Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio
There is no doubt about it: the Polish Radio Chamber Orchestra is one of the crack ensembles of our time.
“The Gazette”, Montreal
The Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio was founded in Poznań in 1968 by Agnieszka Duczmal. It was initially supported by Jeunesses Musicales and later by the Poznań Music Society. The Silver Herbert von Karajan Medal, awarded to the Orchestra at the International Meeting of Young Orchestras in West Berlin in 1976, led a year later to its transformation into a full-time ensemble of Polish Radio and Television, and subsequently into the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio under the direction of Agnieszka Duczmal. In 2014 the Orchestra was granted the status of a Cultural Institution co-run by the Marshal’s Office of the Wielkopolska Region in Poznań and Polskie Radio S.A. in Warsaw; in 2018 the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage joined as a further co-organiser.
By decision of the Management Board of the Wielkopolska Region, on 1 September 2024 Anna Duczmal-Mróz took up the position of Director of the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio.
In April 2023 the album Music for Chamber Orchestra vol. III, featuring works by Grażyna Bacewicz performed by the Orchestra under the baton of Maestra Agnieszka Duczmal, was named the best orchestral recording in the world by the BBC Music Magazine Awards.
The Orchestra records regularly for Polish Radio: to date, hundreds of its concerts have been broadcast and more than ten thousand minutes of music recorded, covering repertoire from the Baroque to the present day. The ensemble has collaborated with foreign broadcasters, including the German NDR, WDR and SFB, the BBC in London, the CBC in Montreal and Mexican Radio, for which it has recorded mainly Polish music. It has also recorded over one hundred concerts and programmes for Polish Television and five hours of music for Télévision Française 1, as well as an hour-long programme of Polish music for the Japanese broadcaster NHK.
Amadeus’s artistic achievements include many first performances, among them the world premiere recording of Józef Koffler’s arrangement of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations for chamber orchestra.
The Orchestra’s discography comprises over 60 releases. It is the first orchestra in the world to have recorded a five-CD series of all Mieczysław Weinberg’s chamber symphonies, conducted by Anna Duczmal-Mróz and released by the German label CPO and by DUX, acclaimed by many critics in Poland, Germany, France and Spain. The albums received three Fryderyk Award nominations, an ICMA 2020 nomination and the “Exceptional” award of the Spanish magazine “Scherzo”.
Since 2009 Anna Duczmal-Mróz has also been a conductor of the Orchestra; this female conducting duo makes the ensemble unique on a global scale.
The ensemble gives concerts in most European countries as well as in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Kuwait, Taiwan and Japan, frequently collaborating with world-class soloists such as Maurice André, Martha Argerich, Avi Avital, Patrick Gallois, Charles Richard-Hamelin, Steven Isserlis, Gary Karr, Kevin Kenner, Konstanty Andrzej Kulka, Mischa Maisky, Wynton Marsalis, Jeremy Menuhin, Igor Oistrakh, Piotr Paleczny, Michala Petri, Ivo Pogorelić, Alexandre Rabinovitch, Vadim Repin, Grigory Sokolov, Guy Touvron, Henryk Szeryng, Maxim Vengerov, Ingolf Wunder, Gheorghe Zamfir, and with leading Polish soloists.
The most renowned concert halls in which the Orchestra has performed include the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the philharmonic halls in Berlin, Cologne, Munich and St Petersburg, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Musikvereinssaal in Vienna, Pollack Hall in Montreal, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall. The Orchestra regularly appears at numerous European music festivals.
Ensemble which must now rank among the finest of its kind in the world, possessed of a distinctive sound, an enviable legato and an exceptional leader in Duczmal.
“The Independent”, London
