After the success of the spring edition of the ORGANy PLUS +© 2022 Festival, devoted exclusively to the sacred works of Stanisław Moniuszko on the 150th anniversary of the death of the Polish composer, we are returning to the ‘traditional’ festival repertoire, i.e. … unknown or little-known organ music from various regions of Europe in a star performance on instruments, whose sound qualities have surprised and enchanted us more than once. There are many premieres and debuts ahead of us during the six thematic concerts of the autumn edition of the ORGANy PLUS +© Festival on 7–16th of October 2022.

We will inaugurate with a concert by the organist Pieter Dirksen, a Dutch virtuoso of 17th-century keyboard music and the most outstanding music expert of Dietrich Buxtehude. During the concert entitled simply + Buxtehude, which will traditionally take place in the Franciscan Church of St. Trinity on Friday, October 7th at 7.15 p.m., apart from the organ works by this Danish composer we will also hear masterfully performed chamber works by this composer, for which the artist invited the outstanding Dutch violinist Quirine van Hoek. Both artists will perform in Poland for the first time in very long time – it is a real treat for the lovers of monumental North European organ culture and the masterful playing of the Dutch virtuoso.

On Saturday, October 8th at 7.15 p.m. again in the Franciscan Church of St. Trinity from the Lutheran North, we will move to the Arch-Catholic Empire of the Habsburgs from the 17th to the 18th centuries, from the powerful sounds of stilus fantasticus and delicate chamber musical lace in the stile concertato to the sparkling sounds of the trumpeters and strings to add splendor to the imperial celebrations. In the premiere program called + Tubicinatores et Arcus or Trębacze i Smyczkowcy, the Gdańsk band of Paweł Hulisz Tubicinatores Gedanenses and the invited guests will present the festive music of the Viennese court. It promises to be a royal, imperial musical feast indeed. Staying in the circle of German-language music, the first festival weekend will be closed on Sunday, October 9th at 15.30 also in the Church of St. Trinity with an authorial recital of one of the most outstanding European singers dealing with early music – Georg Poplutz. The tenor, awarded many times with the most important European music awards, returns to our festival in his original biblical program entitled + From Babylon to Jerusalem, in which he will present the path of the Chosen People, that is the transition from the land of the damned to the Promised Land. On this musical journey spanning three centuries of music, he will be accompanied by the German organ virtuoso Jürgen Banholzer.

The second weekend of the ORGANy PLUS + © 2022: AUTUMN Festival is the time to present compositions by Czech, German, Spanish and Portuguese authors. We will start on Friday, October 14th at 7.30 p.m. exceptionally in the Salesian Church of St. John Bosco in Gdańsk Orunia with a concert entitled + Brahms. Organ chorales from the last opus of the German romantic Johannes Brahms will be counterpointed with biblical songs from Op. 99, one of the last works of the Czech author Antonín Leopold Dvořák. They will be presented by the organist of the famous gothic Münster cathedral in Basel and the professor of the Music Academy in Innsbruck – Andreas Liebig, together with the Swiss soprano Gudrun Sidonie Otto. All of this on the 125th anniversary of the death of the German classic thanks to the support of the Swiss Embassy in Poland.

After this romantic prelude, we will go back exactly 200 years during the next concert. Georg Muffat (1653–1704) was considered one of the greatest European musicians at one point of time. Traveling all over Europe, he got to know the styles prevailing at that time, which he transformed in an extraordinary way in his compositions, creating a unique conglomerate of pan-European music of the second half of the 17th century. Reaching into this treasury, we will find everything that is best and most characteristic in the contemporary music world. On Saturday, October 15th, in the Franciscan Church of St. Trinity at 7.15 p.m. during the monographic concert entitled + Muffat we will present you two sides of this composer – organ music will be presented by an American organist, professor of the University of Notre Dame Olukola Owalabi, while instrumental compositions will be played by the well-known Goldberg Baroque Ensemble from Gdańsk.

The grand finale will have a very exotic setting this year. On Sunday, October 16th at 3.30 p.m. in the Franciscan Church of St. The Trinity two outstanding Spanish artists will perform in Poland for the first time – organist Andrés Cea Galán and zincist Manuel Pascual. Iberian baroque music is very specific and it requires quite specific instruments. We will see if the great Merten Friese organ with nine linguistic voices will cope with the task of transporting us to the other end of Europe and allow us to feel its heat and emotions, while the autumn gray weather outside.

Prof. Andrzej Szadejko

Artistic Director of ORGANy PLUS+ © Festival