Palace in Iłowa

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Artists

/Katarzyna Drogosz - pianoforte

Arte dei Suonatori kameralnie:

/Ewa Golińska - violin, viola
/Aureliusz Goliński - violin
/Agnieszka Oszańca - cello

About the Program

The concert program illustrates how the musical style of Baroque composers – Johann Sebastian Bach and his son Johann Christian Bach – permeated the musical language of the Classical era and influenced the shaping of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's work.

In 1764, an eight-year-old Mozart arrived in London for a year-long stay. All signs suggest he formed a friendship there with Johann Christian Bach – then a thirty-year-old, successful, and admired composer who had emigrated from his native Leipzig. Historical accounts even mention their joint improvisations. Also active in London was Johann Samuel Schröter, born in what is now the border town of Gubin. It's possible that young Wolfgang Amadeus observed the idea of instrumenting a keyboard concerto with the accompaniment of two violins and a bass from Schröter and J.C. Bach. He utilized this idea as a teenager, composing three piano concertos that were, in essence, arrangements of J.C. Bach's Op. 5 piano sonatas. This was likely a type of compositional exercise for a solo concerto, written under the watchful eye of his father, Leopold, in Salzburg, between their travels to Italy. We can surmise that during these years, Wolfgang Amadeus had Schröter's concertos in his repertoire, as fragments of cadenzas to several works by this almost entirely forgotten composer have survived to our time.

The Adagio and Fugue, arranged for string trio, were composed in Vienna in 1782. This was a period when Mozart was intensively studying the works of Bach and Handel, primarily due to the influence and musical collection of Baron Gottfried van Swieten. The entire KV 404a cycle consists of six fugues, for which Mozart composed introductory Adagios.

The Early Music Festival – Persona Grata is co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund under the "Music" program implemented by the National Institute of Music and Dance.