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Folk musicians in traditional village
costumes of the Krakow region are the endangered species among the numerous street
artists in the Old Town historic districts.
Krakow, the city of music
Krakow’s
Old Town
historic area resounds with music of every
kind as street musicians vie for your attention and spare change at every corner. More
demanding audience may choose between frequent concerts and recitals of classical music
and diverse musical offerings of numerous clubs. There is also no shortage of
shops
selling CDs and audiocassettes in downtown Krakow where the latest releases of the
world’s top acts are available as soon as they are launched in Paris or Berlin.
Radio stations mostly fill the local airwaves with recent international hits and their domestic
counterparts, though a few specialize in jazz or classical tunes. The Old Town’s huge
central
Grand Square
often serves as an open-air concert venue
when some ensemble (usually a pop band) takes up the makeshift stage by the
Town Hall Tower.
Krakow's
musical trends
Single personality towers above the local musical scene – Mr. Krzysztof Penderecki who
ranks among the world’s greatest living composers of modern classical music (while his
wife Elzbieta is arguably Poland’s most influential impresario nowadays). Nonetheless
the latest works are rarely performed in Krakow, and even renderings of the 20th-century
classics happen rather seldom as the well-known 19th-century and earlier music is the king
in the city’s concert halls.
In
the early-21st century Poland’s mass audience seems firmly tuned in to
pop acts that take
inspiration from the musical traditions of various peoples in the Central-East
Europe. Yet
it has little bearing on the city’s vibrant club scene divided between
varied DJ sets, alternative pop and indie rock, hip-hop, blues, reggae, traditional rock and still more traditional jazz that occurs most popular with
club operators.
Centrally situated
Auditorium Maximum of the Krakow university, 35 Krupnicza street, often
doubles as a music hall for 1,200.
Most
popular venues
for music in Krakow
Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra plays regularly in its Filharmonia concert hall at 1 Zwierzyniecka
street where also most foreign orchestras, ensembles and soloists perform on their visits
to the city as well as the city's other musicians. The hall
also resounds occasionally with pop music.
For
decades, the Krakow Opera Company had to make use of the immense stage and plush
auditorium of the Teatr
Slowackiego theater at Sw. Ducha Pl.
which often provides shelter to varied musical events. Since December
2008 the brand-new, purpose-built opera house at Lubicz street has
become the city's main venue for operatic productions as well as operetta
shows and ballet performances.
The Krakow Chamber
Opera has its playhouse at 15 Miodowa street in the Kazimierz
district.
Krakow’s
classical-music
orchestras, ensembles, choirs, etc. usually give concerts in smaller halls
such as Florianka at 8 Basztowa street. Also, they often
lease the city’s Gothic churches, famed for their splendid acoustics, for a night or
two. Throughout summer there are frequent open-air concerts – in
gardens, the Old Town's beautiful courtyards, on squares,
etc.
Krakow’s clubs
are plentiful but usually not large – few can
seat more than 100 and those with a seating capacity of 200-300 are
considered really big. Recorded music is the staple, with live performances two or three nights a week.
Some Krakow DJs
gain local fame, while club celebrities from other Polish cities and
from abroad spin here occasionally too. Krakow's DJ-produced 'club
music' is restricted practically to Friday and Saturday nights and it
largely boils down to house though some places do try diversify into
breaks, jungle, drum'n'bass, nu jazz, progressive, and
whatever.
Musical Yearly Events
in Krakow
February:
Shanties International Festival of Sailors’ Songs
March: Johann Sebastian Bach’s Festival, Pipe-Organ
Music Festival
Holy Week:
Misteria
Paschalia festival of classical music.
April: International Flute Competition.
May: Percussion Festival, Festival of Krakow Composers, Orthodox-Church
Music Meetings, Ballet Spring.
June: International Festival of Military Bands, Jewish
Culture Festival.
July: Summer
Jazz Festival, Tyniec Organ Recitals,
Summer Organ Concerts, Summer
Festival of Opera and Operetta, Crossroads Festival of Traditional
Music.
August: ‘Music
in Old Krakow’ International Festival,
Summer Academy of Music, Tyniec Organ
Recitals, Summer Organ Concerts, Coke
Live Music Festival,
'Cracovia Danza' Festival of Court Dance.
September: Sacrum-Profanum
Festival, International Competition of
Modern Chamber Music, Young Artists in Krakow Festival.
October: 'Music
from Isles' Folk Festival, Student Song
Festival.
November: ‘Zaduszki’ Jazz
Festival, Festival
of Polish Music, Audio Art Festival,
Krakow Ballet Meetings.
December: ‘Jazz Juniors’ International
Competition of Young Jazz Bands,
Krakow BalletOFF Meetings.
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