Overture in Old Style for orchestra (1950)

Overture in the Old Style /fragment/

Performers: Krakowska Orkiestra Polskiego Radia, Antoni Wicherek – conductor, Kraków 1964, Polish Radio

The piece is an exercise – an attempt to tackle the early classical style in music. Taking into account the day of its premiere (1950), it may even be regarded as a joke. The Overture is very similar to the earlier “schoolish” Concerto grosso – in terms of its instrumentation, way of borrowing musical ideas and treatment of musical elements. The composition’s structure is that of a classic two-part overture with an introduction (I. Adagio) and the main part in the form of a sonata allegro (II. Allegro vicace). Like in the Concerto grosso, in the Overture, too, we deal not with stylisation but with copying of the classical style.