The concept behind this year’s Better together concert series by the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra is a unique kind of collaboration – one that brings together orchestral works featuring several soloists, concerts one could call ‘manifold’. In such compositions, the focus on stage shifts and expectations are rearranged. During the December event, the soloists will be musicians from the orchestra itself: violinists Karolina Podorska, Magdalena Ziarkowska-Kołacka, Agata Kasperska and Christian Danowicz, as well as violist Michał Micker.
The programme will take us through the major musical centres of the Baroque era. Although Antonio Vivaldi is considered the Venetian master of the solo concerto, he also explored other forms of the genre. From his collection L’estro armonico, Op. 3, we will hear the Concerto in D minor, No. 11, and the Concerto in B minor, Op. 10. The first features two violins and a cello as soloists, while the second expands the solo group to four violins. The programme would not be complete without the most famous concerto from Op. 6 by Arcangelo Corelli, commonly known as the ‘Christmas Concerto’. This quintessential Roman concerto grosso is written for two violins, cello and a ripieno group – the orchestral ensemble.
Georg Philipp Telemann’s Viola Concerto will appear as a unique highlight, valued not only for its musical beauty but also as the oldest known viola concerto. Representing the German tradition, Johann Sebastian Bach will bring the programme to a close. From his masterful Brandenburg Concertos, the Wrocław-based artists have selected No. 3 and No. 6, both closely aligned with the concerto grosso form. This music resembles a richly woven orchestral fabric, with instruments exchanging solo thematic lines. Notably, in the sixth concerto, Bach made a bold and surprising choice: he omitted violins entirely, giving the spotlight to violas and violas da gamba.