Marcin Świątkiewicz 2018 ENG by maciej.kopinski

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MARCIN ŚWIĄTKIEWICZ

One of the most recognisable harpsichordists of the young generation, winner of the “Polityka” weekly’s Passport Award for 2015. He performs on different types of historical keyboard instruments. He regularly collaborates with such leading international and Polish ensembles as Brecon Baroque, Arte dei Suonatori, and {oh!} Historical Orchestra. With these groups he has recorded for such labels as BIS, Channel Classics, Accent, Alpha, Decca, Linn Records, and DUX, as well as for radio and television broadcasters throughout Europe. 2015 saw the release of his album featuring harpsichord concertos by the late Baroque composer Johann Gottfried Müthel (awarded a Diapason d'Or), and in 2017 – the multi-award-winning CD Cromatica. His recording of Biber’s Rosenkranzsonaten (with Rachel Podger and David Miller) won the Gramophone Award.

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Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his Aria with Diverse Variations for Harpsichord with Two Manuals in 1741, possibly for performance by the then 14-year-old Johann Gottlieb Goldberg. This work, which presents a formidable difﬁculty with regard to technique and interpretation, has acquired a kind of cult status over the years and become part of the keyboard music canon. Commonly referred to nowadays as the Goldberg Variations, it attracts the audience with its virtuosic, sophisticated polyphonic forms, as well as numerological and symbolic references. Marcin Świątkiewicz’s reading of this 8 8 9 timeless masterpiece by the Leipzig cantor is full of V W profound emotion. B

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On his most recent solo album, Marcin Świątkiewicz invites his audience to the complex, magic world of chromaticism. The fourteen pieces selected for this CD were written by composers from different countries, representing different aesthetics. The challenge of this repertoire lies not only in its technical complexity, but also in the rhetorical language of affections which underlies the expressive power of the music. The album has garnered excellent reviews and many awards. Among others, it was named as “Gazeta Wyborcza’ daily’s and Polish Radio Channel Two Album of the Week.

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It is not merely a guide to chromatic music for the harpsichord, but an outstanding release in its own right, featuring moving performances by an eminent instrumentalist. Jacek Hawryluk | “Gazeta Wyborcza”

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T This original CD recital by Marcin Świątkiewicz consists of works by Baroque masters S I L who determined the shape of keyboard textures in that period and inﬂuenced the BA M later generations of composers. The rise of chromatic music, the appearance of E -C new formal constructions, a fusion of styles and musical cosmopolitism – O C I these are only some of the fruits of the explorations undertaken by US those composers, valued highly by – among others – Johann M S U Sebastian Bach. The album, whose title has been borrowed T A R from a collection of organ works by Georg Muffat, A P presents the achievements of the High Baroque P A // in the ﬁeld of keyboard music. N N A

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Bach valued Goldberg very highly as a performer, while the virtuoso considered Bach as a model composer. Their relation is reﬂected in the well-known cycle of the Goldberg Variations. Marcin Świątkiewicz presents Bach and Goldberg in a new light, as master and pupil. Bach’s 24 preludes from Das wohltemperierte Klavier, as well as the recently discovered cycle of Goldberg’s 24 polonaises, have been combined on this album into one original guide to the world of the major-minor tonality.

H JO AN H NS AN E N BA GO ST TT IAN LI B EB A GO CH LD : 24 BE PR RG EL : 2 UD 4 PO IEN LO BW N V AI 8 SE 46 N –8 DÜ 6 RG 9 // 7

Polish organ tablatures are an extremely valuable monument of Renaissance and Baroque music. Unique on the global scale, they preserve the output of composers from Poland and other parts of Europe in special keyboard notation. The tablatures are a source of knowledge about keyboard music drawn upon by both musicologists and performers. Świątkiewicz’s recital consists of selections from the tablatures of Warsaw, Przemyśl, Samogitia, Pelplin, as well as one of the world’s oldest and largest collections of this kind – that of Joannis de Lublin. Świątkiewicz’s excellent technique and profound knowledge guarantee the authentic historical character of performance and genuine contact with the oldest examples of music collected in the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

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Johann Sebastian Bach’s Harpsichord Concertos were among the ﬁrst concerti written specially for a keyboard instrument. Świątkiewicz proposes an entirely new approach to their interpretation: improvised cadenzas, repetitions featuring virtuosic, expressive ornamentation in agreement with the spirit of the age. There is no doubling of instruments, which results in extraordinary textural clarity and brings out all the masterful details in the music. The ﬁrst three Bach concertos will be released in their original, captivating shape JO by Channel Classics in 2018. H

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Haydn wrote his keyboard concertos in the 1760s and 70s – in the period of his service at the Esterházy court. They represent a solid technique, careful thematic work, and make a subtle, graceful impression on the audience. Though the keyboard concertos are rarely considered as representative mainstream compositions of this Viennese classic, they very clearly reﬂect the changes that took place in his technique and style. The ﬁrst one – Concerto in C Major Hob. XVIII:1, written in the stile galante, still echoes the Baroque 1 1 tradition, while the last – in D Major, XVIII:11, composed – 1 : II more than 20 years later – shows us the mature Haydn, I V X conscious of the imminent stylistic change. .

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Marcin Świątkiewicz rediscovers the virtuoso music of J.S. Bach’s last pupil, Johann Gottfried Müthel – a representative of the “Sturm und Drang” movement in music, who demonstrated his technical proﬁciency particularly well in his keyboard works. His concertos demand not only technical skills, but also much sensitivity and insight from the performers.

Marcin Świątkiewicz relishes both the ﬂamboyant virtuosity of the fast movements and the delicate sentiment of the Adagios (...). He makes colourful use of the instrument’s contrasting manuals and has a subtle sense of rubato, aware that time borrowed JO should also be repaid. H

Richard Wigmore | “Gramophone”

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In the late 18th century the harpsichord was gradually supplanted by the piano. The D R O 20th century brought a renaissance of the harpsichord, which had been consideH IC red old-fashioned in the previous era. This revival process is associated with the S P R ﬁgure of the eminent harpsichordist Wanda Landowska, to whom Francis A H Poulenc and Manuel de Falla dedicated their harpsichord concertos. In R O nd the 2 half of the previous century, the “Baroque face” of the harpsiF C I S chord was juxtaposed with the sound of modern orchestras and U with contemporary composition techniques, while the in/M / S strument itself underwent technological innovations and R E T experimental treatment by the performers. The harpAS sichord also provided contemporary composers M Y R with a pretext to play with conventions. U T Marcin Świątkiewicz’s repertoire includes, N E C among others, the extremely intense th 20 Harpsichord Concerto Op. 40 by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Concerto for Harpsichord by Philip Glass, as well as Partita III for ampliﬁed harpsichord by Paweł Szymański.

Maciej Kopiล ski E

mk@musicconsulting.pl +48 509 875 564 ul. Celna 9/31 31-027 Krakรณw / Poland www.musicconsulting.pl

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