Programme

Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1672 - 1749)

10 Invenzioni da Camera op. 10. 

Invenzione 1

Invenzione 2

Invenzione 3

Invenzione 4

Invenzione 5

Interval

Invenzione 6

Invenzione 7

Invenzione 8

Invenzione 9

Invenzione 10

Performers

Capella Cracoviensis

Violin: Robert Bachara

Cello: Teresa Kamińska 

Harpsichord: Marek Toporowski 

Programme Notes

Interest in Bonporti's work was sparked by a fortunate coincidence. In the 19th century, four of his compositions, whose manuscripts were found in Berlin, were mistakenly attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach and even included in the edition of his complete works. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, musicologists definitively established the true authorship of these pieces. This discovery generated renewed interest in Bonporti, a composer whose music was so original and remarkable that it could easily be confused for that of the great Bach.

Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1672-1749) came from a noble Italian family, and although he was presented on the title pages of his scores as a gentiluomo or nobile di Trento until the end of his days, his life was not that of a wealthy gentleman. His mother, widowed with five children, intended for him to become a priest. Although he was reluctant, preferring to compose music, he eventually agreed. Despite completing prestigious studies in Rome, he never achieved significant success in the church and remained a deacon without ever being promoted to canon. He was, however, still able to occupy himself with what was most important to him: music. Not as a composer who had to earn a living by writing to satisfy an audience, but as a dilettante whose creative independence was unhindered, allowing him to devote himself to artistic experimentation.

One of the most beautiful fruits of this freedom, remarkable for its innovation and astonishing modernity, is the collection of inventions for solo violin and basso continuo, first published in Bologna in 1712 as Bonporti's Op. 10. Shortly afterwards, the work was given the somewhat enigmatic title La Pace ‘Peace’, which was most likely added to commemorate the peace treaties of Utrecht and Rastatt in 1714. As Silvia Paparelli, a distinguished expert on Bonporti's work, so eloquently and aptly described: These Inventions are exemplary works of stylistic autonomy and sophisticated detail, and their formal freedom is even implicit in the title. […] Here nothing is conventional or predictable; everything responds to the expressive needs of a very sensitive subjectivity through pathetic accents and an elegant vein of melancholy.

Author: Krzysztof Dix

Biographies

Robert Bachara: Violin

Robert Bachara is a violinist operating within both performance trends – the old and the modern one. He is a graduate of the Karol Lipinski Academy of Music in Wrocław and the Academy of Music in Cracow. The artist is actively involved in live performance, scientific and teaching activities. His doctoral dissertation is dedicated to violin multiple-notes. Bachara runs a violin class in the Karol Lipinski Academy of Music in Wrocław. Performing early music, he sometimes decides to apply the historical way of holding the violin, the so-called chest position. He has played many first performances of recent solo pieces, quite often dedicated to him. The artist is famous for performing during one concert voluminous violin music collections like Sonatas and Partitas by J.S. Bach and the Rosary Sonatas by H. I. F. von Biber.

Teresa Kamińska: Cello

Teresa Kamińska performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician. She plays both the historical cello and modern cello. Since 1994 she has been on the faculty at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow. In the years 1994-2011 she taught a cello class, and since 2007 she has been Professor of baroque cello. The artist’s solo repertoire includes both the first cello compositions and contemporary works. On historical cellos she has performed solo concertos by C.Ph.E. Bach, J. Haydn, L. Leo, A. Vivaldi, numerous Baroque and Classical sonatas, as well as sonatas for pianoforte and cello (L. van Beethoven, F. Schubert, J. Wölfl). As a soloist, she has recorded two CDs nominated for the Fryderyk Music Award: Seven Angels (HarpClassics) with the 20th-century compositions for cello and organ and A cinque cordes (Musicon) with transcriptions of J.S. Bach’s works for five-string  violoncello piccolo and harpsichord (both with an outstanding Polish artist Marek Toporowski), Bach’s solo suites BWV 1007 and  BWV 1010 for the Bach Festival in Świdnica and A. Vivaldi’s Concerto for cello and bassoon with Giorgio Mandolesi and the Marek Toporowski’s Concerto Polacco (Vivaldi, BNL Productions). As a chamber musician and principal cellist, she has taken part in the recording of many CDs (three of which have won the “Fryderyk” Music Award and seven have received nominations). She has transcribed and arranged for cello works by Bach, Handel, Brahms and Schubert. In 2016 she performed C.F. Abel’s sonatas from the Maltzan Manuscript at London’s Royal College of Music (with Mark Caudle).  This was the contemporary world premiere of those compositions. Her significant achievements include the premieres of works by contemporary Polish composers (A. Paciorkiewicz, P. Szymański, A. Walaciński).  

Marek Toporowski

Marek Toporowski  performs as a harpsichordist, organist, fortepianist and conductor.  He teaches harpsichord at the Academy of Music in Krakow. He studied with Leszek Kędracki, Aline Zylberajch and Bob van Asperen (harpsichord), Martin Gester  (basso continuo and chamber music) and Józef Serafin and Daniel Roth (organ). 

He won first prize in the 1st Wanda Landowska National Harpsichord Competition, and was also a finalist of the 1st Wanda Landowska International Competition in 1994. 

In 1991, he formed his own chamber ensemble Concerto Polacco—one of the pioneering ensembles of baroque music in Poland. The group very soon became the leading orchestra which was joined by the chamber choir Sine Nomine, specialising in performing baroque cantatas and oratorios. With those two ensembles, Marek Toporowski made numerous recordings of early Polish music, including such works as the opera Agatka by Johann David Holland, the oratorio Christiani poenitentes ad sepulchrum Domini by Jan Tomasz Żebrowski, and sacred music by Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki,Amando Ivančič Józef Zeidler, and Marcin Józef Żebrowski.

As harpsichordist, he made the first-ever recording of Charles Noblet’s Livre de clavecin. As an organist, he records extensively on historical organs. His participation in the documentary project Orgeln in der Niederlausitz, or the first recording on the Silbermann organ in Oederan are well worth mentioning. 

Marek Toporowski is the chamber partner of many renowned soloists. He’s also very active in the field of preservation of national heritage. In 2012, he founded Fortepianarium — a unique collection where his own instruments are exhibited  and used for concert and teaching purposes.

Capella Cracoviensis: Ensemble 

Capella Cracoviensis chamber choir and orchestra is one of the most interesting ensembles on the contemporary scene of period music. Its repertoire ranges from Renaissance polyphony to early Romantic operas performed on period instruments. CC has been hosted at many important festivals and concert halls, including Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Bachfest Leipzig, Händel Festspiele Halle, Opéra Royal Versailles and Theater an der Wien. The ensemble has already performed with such eminent guests as Christophe Rousset, Giuliano Carmignola, Paul Goodwin, Andrew Parrott and Paul McCreesh. The latest achievements of CC include the first performance of Wagner’s works on historical instruments with the participation of Waltraud Meier and the recording of the operas by Pergolesi and Porpora for Decca Records, as well as Moniuszko's Halka for Sony Classical. In May 2018, the ensemble launched a project Haydn - the complete symphonies whose aim is to perform and record live Haydn's entire symphonic oeuvre. From 2022, it has also become the main organiser of the Opera Rara Krakow festival. CC was established in 1970 on the initiative of Jerzy Katlewicz, Director of Krakow Philharmonic at that time, who appointed Stanisław Gałoński to create an ensemble specialising in period music performance. Since 2008 Jan Tomasz Adamus has been CC’s General and Artistic Director.