The inaugural concert of Wratislavia Cantans will bring the moving Thirteenth Symphony ‘Babi Yar’ by Dmitri Shostakovich that deals with the difficult events in Europeans history, that we cannot allow ourselves to forget. Music by Polish composer Mikołaj Górecki will form pendant to the symphony and the performance will be conducted by the sensational Andrey Boreyko. The next day we will listen to Beethoven’s Ninth, the symphony that bears witness to composer’s musical genius and at the same time tells about the values such as the brotherhood of man or the joy. These values were kept in very high regard by Beethoven himself and were important part of the European formation during the almost 200 years that had passed since the composition of this masterpiece.
Both Passions by Johann Sebastian Bach are in the programme of this year’s Festival, and St John Passion will be staged. The remarkable dramatic content of the work inspired artists to stage performances elsewhere, but so far the masterpiece was never performed on stage in Wrocław. The St Matthew Passion in masterly performance given by Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists under Sir John Eliot Gardiner will form a perfect final concert of the Festival.

Along with the popular works of European music we offer some unique programmes such as the concert of the medieval composer Zacara da Teramo performed by very interesting group of young artists – La Fonte Musica. We continue the tradition of concerts programmed upon precious works from Wrocław University Library music collection. This year we will focus on Italian instrumental music that survived to our times only in the copies that are kept in Wrocław. The brilliant Czech ensembles under the baton of Václav Luks will return to the Festival with polychoral Missa Salisburgensis by Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber and with Selva morale e spirituale by Claudio Monteverdi, turning our attention to the sacred music of Europe. The growing presence of countertenors on stages worldwide did not escape our attention. The concert of Philippe Jaroussky bears witness to the contemporary phenomenon that is rooted in the very old tradition of males singing with high, feminine-like voices. By means of the Tafelmusik concert with works by Georg Philipp Telemann  I would like to remind the listeners that music brings not only spiritual but sensual pleasure as well, in similar way that good food does, and that during the ages some very beautiful works were composed to accompany a feast. The audience will taste the specialities of Italian, French, German and Polish cuisines, as Telemann himself had mixed in his works the musical tastes and traditions of these countries.

With great interest I do look forward to two musically adventurous concerts that will bring together the early and contemporary music. The remarkable Huealgas Ensemble will perform fragments of masses for the dead composed by Renaissance Flemish composer Jacobus da Kerle and by contemporary German composer Wolfgang Rihm. NFM Leopoldinum with participation of some members of the Il Giardino Armonico ensemble will perform the works by Györgi Ligeti (the 10th anniversary of his death falls this year) and those by experimental early baroque composers (Dario Castello, Michelangelo Rossi) gathered around Claudio Monteverdi’s masterwork Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. Early baroque musical forms were  sources of inspiration for Ligeti.  Both composers were interested in the theatricality in music and both were avant-garde artists of their respectable times.

Another discovery concerts will be performances by Jordi Savall’s ensemble and Giovanni Sollima with Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares. The two musicians are fascinated by the merging and relationship of different musical traditions. Savall will reveal the connections between late-mediaeval and Renaissance European music and that of Arabic descent, underlining the common roots of both traditions. Sollima, who is after all and any kind of music, will improvise along with Bulgarian choir that sings according to this country’s unique tradition, and they will also perform the works that Sollima composed for them with their specific sound in mind.

While it would not be possible to present all fathers of European music during a single edition of Festival, it would not be possible as well to omit the works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Sebastian Bach. The magnificent Coronation Mass by Mozart will be performed by the excellent Italian orchestra Academia Montis Regalis in St Mary Magdalene church, according to Wratislavia Cantans tradition of performing sacred music in the temples. The Mozartean natural balance will be retained by means of the recital of sonatas performed on fortepiano and early violin by Kristian Bezuidenhout and Alina Ibragimova. Two concerts will be devoted to the Bach dynasty. The vocal ensemble Vox Luminis will focus on Johann Sebastian’s ancestors while Il Giardino Armonico will turn our attention to the greatest of Bachs and his sons, as well as to the Philipp Telemann (the godfather of Carl Philipp Emanuel) and Joseph Haydn who considered Carl Philipp an ideal master. This epic fresco showing two hundred years of musical activity of Bach family will remind us of the tradition of great European musical dynasties of the past.

The new and very important part of the Festival will be formed by the master classes led by the great artists and addressed to the young musicians. Paolo Pandolfo, Robert Levin, Andrea Inghisciano, Giovanni Sollima will all focus on improvisation, both during their concerts and master classes. The improvisation today is mostly associated with jazz, thus with American tradition. On the other hand improvisation is an important (however mostly forgotten) part of European musical tradition. It is very important for me to bring this tradition back to life. Robert Levin includes elements of improvisation in Mozart's works that he performs, the same way as pianists used to do in composer’s times. Paolo Pandolfo will appear in the programme consisting only of improvisations upon 16th- and 17th-century musical forms such as madrigal, passacaglia, chaconne, passamezzo and folia that where in their times models for improvisation that may be compared to present-day jazz standards. The supreme cornett player Andrea Ighisciano who will perform twice during the Festival is an artist with strong links to the jazz world.

The educational part of the Festival consists as well of the traditional course of interpretation of oratorio and cantata music. Maestro Andrzej Kosendiak will share his passion towards Polish Baroque music with the aspiring artists. And the final day of the Festival will bring the concert of some two hundred children from several european countries who will come to Wrocław from many music schools that teach by means of Suzuki method, and will be joined by the NFM Boys’ Choir. The foundation of the Suzuki method is formed not with just musical education in mind, but is most of all focused on social upbringing of a young person that is achieved through the development of the ability to work in group, to listen to each other and through the mutual respect. I am positive that the educational part of the Festival will become an important part of the formation of young people, as we will teach them how to reach for beauty and how to cooperate.
This year that is so exceptional for Wrocław, Wratislavia Cantans is richer and more varied than ever. The Festival will last for over two weeks full of concerts in Wrocław and Lower Silesia. The music that we will perform during the Festival forms the important part of European identity and at the same time Wratislavia Cantans itself is a precious element of European culture of the present day. The year that Wrocław is the European Capital of Culture marks the beginning of the second half century of the Festival.