Andrzej Kosendiak has earned an enviable reputation as one of the most active and committed organizers of musical life in Poland. He graduated from the Department of Composition, Conducting and Music Theory of Wrocław Music Academy. In 2013 he obtained the academic degree of doctor habilitatus. For many years he taught at his Alma Mater, where from 2001 to 2009 he was head of the Cross-Department Early Music Studies program. Since 2014 he has been Professor at the S. Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk. In 2005 he became Director of the Wrocław Philharmonic and the International Festival Wratislavia Cantans.

Early music is of particular interest to Mr Kosendiak and in 1985 he founded the Collegio di Musica Sacra and has continued to direct the ensemble to date. The group has performed throughout Europe and in the United States, where they collaborated with Chapel Hill University in North Carolina. They have also appeared at the most prestigious festivals and concert venues in Poland. His catalogue of recordings includes previously obscure works taken from the Wrocław University Library – Musica da chiesa (DUX), and from the Strasbourg Library - F. X Richter: 'Missa Pastorale', Dixit, Magnificat (CYPRES) as well as A. M. Bononcini’s Stabat Mater (DUX). In 2012 and 2014 he released two discs with works by G. G. Gorczycki (CD Accord) which he directed. The first disc was awarded the Wrocław Music Prize and was nominated for Fryderyk Award. As a conductor he performs regularly with the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic and NFM Choir, as well as the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra and other philharmonic ensembles across Poland. In recent years he has conducted Haydn’s The Creation, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Mass in C minor and Requiem, Bach’s Mass in B flat minor and both Passions, which have become an annual performance tradition in Wrocław during the Holy Week, as well as Fauré’s Requiem, and Britten’s Saint Nicolas.

Johann Georg Albrechtsberger began his musical career as a choir-boy in Klosterneuburg, where he studied organ and composition. To complete his studies he went to the Benedictine Abbey at Melk. He then studied philosophy at a Benedictine seminary in Vienna, becoming one of the most learned and skillful contrapuntists of his era. His philosophical knowledge of music gave him a high rank among theorists. Albrechtsberger first became organist at the Melk cathedral and later took charge of the choir and served as organist at Raab in Hungary and at Mariatfel. He returned to Melk in 1759. In  1765 he was named choir director of the church of the Carmelites. He then ascended to the position of second court organist, in Vienna, in 1772 and in 1792, was promoted to First organist. He became Assistant Kapellmeister at St. Stephen's Cathedral in 1791 and progressed to Kapellmeister in 1793. Among the many students who sought him out were Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Joseph Eybler, Ignaz Moscheles, Josef Weigl, and famously Ludwig von Beethoven. Beethoven had come to Vienna in 1792 to study with Haydn but quickly became infuriated. Haydn then recommended his friend Albrechtsberger with whom Beethoven studied harmony and counterpoint in 1794 and 1795. On the completion of his studies, he noted, "Patience, diligence, persistence, and sincerity will lead to success," reflecting Albrechtsberger's own compositional philosophies. The Swedish Academy of Music at Stockholm made Albrechtsberger an honorary member in 1798. The composer died in Vienna on March 7, 1809. His grave is in St. Marx cemetery, in Vienna.

Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf studied violin with J. Ziegler, and was appointed as a violinist in the orchestra of the Benedictine church on the Freyung in 1750. Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen took notice of Ditters and in 1751 hired him for his court orchestra. In 1761, he moved to the Imperial Theatre orchestra and in 1762 became its conductor. Ditters assumed the post of Kapellmeister at the court of Ádám Patachich in 1764. The following year he was introduced to the Prince-Bishop of Breslau, who was creating a cultural centre around his court based at Château Jánský vrch, in the modern Czech Republic. Ditters accepted the post of Hofkomponist (court composer) there in 1771. During his tenure at Johannesberg he produced most of his creative output. Over the next twenty years, he wrote symphonies, string quartets and other chamber music, as well as opere buffe. In 1773 the prince-bishop appointed him Amtshauptmann of nearby Jeseník in an attempt to entice the composer to remain at isolated Johannesberg. Because this new post required a noble title, Ditters was sent to Vienna and given the noble title of von Dittersdorf. Around the year 1785, Haydn, Dittersdorf, Mozart and Wanhal played string quartets together, Dittersdorf reading first violin, Haydn second violin, Mozart viola and Wanhal cello. During his final decade, he was occupied with overseeing operatic productions and editing his own music for publication. He died at Nový Dvůr (New Court) at Château Červená Lhota and was buried in the town of Deštná.  

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s concertos are among his most progressive works and they played a significant role in the artistic reputation of the composer. Of the six sons of Johann Sebastian Bach, four became successful musicians, Wilhelm Friedemann (1710–84), Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714–88), Johann Christoph Friedrich (1732–95), and Johann Christian (1735–82). C.P.E Bach was initially employed by the Prussian court of Frederick the Great in Berlin but later worked in Hamburg, where had he replaced Telemann as Cantor and Music Director for the city in 1768. Ha was one the most significant composers of the 18th century, even more so than his father was during his lifetime. The concertos span Bach’s career, which began in 1733 with the Concerto in A Minor and ended the year of his death, 1788, with the Concerto in E-flat Major for Harpsichord and Fortepiano. Carl Philipp Emanuel is a pivotal exemplar of the sentimental style, which combined the Baroque era with Viennese Classical style. The composers early work was greatly influenced by the Berlin School, but he later developed into an individual quality far from contemporary movements.

Alixandra Porembski, English Language Annotator