26th International Bach Chamber Music Festival | BAROQUE MUSIC CONSTELLATION

Participants

Martyna Pastuszka (Martyna Pastuszka, Poland), violin

Tomasz Pokrzywiński (Tomasz Pokrzywiński, Poland), cello

Program

Francesco Maria Veracini (1690–1768), Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)

The Baroque Music ConstellationThis concert will reveal the diversity of Baroque music in a dialogue between violin and cello. Alongside sonatas by Francesco Maria Veracini (1690–1768) and Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741), the program includes Johann Sebastian Bach's Violin Partita in D minor and Cello Suite No. 2, as well as Bach's Sonata for violin and basso continuo. From the virtuosity of the Italian Baroque to the depth of Bach's music, each work will reveal another facet of Baroque aesthetics.

Martyna Pastuszka and Tomasz Pokrzywiński are outstanding performers of early music, whose playing combines historical performance practice with vivid virtuosity and the freedom characteristic of chamber music.

Martyna Pastuszka is a Polish violinist and the founder and artistic director of the early music orchestra {oh!} Orkiestra. As concertmaster, she collaborates with Raphaël Pichon's ensemble Pygmalion, Bertrand Cuiller's Le Caravansérail, and Teodor Currentzis's Utopia Orchestra. Under her direction, {oh!} Orkiestra focuses on historical performance practice and rediscovers forgotten repertoire from the 17th to 19th centuries. Martyna Pastuszka has been nominated for the Opus Klassik, Polityka's Passport and ICMA awards, and in 2023 she received the Polish music community award Koryfeusz Muzyki Polskiej in the category "Personality of the Year." She teaches Baroque violin at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice and, since 2025, also at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.

Tomasz Pokrzywiński is a Polish cellist and specialist in historical performance practice. He regularly appears as principal cellist with European early music ensembles such as {oh!} Orkiestra and Holland Baroque, and previously performed for many years with Arte dei Suonatori and as guest principal cellist with the Academy of Ancient Music and La Nuova Musica. With these ensembles he has toured Europe, North America, Asia and South Africa, and has collaborated with labels such as Harmonia Mundi, Channel Classics, Alpha, BIS and Pentatone. Since 2016, he has been professor of Baroque cello at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.