Wroclaw Song from... Katowice
"Wroclaw Song", although commissioned by Józef Majchrzak, the then Head of the Music Section at the Polish Radio Wroclaw, was created in Katowice. This is where its most celebrated rendition by Maria Koterbska was also recorded. The singer was accompanied by the Silesia Radio Dance Orchestra directed by Jerzy Harald, the ever green's composer. "Wroclaw Song Returns" features the daughter of Harald and Eugenia Wnukowska, Krystyna Liersz-Żelasko. She lets us in on how her mother, who hardly knew the city, was able to covey its unique atmosphere from the time. Before the wrote the lyrics, she had spoken for two hours with Józef Majchrzak. "He gave her ideas which she later developed into the lyrics about trams in Wroclaw."
Balm to his heart in outer space
The film also features the author of the lyrics herself. "People were craving for something light," this is how Eugenia Wnukowska explained the reason for creating "Wroclaw Song". A real smash hit, the song took to the charts, featured on records, was hummed along by subsequent generations and was even on air in space. Mirosław Hermaszewski, Poland's only space explorer, reveals in the documentary that he has always wanted to see Wroclaw from outer space. His attempts proved unsuccessful, but the consolation prize was that he could enjoy the sounds of "Wroclaw Song" which was played by his colleagues from air traffic control. "When I heard Maria Koterbska, it was like balm to my heart, something really moving.
"Wroclaw Song" returns in a new rendition
Michał Majeran, composer and the Wroclaw Song Returns director, shares his views as he elaborates on the staying power of the song about blue trams, the silvery Oder and beautiful residential areas. It is Me Myself and I who have offered a new interpretation of the song and took a cue from Mayor Rafał Dutkiewicz to create a rendition of their own. Not a waltz any more, the song sounds energetic all the same.
