Stars with Sinfonietta: Patrick Gallois

Musicians from the Sinfonietta Cracovia orchestra are surely also astronomers, placing new stars of classical music on the firmament of Kraków’s cultural life. Guests of the cycle Stars with Sinfonietta have so far included Gábor Boldoczki, Rafael Payare, John Axelrod, Gidon Kremer, Piotr Anderszewski and Katia and Marielle Labeque. This time the orchestra is joined by Patrick Gallois, pupil of the legendary flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal. On 23 February, the Gallery of 19th-century Polish Art. at Sukiennice welcomes the French artist in a double role of soloist and conductor. He performs Bach’s Baroque Orchestral Suite No. 2 and Debussy’s Impressionist Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, adapter by Gallois himself for flute, harp and string orchestra. He also steps up to the pulpit to conduct Symphony No. 1 in E flat major composed by Mozart when he was just eight years old, and Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 1 in D major. The concert closes with a Polish accent: Krzysztof Penderecki’s Chaconne in memoria del Giovanni Paolo II. Patrick Gallois is best known for his unconventional approach to music. He declares, “I don’t like to think in categories – ‘Baroque’, ‘Classical’, ‘Romantic’ – I like to think only of music in its widest reference. I like to touch on every kind of music”. We can expect to be elevated… right up to the stars!