A score believed lost for nearly a century will sound again – and in Kraków.
On April 19, 2026 at 6:00 PM, the Galicia Jewish Museum will host Laks Rediscovered, featuring the Polish premiere of the rediscovered String Quartet No. 2 (1932) by Szymon Laks. The work was performed in the 1930s, then disappeared and remained absent from musical life for nearly a century. Its rediscovery now allows an important and long-unheard part of the composer’s output to return to the repertoire.
Szymon Laks (1901–1983), a Polish composer and writer of Jewish origin, is one of the most remarkable figures of 20th-century music. After the war, he settled in Paris, where he continued his artistic activity. His music – combining classical form with refined expressivity – remained on the margins of the repertoire for many years, and is only now returning to concert stages.
The quartet will be performed by Messages Quartet, an ensemble widely recognized as one of the leading ambassadors of Polish music. The group’s discography includes recordings of Laks’s quartets, highly acclaimed by critics and audiences alike.
The event will be accompanied by a discussion panel featuring Anna Rusin, a doctoral student at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków, while carrying out a creative scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, reached the manuscripts of Szymon Laks, including the String Quartet No. 2 – a work previously considered lost, members of Messages Quartet, and Frank Harders-Wuthenow of Boosey & Hawkes, the publisher of the composer’s works.
Laks Rediscovered is an encounter with music that returns to the stage after nearly a century of silence.
Partners: Galicia Jewish Museum, MW Design Studio, Sztuki Robi.
Patrons: Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków, Yidisher Kunst-Institut, Boosey & Hawkes
Media Patrons: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC