Corelli — Vivaldi — Twardowski

It is no coincidence that Corelli's Concerto Grosso Grosso in G minor Op. 6 No. 8 is one of the composer's most recognizable works. Created with Christmas in mind, it represents an exemplary realization of the idea of dialogue of a small group of instruments with an ensemble crowned with the famous Pastorale evoking the image of the shepherds of Bethlehem. Vivaldi gave the concert genre a new dramaturgic and illustrative dimension, expanding the possibilities of the genre far beyond the framework set by its predecessors, even touching on programm—going several hundred years into the future in a burst of pioneering genius. A special case remains the Four Seasons, accompanying which the sonnets the composer made an integral part of the work. Thanks to them, Winter becomes a suggestive tale of piercing frost, the warmth of a home hearth, sliding on ice and a violent struggle of winds. In turn, the Concerto for Strings in G minor RV 156 and Concerto alla rustica show the second face of Vivaldi — concise, based on an expressive rhythm and inexhaustible melodic invention, enriched in the case of the latter with folk elements. In the same aesthetic circle belongs the anonymous Symphonia de Nativitate, a testimony of the penetration of the European language of the Baroque into the former culture of the Republic of Poland; it is notable that its middle part takes the form of a dignified Polonaise. Created nearly three centuries later, Romuald Twardowski's Old Polish Concerto is not an attempt to reconstruct early music, but a creative reinterpretation of it. Styling becomes a space of compositional freedom, allowing the author to combine baroque idioms with his own recognizable musical language.