REQUIEM: IN MEMORY OF POLISH COMPOSERS - WARSAW

 

Thanks to a joint initiative of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arkadiusz Mularczyk, and the Director of the Jan Karski Institute of War Losses, Professor Konrad Wnęk, on 5 April 2023 an opportunity was provided to recall the musical achievements of Józef Koffler and Roman Padlewski, composers who died during the Second World War.

 

The works of both composers resounded in the capital's Adolf Szyfman Polish Theatre. The Polska Orchestra, Sinfonia Iuventus, conducted by Agnieszka Środowska; the vocal ensemble, Luna Plena, conducted by Barbara Gajek-Kraski; the performers of the Padlewski Quartet; the mezzo-soprano Magdalena Idzik and the accompanist Artur Jaroń, presented the unique works of the wartime artists.

Both Józef Koffler and Roman Padlewski died during the Second World War. Koffler was murdered by the Germans probably at the beginning of 1944 near Krosno, where he had been hiding for several months after the liquidation of the ghetto in Wieliczka. Padlewski on the other hand, died on 16 August 1944, as a result of wounds received during the Warsaw Uprising. 

The Director of the Institute pointed out that both artists were victims of a much broader phenomenon implemented by the German occupiers, i.e. the planned and consistent extermination of representatives of the Polish elite, active in both the artistic and scientific spheres. Prof. Konrad Wnęk recalled the particularly severe arrest of the academic staff of his alma mater (i.e. the Jagiellonian University) which took place on 6 November 1939 (the so-called Sonderaktion Krakau). He emphasised the role of the institution he heads in disseminating knowledge about the scale of losses suffered as a result of the German occupation.

Deputy Minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk discussed the cultural dimension of the ordeal of occupation and the criminal nature of, among other things, the German Extraordinary Pacification Action, better known as the AB Action (May-July 1940). It is estimated that its victims included at least 3,000 intellectuals, artists and social activists, whose loss was irrecoverable for Polish society.

 

Please clcik on the link to view the photo-report from the concert in the album "REQUIEM PAMIĘCI POLSKICH KOMPOZYTORÓW – WARSZAWA".