Jazz from 400 years ago. A concert as part of the 9th Festival of Restored Music

ENSEMBLE DEL PASSATO Anna Budzyńska – soprano Maciej Kończak – theorbo, historical guitars Henryk Kasperczak – treble lute, Renaissance lute, chitarrone The Festival of Restored Music is an event dedicated to music that, for various reasons, has disappeared from our concert halls, our memory, and our everyday cultural experience. We bring forgotten works, old performance traditions, unknown composers, and musical worlds back to life—worlds that for years remained hidden in archives, manuscripts, or local memory. Alongside these rediscovered masterpieces, we also present artists who creatively develop old traditions and give them new meaning. Why Szczecin? The history of our city is a history of constant encounters, migrations, and the intermingling of cultures. Here, every kind of music can feel at home. We invite you to embark on a journey through time and space. We will transform Szczecin’s trendiest summer spot into an atmospheric concert hall, and within it… jazz from 400 years ago, as the performers themselves call this repertoire! Early Baroque Europe was a dazzling array of emerging new styles, growing out of Renaissance music. In every country, slightly different ideas, moods, and characteristic sounds emerged… but even then, court entertainment music was a showcase of musicians’ improvisation, who, embellishing the time with long, verse-based songs, had to breathe life into the terse musical notations through which composers conveyed their ideas. Ensemble del Passato is an ensemble that specializes in the reconstruction and performance of early Baroque music. The foundation of the sound is the bass and harmony of large lutes—the chitarrone or theorbo (Henryk Kasperczak); against this backdrop, the soprano voice presents and embellishes the melody (Anna Budzyńska) and enters into a dialogue with the improvising historical guitars (Maciej Kończak). The concert will offer a cross-section of the diverse timbres, rhythms, and emotions conveyed by music across various corners of Europe—from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth through England, France, and Spain all the way to Italy. So there will be a touch of melancholy and reflection, but also plenty of energy, dynamism, and joy!