{oh!} Orkiestra / Pastuszka / Baroque and the Polish Question - NOSPR

There will be no shortage of ohs! and ahs! during an evening of Baroque arias and duets performed by {oh!} Orkiestra with outstanding soloists Dorota Szczepańska and Rafał Tomkiewicz. The repertoire prepared for the NOSPR concert is thick with political intrigues and courtly romances, which is business as usual for the Baroque stage. Yet, It is a rare occasion when, alongside narratives of ancient, mythological and biblical heroes, we are invited to observe what transpired at the royal courts of Kraków and Warsaw in Poland. Gismondo, re di Polonia is an opera by Leonardo Vinci, which, after centuries of oblivion, has been revived by Martyna Pastuszka, artistic director of the {oh!} Orkiestra. We also owe her a debt of gratitude for reviving Antonio Caldara’s opera IlVenceslao, whose title character is based on Władysław IV Vasa.

The Polish thread also emerges in the second strand of the programme, devoted to instrumental concertos. The evening opens with Georg Philipp Telemann’s Concerto in G major, ‘Polish’. Unlike Caldara and Vinci, Telemann did not know Poland merely through the imagination of his librettists. As Kapellmeister (i.e. master of the chapel choir) at the court of Count Erdmann II Promnitz in Sorau (now Żary, Poland), he accompanied his patron on journeys to his other estates, including the castle in Pszczyna. His fascination with Polish folklore is evident in many of his works.

Will the Old Polish inspirations render the music of Telemann, Vinci and Caldara more ‘familiar’ than the works of George Frideric Handel or Tomaso Albinoni? Will we relate more to the biblical Judith from Vivaldi’s oratorio or Judith, daughter of King Sigismund? In the world of music, anything is possible!

Szymon Maliszewski

Concert duration (intermission included): approximately 90 minutes