The conclusion of the 78th artistic season at the Mieczysław Karłowicz Szczecin Philharmonic on June 12, 2026, was impressive!
It was our tenth concert of the season.
Introducing the program for this concert and briefly summarizing the entire event, Director Neumann provided several statistics: over 300 concerts of various types, over 100,000 spectators, and a capacity of over 80%.
There were no empty seats at today's concert.
And what's on the program?
Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 3 in D minor.
The Philharmonic featured over 100 musicians, one soloist – a mezzo-soprano, 50 choristers (the Maritime University of Technology Choir), and 30 boys (the Szczecin Boys' Choir "Nightingales").
The orchestra featured incredibly expansive brass and percussion sections, along with phenomenal solos by the posthorn (or flugelhorn), trombone, oboe, and trumpet, creating a concert that will be long remembered!
Posthorn (flugelhorn): The most iconic moment of the entire work. The solo instrument plays from a distance (offstage), creating a nostalgic, ballad-like atmosphere.
"A symphony is like the world, it encompasses everything" – a phrase uttered by Gustav Mahler during a conversation with Jean Sibelius in Helsinki in 1907. It applies to many of his compositions, but especially to his Symphony No. 3 in D minor. Even in the Austrian composer's extensive oeuvre, one would be hard-pressed to find a work so complex, so heterogeneous, and so polystylistic."
I believe that director Przemysław Neuman conducted the entire piece with excellent style, confirming that his second season in Szczecin brought him conducting success and raised the Philharmonic to the heights of its potential.
Pierwsza część III Symfonii Mahlera
An additional attraction of the final concert of the 2002/2026 season at the Mieczysław Karłowicz Szczecin Philharmonic on June 12th was the presentation of a Bechstein piano, which at the turn of the 20th century resounded in the Szczecin Konzerthaus, precisely where the Szczecin Philharmonic building now stands.
Szczecin - first years after the war:
Szczecin today:
In the exhibition hall on the fourth floor of the Philharmonic, during the "Piano Prelude" event, pianist Piotr Alexewicz presented this historic instrument from 1865.
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The above photos published in Gazeta Wyborcza.
Miraculously rediscovered, it has finally returned home today:
"The "Powrót fortepianu" (Return of the Piano) in English refers to the historical return of an 1865 Carl Bechstein grand piano to Szczecin. Built in Berlin, the piano arrived in Szczecin in 1866 and was housed in the former Konzerthaus on Małopolska Street.
Lost for nearly a century, the instrument was tracked down and meticulously restored by Kowalczyk Piano in Kalisza. It returned to the exact same location, which is now the site of the Szczecin Philharmonic."
