The soloists of the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra together with the soprano Monika Mauch invite you to celebrate together. Reason? The European Day of Early Music, which will be held in the National Forum of Music with the works of Luigi Boccherini and Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński.

Italian-born Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) was a composer of extraordinary creative potential as well as a superb cello virtuoso. Unfortunately, the odds were against him gaining a timeless fame. Throughout his life, he struggled with financial problems and the dishonesty of the publishers of his works. Also, after his death, he was in bad luck– most of his manuscripts were lost during the Spanish Civil War. It was only in the 20th century that Boccherini's work returned to concert venues, rediscovered by performers and music lovers. Fortunately, the name of the composer ceased to be associated only with the Minuet from String Quintet no. 13. The oeuvre of Boccherini, known to us today, contains dozens of excellent works, among which chamber music plays an important role.  Stabat Mater for soprano and string quartet is one of them, a moving religious work whose creation related to the cantor function performed by Boccherini for some time. At that time, he was involved in the liturgical setting for the Spanish court of the Palacio de Mosquera, owned by the royal brother, Luis Antonio de Bourbon.

Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński (1807-1867) was born only two years after the death of Boccherini. Already as a young man, he showed his compositional talent, which did not escape the attention of Józef Elsner, with whom he studied as a student at the Warsaw Conservatoire (being Frederic Chopin’s school friend). Like Boccherini, Dobrzyński quickly found his feet as author of chamber music. Works for small instrumental ensemble have been the calling card of the composer to this day. We find among them, the excellent String Sextet in E flat major – a work that derives from the Beethovenian tradition, with plentiful references to Polish folklore, a quality characteristic of Dobrzyński.