The Cracow Duo

Known as the Cracow Duo, cellist Jan Kalinowski and pianist Marek Szlezer share a special commitment to and fascination with music written by rarely performed Polish composers. They tirelessly perform these works across the globe. The Cracow Duo returns to HMLA to present a program dedicated to great works for piano and cello by Polish Jewish composers, many of whom escaped the horrors of the Holocaust and found their way to California.

The program includes:

Maurycy Moszkowski (1854-1925)

Berceuse Op. 29 no. 3

Aleksander Tansman (1897-1986) 

Two Pieces for Cello and Piano

          Melodie

          Capriccio

Cello Sonata No. 2 (1930)

          Allegro moderato

          Largo

         Scherzo. Allegro grazioso

Fantaisiefor Cello and Piano (1936)

Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996) 

Sonata for cello and piano No. 2, Op. 63 (1959)

        Moderato

        Andante

        Allegro

Magazine “The Strad” wrote about the Cracow Duo: “Kalinowski and Szlezer, friends since childhood, have a wonderfully natural rapport and there is anarresting quality to their playing that gives lifeto the music”. They studied together in Cracow and Paris, and began to perform together as Cracow Duo twenty years ago. Since that time, their concerts and recordings received the highest critical acclaim in Poland and abroad with reviews in media outlets such as the Polish National Radio, Slovenski Rozhlas, Radio Suddeutsche Rundfunk and important magazines and websites such as Classique Info, Classical Music Review, Res Musica, American Record Guide, Ruch Muzyczny, Twoja Muza, The Strad and Gramophone.

The concert is realized by the National Institute of Music, co-funded by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as part of the ‘Inspire Culture’ program. Presented in partnership with the USC Polish Music Center in Los Angeles and Polish Cultural Institute New York.

RSVP HERE