Filharmonia Narodowa, Warszawa

Before you is Filharmonia Narodowa, Warsaw’s National Philharmonic and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra’s principal venue. This concert hall has lived several architectural lives. Karol Kozłowski’s original building went up at Jasna Street five during the years nineteen hundred and nineteen hundred one.

Its opening gala, on the fifth of November nineteen hundred one, brought Ignacy Jan Paderewski to the keyboard with Emil Młynarski conducting; Paderewski played his own piano concerto and music by Chopin. War then tore that beginning apart: fire engulfed the building during Warsaw’s defense in September nineteen thirty-nine, and bombing during the Warsaw Uprising brought further devastation. The rebuilt Philharmonic opened in February nineteen fifty-five, designed by Eugeniusz Szparkowski and Henryk Białobrzeski, with a plainer Socialist Realist character in place of the earlier lavish decoration.

Notice the weathered sandstone sculptures above the main entrance. They portray Fryderyk Chopin and Stanisław Moniuszko, survivors from the prewar façade, returned here after decades in museum storage. This is also the enduring stage of the International Chopin Piano Competition, held here from nineteen fifty-five, and of the annual Warsaw Autumn festival.