After rehearsing at the NFM in Wrocław, we took a coach to Brno in Czechia. I had never visited Brno before; it’s a lovely city with a Vienna-like splendour in parts of the old town. I was delighted to have this opportunity to visit.

 

We rehearsed and performed in the church of St Peter in Brno on Sunday 8 October 2023, where an ornament adorning the church organ showed something of a likeness!

As well as many works for two choirs, I also had the opportunity to play a more soloistic number: I performed divisions on Mitte manum tuam on the cornetto, with Bill Lyons on dulcian and Marta Niedźwiecka on the chamber organ. It is a wonderful work, and one that I hope to come back to one day. Performing Spiritus Sanctus docebit took me right back to my first Zieleński recording in 2011.

The encore was a particularly lively rendition of Salve festa dies, complete with an ornamented instrumental verse—a wonderfully jubilant and catchy tune. For this piece, I played in the place of the lead violinist Zbigniew Pilch, and he took my place on the opposite side. It was great to play alongside my old friend Mikołaj Zgółka (violin); we’ve kept in touch and I recently did some proofreading for him, for the preface of his edition of Józef Elsner’s (1769–1854) Trois Quatuors. Mikołaj reliably informed me that Elsner spent several years of his life in Brno, so we took a photo together with the edition. I must say, he’s done a very good job. 

This was an excellent trip with the Wrocław Baroque Ensemble under Andrzej Kosendiak.