Director the National Forum of Music, conductor and animator of cultural life in Lower Silesia, Andrzej Kosendiak invites you, together with Wrocław Baroque Ensemble, to a concert of early music. The concert features excellent singers specialising in Baroque music. The programme includes all the preserved works of the well-known Polish composer, Stanisław Sylwester Szarzyński.

Only ten compositions of Szarzyński have survived, perhaps because he did not publish his works during his lifetime, so only some manuscripts have been preserved. Scant though they are, they make us enjoy the beauty of his music. During the concert, we will listen to Sonata for two violins and basso continuo, the only purely instrumental piece by Szarzyński that we know of. Characteristic of the sonata form is the use of contrasting tempos in individual movements, as well as alternating solo fragments with dialogues of violin duos. Szarzyński’s Sonata is considered one of the most outstanding compositions of the Polish Baroque.

The musicians of Wrocław Baroque Ensemble together with the soloists will also present the Ad Hymnos ad cantus motet for two sopranos, alto, tenor, bass and instrumental ensemble. Completorium and Litania cursoria were also written for extended performing forces. This programme also features the ecclesiastical concertos by Szarzyński: Pariendo non gravaris, Veni Sancte Spiritus and Iesu spes mea. The latter (Jesus, my hope) is considered the most beautiful concerto of Szarzyński. In it, the composer used the melody of the church song Przez czyśćcowe upalenia (Through the Burns of Purgatory). In all the concertos, we can find virtuoso elements in both vocal and instrumental parts. The compositions were written for voice, two or three violins and basso continuo.