October 3, 2013

Visiting a Forgotten Nest of Early European Melody

New York Early Music Celebration Delves Into Polish Works

Ángel Franco/The New York Times

Frederick Renz is director of the New York Early Music Celebration, which has a Polish theme this year.

Published: October 3, 2013

MUSICIANS who specialize in early music might take umbrage at the suggestion that the major works of the German, Italian, French and English repertories have been thoroughly picked over. Yet in recent seasons, there has been a restlessness among these players that has led them to investigate less traveled works by composers from Spain, Latin America and other countries that were largely overlooked in the early-music boom’s first few decades.

When Frederick Renz began planning the fourth triennial New York Early Music Celebration — a festival of period-instrument performances that opens Friday and runs through Oct. 20 — he hit on an idea that tapped into this new spirit of exploration. Though the first three celebrations (in 2004, 2007 and 2010) were theme-free samplers of New York’s early-music world, this one would delve into Polish music of the 11th through 19th centuries, a repertory he got to know during a 2011 trip to Poland.

“I thought, first of all, that the music was great,” Mr. Renz said of the works he heard that summer at Narol.Arte, an early-music festival in southeastern Poland. “And also, I discovered that there were some wonderful artists working in Poland. That piqued my interest. I thought: ‘Our fourth triennial is coming up. Why don’t we bring some of these Polish musicians over and encourage some of our musicians in New York to play Polish repertoire?’ ”

That was the theory, anyway. Though the Polish theme dominates, Mr. Renz did not make it an absolute requirement for participating ensembles, so along with programs of Polish works, the festival’s prospectus includes concerts devoted to Purcell, Bach and American music from before the Civil War.

“I don’t really like the idea of curating, or judging what other early-music groups present,” he said. “I wanted to keep it open to everybody who wanted to do something in the period of the celebration. And I want to use the celebration as a showcase for groups that have full seasons in New York.”

Louise Basbas, who runs the Music Before 1800 series at Corpus Christi Church, quickly saw the theme’s charm. Looking into the available players, she settled on Ensemble Peregrina, a Polish vocal quartet with vielle (an early stringed instrument) accompaniment. Though the group is currently based in Switzerland, it has kept in touch with its roots. Its program at Corpus Christi on Sunday is devoted to 11th-century Polish songs and sacred works, mostly from its 2012 recording, “Sacer Nidus” (Raumklang).

“What appealed to me about the Ensemble Peregrina,” Ms. Basbas said, “was the exotic nature of the music. And it’s their first performance in this hemisphere.”

Some groups have also found an interesting side door into the Polish theme: by way of composers from European countries who visited and worked in Poland, like Telemann and the 16th-century Italian composer Tarquinio Merula, or who used Polish dance rhythms in their works, as Bach did — for example, in the Polacca section in the “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 1.

Brooklyn Baroque is devoting its Friday night program at the Church of St. Luke in the Fields to music by Johann Ludwig Krebs, in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of his birth. “As far as we know,” said Rebecca Pechefsky, the group’s harpsichordist, “he never worked in Poland. But since we have only the bare facts of his life, we can’t say for certain that he never visited.” Krebs did, however, include a polonaise in one of the works the group plans to play.

Other ensembles took their research further and discovered Polish scores that delighted them. PHOENIXtail, which is performing at Riverside Church on Saturday evening, turned up works by Adam Jarzebski, Mikolaj Zielenski, Marcin Mielczewski and Stanislaw Szarzynski, which it will perform alongside pieces by Merula and other non-Poles with Polish connections.

“It was certainly a more involved process than some concerts, where you can just pull the pieces out of the drawer,” said Ezra Seltzer, the ensemble’s cellist.

Mr. Renz, who is leading his own Early Music New York in a program of polonaises and divertimentos at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Oct. 12, said that his research led him to some odd discoveries — including the realization that the polonaise, regarded throughout Europe as the quintessentially Polish dance, was first popular everywhere in Europe except Poland.

“There was a period in the early 18th century when the Poles weren’t that interested in their own music,” Mr. Renz said. “Their king resided in Dresden, and what they admired most was German music. I had always wondered why Bach, Telemann and Krebs wrote polonaises, but Polish composers did not. Finally, in the second half of the 18th century, the Poles said: ‘Hey, there’s something going on here. Let’s capitalize on the popularity of this.’ ”

But probably the most famous composer of polonaises — Chopin — is missing from the celebration.

“I’d have loved to include him,” Mr. Renz said, “and there was some interest among the performers, but we just couldn’t find a piano that was from the right period and was available. People were saying we could use a modern piano, or a Pleyel, from a couple of generations later. But Chopin is performed plenty. And my feeling was that if we couldn’t do it on an authentic instrument, it made no sense for us to do it.”

The New York Early Music Celebration opens on Friday and runs through Oct. 20 at various New York City locations; (212) 749-6600; nyemc.com.

LISTING: http://www.nytimes.com/events#2013-10-04/classical-and-opera/

· Pro Musica Polonica

· New York Times Critics' Pick

Classical

Oct. 4-20 at various times

New York
(212) 749-6600
nyemc.com/central

The Early Music Foundation and the Polish Cultural Council join forces to present over 20 events celebrating the music of Poland, from folk traditions to court composers and their wider European influence. Highlights from the opening week include, on Oct. 4 at 7:15 p.m., “Wild Music From the Heart of Poland,” performed by the Janusz Prusinowski Trio, at Drom, 85 Avenue A, East Village; on Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m., 17th-century music from the Polish Court by the ensemble Phoenixtail at Riverside Church, Riverside Drive at 122nd Street, Morningside Heights; and on Oct. 6 at 4 p.m., the vocal quartet Ensemble Peregrina singing medieval music in Corpus Christi Church, 529 West 121st Street, Morningside Heights. A complete schedule is at nyemc.com/central.

— Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim