This year’s edition of the international La Folle Journée Festival begins in France and in subsequent months travels to Spain, Japan and finally – for the 3rd time - to Poland. Performances by the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra are a mainstay of La Folle Journée events around the world.

Now in its 18th edition, the French part of the festival is held between 27 January and 5 February. Sinfonia Varsovia will give five concerts in cities of the Pays de la Loire (including Cholet, Saumur and Laval) and 10 more in Nantes. The orchestra will be directed by two renowned conductors: Jerzy Semkow and Jean-Jacques Kantorow.

Soloists to be accompanied by Sinfonia Varsovia include violinists Laurent Korcia and Patricia Kopatchinskaja and pianists Boris Berezovsky, Kun-Woo Paik, David Kadouch and Abdel Rahman El Bacha. The concert programme includes Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E minor Op. 64, Symphony No. 6. in B minor Op. 74, and Violin Concerto in D major Op. 35; Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini Op. 43; and Glinka’s exuberant overture to the opera “Ruslan and Ludmila”.

The idea of La Folle Journée is to overcome prejudice to classical music by encouraging and facilitating involvement in concerts while presenting music at the highest possible artistic level. Short concerts that take place from morning to night in several halls simultaneously, low ticket prices and a unique atmosphere make La Folle Journée a meeting with music to which everyone, without exception, is invited. Even though the festival will come to Warsaw in autumn, the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra encourages everyone to reserve the last four days of September to abandon themselves to the madness of the festival.