Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester

The young Polish composer Karol Szymanowski wrote sweeping, exhilarating music, but he interpreted it in political terms. When he composed his concert overture in 1904 and 1905, Poland had not yet become a nation state – this did not happen until November 1918 – but a new form of Polish national music was already emerging. Several young Polish composers formed an artistic circle, calling themselves 'Young Poland', and Szymanowski was among their number. Therefore, it was of great importance to him that his concert overture was premiered at the 'Young Poland's' debut concert in Warsaw in 1906. While his early works still have a late-Romantic sound, he later developed his own highly personal style situated between Impressionism and Modernism, thereby establishing his reputation as a significant figure in Polish music.

Frédéric Chopin, the son of a Polish mother and a French father, also embraced his Polish roots, writing polonaises, mazurkas, and Polish songs. Chopin Competition winner Alexander Gadjiev's performance of his First Piano Concerto evokes Polish folk music, particularly in the dance-like Krakowiak finale.

Although Ludwig van Beethoven’s music was not overtly political, the premiere of his Seventh Symphony during the Wars of Liberation certainly was. 'A large orchestra <...> came together out of patriotic zeal and heartfelt gratitude for Germany's success in the current war, agreeing to perform without pay,' wrote the reviewer of the 1813 premiere in the Wiener Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung. However, the music of the Seventh Symphony remained universal. Notorious is Richard Wagner's remark that he saw in the Seventh "the resounding portrait of a new human being, depicted as a utopia and the apotheosis of dance itself".
(Frankfurter Museums-Gesellschaft e.V.)