Look, we all have our favorites, right? And it just so happens that several of my own favorites are playing on consecutive Sundays in November at the 20th Gliwice Guitar Festival (XX Gliwicki Festiwal Gitarowy) in the Silesian Highlands city of Gliwice in southern Poland, so we wanted to put in a good word for the event, for which the noted composer/guitarist Gerard Drozd is the founder and artistic director.
On Sunday November 4, the Kupiński Guitar Duo—Ewa Jabłczyńska & Dariusz Kupiński, surely one of the most electrifying ensembles anywhere—will be performing a program the includes works by Rossini, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Granados, and more.
The following Sunday, November 11, Greek guitarist Thanos Mitsalas (I loved his Tribute album last year) is playing a set, followed by another featuring the amazing Croatian Zoran Dukić playing solo and in a duo with the fine UK guitarist Helen Sanderson.
On Sunday November 18, the first part of the concert finds the renowned contemporary music specialists the AUKSO chamber orchestra playing; then after intermission AUKSO will be joined by five woodwind players and Montenegrin guitar virtuoso Goran Krivokapić for the world premiere of Gerard Drozd’s Concierto de Gliwice, Op. 175.
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Finally, the closing concert of the festival will be on Sunday, November 25, and will feature French guitarist Gabriel Bianco and Czech oboist Michaela Hrabánková (their 2017 disc, Divertissements, was delightful, and I love Bianco’s Quatuor Eclisses guitar quartet), in a program featuring works by Kováts, Coste, and Piazzolla, among others.
That sounds like four wonderful concerts to me; wish I could be there! But perhaps some of you can!
And because I can’t pass on any excuse to post a Kupiński Guitar Duo video, here’s another one—the duo plays three mazurkas by Chopin: