symphonic scherzo in which masterful orchestration and emotional crescendo perfectly convey the grotesque character of Goethe’s ballad about a sorcerer’s apprentice who loses control of an enchanted broom.
The famous symphonic works featured in the programme have frequently been used on the big screen. This kind of compositional imagination finds its continuation in film music. A special place in this context belongs to John Williams, one of the most outstanding and influential film composers in history. The author of music for over one hundred films, a five-time Academy Award winner and record-holder for the number of nominations (over 50), Williams is admired for his extraordinary ability to create memorable themes and masterfully orchestrated, richly coloured scores. His music for the Harry Potter series builds a world of magic and fantasy through clear motifs and vivid instrumental textures, while the symphonic writing of Star Wars, with its heroic fanfares, lyrical themes, and strong dramatic character, has become an icon of film music shaping cinematic emotion, widely imitated ever since.
A significant part of the concert is also dedicated to music written for films by the great Polish director Andrzej Wajda. Andrzej Korzyński, with his versatile talent, perfectly captured the atmosphere of the remarkable story of love and death in Birch Wood. The film scores of Wojciech Kilar, created for masterpieces such as The Promised Land and Pan Tadeusz, have become widely recognisable and function as autonomous musical works. The year 2026 has been declared the Year of Andrzej Wajda by the Polish Senate, marking the 100th anniversary of his birth (6 March 1926) and the 10th anniversary of his death (9 October 2016), in tribute to one of the greatest Polish film directors.
The works of outstanding film composers demonstrate that music written for cinema can reach the highest artistic level and successfully function in concert halls. From the Romantic visions of Rossini and Dukas to the symphonic frescoes of Kilar and Williams runs a continuous line of thinking about music as an art of storytelling – evocative, emotional, and communicative, and therefore universally admired and loved by audiences.
PROGRAMME
Gioachino Rossini – Overture to the opera William Tell
Paul Dukas – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, symphonic scherzo after the ballad by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Andrzej Korzyński (arr. Maciej Pawłowski) – Music from the film Birch Wood, dir. Andrzej Wajda
Wojciech Kilar – Waltz from the film The Promised Land, dir. Andrzej Wajda
Wojciech Kilar – Music from the film Pan Tadeusz, dir. Andrzej Wajda
John Williams – Music from the Harry Potter films
John Williams – Music from the Star Wars films
