CONCERTO FOR TWO BAYANS AND ORCHESTRA dedicated to the memory of all of those who helped to remove the Iron Curtain and the communistic regimes in the central part of Europe in 1989
INSTRUMENTATION 2 bayans (or accordions), percussion (timp, vib), piano and string orchestra Duration c. 17'00''
THE CONCERTO FOR TWO BAYANS AND ORCHESTRA (DOUBLE BAYAN CONCERTO) was commissioned by the Croatian AccoDuo (Miran Vaupotić & Ivana Levak Vaupotić).
The work is dedicated to all of those who helped to remove the Iron Curtain and the communist regimes in central and east European countries in 1989.
Both Miran Vaupotić and Ivana Levak Vaupotić, who commissioned Peter Machajdík to compose the concerto, come from one of the regions of former Yugoslavia. Many people from the former Eastern bloc countries left their homes even via Yugoslavia.
Bydgoszcz was not by chance the place of the world premiere of Machajdík's composition for two bayans and orchestra. In March of 1981, the town was the site of a confrontation between members of the opposition organizations Solidarnoszcz and Rural Solidarity (which were made up of an estimated one-third of the Polish population) and the Polish militia. The militia, sent in to remove the organizations from a prolonged negotiation with the Provisional Council, violently assaulted the organizations’ members. In the confrontation, some were seriously injured, inflaming an already unhappy Polish populace. After the incident in Bydgoszcz the opposition organizations had been outlawed and Poland had been declared in a state of martial law.
Henryk Mikołaj Górecki composed his work „Miserere“ in 1981 as a protest against the government intervention in the workings of Solidarnoszcz - specifically, in response to the government-sanctioned assault of activists in Bydgoszcz. After martial law was enacted in December of that year, performance of the piece became impossible, and the piece was not performed until 1987. The entire text of Górecki's Miserere is a simple but imploring plea: Domine Deus noster, miserere nobis (Our Lord God, have mercy on us). The work was finally premiered (with the composer conducting) in Włoclawek on September 10, 1987, and a performance in Bydgoszcz followed the world premiere by one day.