The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare's last masterpiece to await a major composer, was left within a few bars of completion at Tchaikovsky's death. It has never been seen or heard before. Pountney's production will take a huge leap into several dimensions of the unknown-Tchaikowsky's gift for opera, the voice of a Jewish composer in the most anti-Semitic play in the canon, its performance on Austrian soil — above all, the interaction of Christian and Jew in a Polish creation, a concept so confusing it hardly exists in any form of Polish music.

What will be decided then, before the year is out, is the very nature of Polish music and, perhaps, of Poland itself in the 21st century. Is it a map of twin streams, nationalist and internationalist? If it is, it can safely be ignored. If not, we'll have to redraw the map to imagine a very different Poland, more failed aspiration than fractious state, a Poland worth living in and dying for. That's why this year could mark the coming of age of a hugely musical nation.