Although Józef Zeidler is nowadays considered one of the greatest Polish composers of the Classical period, his work was unjustly forgotten for a long time after his death. Today, his compositions are deemed gems of Polish sacred music. One of them – Missa ex D – will be performed by Wrocław Baroque Ensemble under the baton of Andrzej Kosendiak. The repertoire will be completed by the Vesperae in Visitatione Beatae Mariae Virginis by Marcin Józef Żebrowski, a leading Polish composer of the pre-Classical era.

We have only a fragmentary knowledge of Józef Zeidler’s biography. He was born ca. 1744 in Święciechów near Leszno, although there is no evidence indicating the accuracy of that date. Some information about his life has been preserved in the monastery of the Congregation of the Oratory on Święta Góra near Gostyń – one of the largest music centres in Poland at the time, where Zeidler served as a composer and copyist, and was also a member of the monastery ensemble. His Missa ex D is dated 1769, which makes it the earliest known piece by this artist. Everything indicates that Zeidler wrote it when he was only twenty-five years old. Despite it being an early piece, the mass is characterised by a highly elaborate form and a refined line-up. It was written for four soloists, a four-part choir, an orchestra with trumpets, violins and organ. The sound material of the work clearly indicates the authorship of an artist who was at the beginning of his creative path – the mass is filled with a whole range of virtuoso means typical of a young composer.

Marcin Józef Żebrowski ranks among the outstanding representatives of Polish musical culture in the 18th century. His reputation was confirmed by his works being published outside the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. During the concert, the musicians will perform Żebrowski’s Vesperae in Visitatione Beatae Mariae Virginis  that is Marian Vespers. They are a setting of psalms appropriate for performance during the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary celebrated in the Catholic church on May 31. Individual movements have been added to the psalms, such as: antiphons, the hymn Ave maris stella or the canticle Magnificat, set in accordance with the sacred liturgy of the hours. Their rich musical language is the quintessence of Żebrowski’s  compositional craft: full of virtuosic, ornamental and meticulously led lines of vocal and instrumental parts, as well as references to elaborate, Baroque polyphony.