Music by Mozart, Catoire and Stravinsky

Evgenia Startseva piano
Lawrence Power violin/viola
Michał Ćwiżewicz violin
Richard Birchall cello

Charity concert in aid of The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity

Works including:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat K 493
Richard Birchall Petite Suite (2024) PREMIERE
Georgy Catoire Piano Quartet A minor, Op. 31

Franz Schubert
Adagio & Rondo Concertante D. 487
Ernest Chausson
Piano Quartet in A major Op. 30

Evgenia Startseva piano
Michał Ćwiżewicz violin
Matthias Wiesner viola
Richard Birchall cello

Ludwig van Beethoven
Violin Sonatas

No. 1 in D, Op. 12, No. 1
No. 5 in F, Op. 24 "Spring"
No. 8 in G, Op. 30, No. 3
No. 10 in G, Op. 96

Evgenia Startseva piano
Michał Ćwiżewicz violin

Gustav Mahler Piano Quartet in A minor
Alfred Schnittke Piano Quartet (based on fragment by Mahler)
Georgy Catoire Piano Quartet A minor, Op. 31

Evgenia Startseva piano
Michał Ćwiżewicz violin
Matthias Wiesner viola
Richard Birchall cello

Gala Concert celebrating 80 years since the founding of Ognisko - Polish Hearth, London.

Featuring music by

Krzysztof Ćwiżewicz

Henryk Wieniawski

Grażyna Bacewicz

Watch the concert recording here...

Members of Ognisko Ensemble

Clara Falkowska - trumpet

Filip Ćwiżewicz, Michał Ćwiżewicz - violins

Members of the Harlem Quartet

Melissa White, Ilmar Gavilan - violins

Ognisko Ensemble

A selection of works by Fryderyk Chopin, Antonin Dvorak, Henryk Wieniawski, Krzysztof Cwizewicz, and Tatra Mountain folk melodies.

See full playlist on youtube

Violin - Michal Cwizewicz, Filip Cwizewicz
Piano - John Paul Ekins
Piano, Trumpet - Krzysztof Cwizewicz

At Ognisko-Online

CHOPIN Introduction and Polonaise brillante in C major, Op. 3
BRIDGE Phantasie Trio in C minor, H.79
  - interval -
TCHAIKOVSKY Trio in A minor, Op. 50

Ognisko Ensemble
Piano John Paul Ekins
Violin Michal Cwizewicz
Cello Ella Rundle

CHOPIN Introduction and Polonaise brillante in C major, Op. 3
BRIDGE Phantasie Trio in C minor, H.79
  - interval -
TCHAIKOVSKY Trio in A minor, Op. 50

Ognisko Ensemble
Piano John Paul Ekins
Violin Michal Cwizewicz
Cello Ella Rundle

Tickets Member Price £15, Non-member Price £20, Students £8, Tickets include wine reception.
Box Office 020 7589 4670 Office@OgniskoPolskie.org.uk
Online ticket booking here.

CHOPIN Introduction and Polonaise brillante in C major, Op. 3
BRIDGE Phantasie Trio in C minor, H.79
  - interval -
TCHAIKOVSKY Trio in A minor, Op. 50

Ognisko Ensemble
Piano John Paul Ekins
Violin Michal Cwizewicz
Cello Ella Rundle

Tickets Member Price £15, Non-member Price £20, Students £8, Tickets include wine reception.
Box Office 020 7589 4670 Office@OgniskoPolskie.org.uk
Online ticket booking here.

The launch of Ognisko Ensemble's first concert series, sees a collaboration with a veteran ensemble: New York's Grammy-winning Harlem Quartet. The evening will feature the third of Beethoven's Razumovsky Quartets, two standard jazz numbers specifically arranged for the Harlems who cross effortlessly between classical and jazz. The second half opens with the evocative and dazzling but rarely heard Quartet for Four Violins by the prolific Polish composer and virtuoso Grażyna Bacewicz followed by one of the most exuberant masterpieces of all chamber music - the Octet by Felix Mendelssohn.

• Beethoven: String Quartet No. 9, op. 59 no. 3
• Gillespie: A Night In Tunisia
• Strayhorn: Take the A Train
    interval
• Bacewicz: Quartet for 4 violins (1949)
• Mendelssohn: Octet in E-flat major, op. 20

New York-based HARLEM QUARTET, has been praised for its "panache" by The New York Times and hailed in the Cincinnati Enquirer for “bringing a new attitude to classical music, one that is fresh, bracing and intelligent.” Since its debut at Carnegie Hall in 2006, the quartet has thrilled audiences across the U.S.A., U.K., France, Belgium, Brazil, Panama, Canada, Venezuela, and South Africa.  The Harlem Quartet has collaborated with such distinguished artists as Itzhak Perlman; Carter Brey; Paquito D’Rivera; Misha Dichter; jazz legends Chick Corea and Gary Burton, Stanley Clarke, John Patitucci and the critically acclaimed Shanghai Quartet. 

The OGNISKO ENSEMBLE, gave its first concert in 2015 at Ognisko Polskie in London where it is about to embark the first year of its residency. Founded and directed by violinist Michał Ćwiżewicz, they bring together leading chamber musicians in diverse programmes featuring string and piano ensembles, song and instrumental recitals, as well as collaborating with other artists and groups in the UK and abroad. The Ognisko Ensemble will be performing concerts at the Polish Hearth throughout the year.

Musicologist and tenor, James Savage-Hanford will explore Szymanowski's life, legacy and music.  This talk will be accompanied by chamber works for voice, violin and piano, spanning all three distinct periods of the composer's oeuvre, performed by soprano Marie-Anne Hall, violinist Michał Ćwiżewicz and pianist John Paul Ekins.

Tickets: http://ogniskopolskie.org.uk/.../lecture-series-june/ 
(select "June Lecture Series")

Lecture: 
The ways Karol Szymanowski’s music has been received among scholars and, more generally, among audiences in both Poland and Britain prompts numerous questions regarding social, cultural, historical, and ideological influence. An exploration of the concerns underpinning Szymanowski’s reception at home and abroad effectively allows us insight into two cultural contexts: the music serves as a lens through which certain place-determined aesthetic judgements may be brought into focus.
The talk takes its cue from the fact that, historically, Polish and Anglo-American scholars have been excited by contrasting aspects of Szymanowski’s oeuvre. Anglo-American scholars have concentrated largely on the exotic works of Szymanowski’s middle phase, and more generally on the role of exoticism throughout his oeuvre. Polish writers have focused instead on the works belonging to the composer’s final phase (which exhibit the use of indigenous folk material from the Polish Tatras), claiming furthermore that they represent the peak of Szymanowski’s creative endeavours.
This combined lecture and recital explores the variety of Szymanowski’s oeuvre, together with what it has meant – and why – to different people, in different places, as well as considering the place Szymanowski occupies for contemporary audiences today.

Bacewicz - Suite for two violins (1943)
Birchall - Delirium (2015 - Cwiżewicz Brothers commission)
Mozart - Duo No. 2 in B-flat major for violin & viola, K. 424
Prokofiev - Sonata for Two Violins in C Major, Op. 56
Bartok - Duos for Two Violins, Sz. 98, BB 104
Ćwiżewicz - Tatra Melodies (2013)
Halvorsen - Passacaglia (after G.F. Handel)

Member Ticket Price: £ 10 including wine.
Non-member Ticket Price: £ 15 including wine.
Buying Tickets: Payment Information can be found here - View

A new production of Chekhov’s The Seagull, the great classic tale of unrequited love and romantic conflicts, will be staged at Ognisko's 120 seat Hemar Theatre. Directed by experienced director Gigi Robarts, the production features an international cast of highly experienced, classically trained professional actors in a new traditional version of this great play.

7.30 pm Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th February.
2.30 pm Sunday 5th February
Saturday is now SOLD OUT.

Gigi Robarts - Director

Cast and Crew.

Hannah Keeley - Masha
Matthew James-Harrison - Simon
Paul Easom - Sorin
Adam Cunis - Treplieff
Jeanette Clarke - Polina
Keith Hill - Dorn
Lynne O'Sullivan - Arkadina
Niall Bishop - Trigorin

Cwizewicz Brothers - Music.
Musical scenes selected and performed by Filip and Michał Ćwiżewicz.  

Maja Lewis - Producer and Artistic Director.
Andrzej Blonski - Costume / Flyer.

OGNISKO CHAMBER ENSEMBLE

Michał and Filip Ćwiżewicz (violins)
Matthias Wiesner (viola)
Richard Birchall (‘cello)
*JP Ekins (piano)
**Evgenia Startseva (piano)

Edward Elgar (1857 –1934)*
Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 82

Andrzej Panufnik (1914-1991)*
Piano Trio, Op. 1, 1934, rev. 1945/85

Krzysztof Cwizewicz
Dance and Prayer in the Polish Style, “String Quartet for Ognisko, 2015”
World première.

Juliusz Zarebski (1854-85)**
Piano Quinet in G minor - Op 34