Joy & Devotion 2022 - introduction
Introduction to the programme of the Polish sacred music festival in London Joy & Devotion.
Gaudium et spes. Joy and hope. Joy and Devotion. Joy and dedication. Polish sacred music has always fulfilled this message through sounds that provided tools for communicating with contemporary audiences seeking truth, goodness, and beauty.
Different composers have different goals – for some, writing sacred music is a way of life, a chance to be a better person or touching the mystery of creation. And although times are constantly changing, the eternal human desire remains the same: we want to achieve happiness and peace, and live long and beautiful lives.
Sacred music is here to help us realize this desire. The sound flows from the word, and the word is extended through the sound – it is conveyed and articulated more clearly, and thus it can reach the listener better, it can help them in prayer.
photo: Franciszek Mazur / Agencja Gazeta
In 2022, our focus is on new Polish sacred music. I highly recommend the mass cycles included in each of the three concerts by Marek Raczyński, Jan Krutul, and Paweł Łukaszewski, who created Missa Sancti Papae Ioannis Pauli Secundi Magni for the centenary of the birth of John Paul II. We will hear works by Wojciech Kilar (1932-2013), Marian Borkowski, Marcin Łukaszewski and Miłosz Bembinow performed by Stephen Layton’s Polyphony choir. In addition to the music of Renaissance and Baroque masters (Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki, Mikołaj Zieleński), I also recommend hearing the work of contemporary composers, Marian Sawa and Stanisław Moryto (1947-2018), performed by the Rodolfus Choir conducted by Ralph Allwood.
The Gesualdo Six and Owain Park will present another kind of Polish sacred music. Among others, they will perform the premiere of several Church Songs by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (1933-2010) and Marek Raczyński’s new Mass commissioned by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
For the second time, Rupert Jeffcoat will perform at the festival. He will introduce our audiences to the music of Marian Sawa (1937-2005) – an outstanding organist and improviser, whose compositions were warmly received by the audience in 2021.
Other organ music composers making their debut at the festival include Dariusz Przybylski and Michał Schaeffer, and the new generation of Polish composers will also be represented by Michał Ziółkowski.
We want to actively support female Polish composers. The programme includes work by Aleksandra Chmielewska and Roxanna Panufnik.
photo: Bartek Barczyk
All these composers feature in the repertoires of many choral ensembles, they win awards at composition competitions, and their work is recorded and published; we will certainly hear more from them in the future.
Faith and reason. Fides et ratio. Between intellect and emotions. Slowing down, reflection, and contemplation. Listening in silence. In the beginning was the Word… In the beginning, there was Sound.
The programme of this year's festival reflects reawakening and freshness, opulence and austerity, exposing all the strengths and meanings of sacred music stemming from Poland’s Christian foundations.
Paweł Łukaszewski
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