Maybe we will just try to touch upon this special taste, gusto, this special aura that we sense in the work of so many French composers – just mention Olivier Messiaen, Claud Debussy or Maurice Ravel – and which has probably never been so tangible, as at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. French Baroque has become a certain universe. On the one hand, it was clearly foreign, at least to Italians who felt music in a completely different way (the genius Corelli himself admitted that he could not play French music), and on the other, admired and imitated – on a par with the splendour of Le Roi Soleil, emulated by less important monarchs. And although it was this ruler who left the strongest mark on the development of the musical culture of his country during his more than seventy-year reign, his predecessor, Louis XIII, and his successors up to Marie Antoinette did not spare on the musical settings of official celebrations. In this musical golden cage, truly absolutist relations prevailed, similar to court customs – composers, despite mutual recognition, fought in a fratricidal way for their existence or non-existence, for royal privileges. Finally, the pan-European Classical style emerging in the second half of the 18th century closed the golden age of French music: Italian violins defeated viola da gamba, concertos won over suites, and symphonies – not overtures – became the most important instrumental genre cultivated on the entire continent.

We have invited preeminent experts in French musical cuisine to Wrocław to taste the repertoire with them, which is not always obvious but certainly has unexpected connections. Bernard Foccroulle will show how strongly Bach’s organ work was influenced by his French masters. Skip Sempé, together with the Capriccio Stravagante musicians and participants of master classes, will try to recreate the representative orchestra of Louis XIV – Les Vingt-quatre Violons du Roy – who also visited London, where the local King’s 24 Violins were active as if in a mirror image ... There will be an instrument most often associated with the French Baroque – the viola da gamba – but we will first meet it as the protagonist of the famous film Tous les matins du monde, and a moment after the screening we will hear how its popularity began to decline. Les Basses Reunies led by Bruno Cocset will introduce us to the world of extraordinary sonatas of the gambist and first great French cello virtuoso Jean-Baptiste Barrière. Finally, the soloists, Choir of the National Forum of Music and Wrocław Baroque Orchestra will present a reconstruction of the musical setting of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s funeral mass prepared by Skip Sempé. Its basis is Messe des morts by Jean Gilles – during the 18th century, this piece was heard, accompanying the farewells of many prominent people, starting from the composer himself, through his colleagues, André Campra, Rameau, to the monarchs: Louis XV and ... Stanisław Leszczyński (an unexpected connection this one).

Join us for the French Academy. For several days, Wrocław will become the European capital of French Baroque. I wonder what they will be playing in Paris then?
Jarosław Thiel