Oratory Concert

Performers:
Sankt Barbara Kantorei Choir
L'Estate Armonico Orchestra
Wiesław Delimat — conductor

Repertoire:
Johann Sebastian Bach — Passion according to Saint Matthew BWV 244

Wiesław DELIMAT — artistic director of the choir Kantorei Sankt Barbara, a graduate of the Krakow Academy of Music in the organ class of Jan Jargon and conducting by Jerzy Katlewicz. In 2014 he was awarded the title of Professor of Musical Arts.

As an organist, chamber musician and conductor, he has toured most of Europe, as well as in the USA, China, Israel and Japan. He conducted, among others, at the famous Berlin Philharmonic and Leipzig Gewandhaus. He has performed with many renowned orchestral and choral ensembles, such as the Polish Radio Choir in Krakow, the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, the Podkarpackie Philharmonic Orchestra, the Capella Cracoviensis, and the EuropaChorAkademie in Mainz.

In 1994—1999 he was the conductor of the Krakow Academic Choir of the Jagiellonian University. In 2000 he founded the Kantorei Sankt Barbara Chamber Choir and the L'Estate Armonico Orchestra. With these bands he has performed in Poland and abroad several dozen vocal and instrumental works of different eras and styles and has made numerous radio and record recordings. In addition, he is the conductor of the choirs Pro Musica Mundi and Pueri Cantores Cracovienses. With the teams he led, he won many awards and competition distinctions.

Wiesław Delimat is an employee of the John Paul II Pontifical University in Krakow, where he is the head of the Department of Church Music. He is also the director of the First and Second Degree Archdiocesan Music School in Kraków, and for 40 years the organist of St. Mark's Church in Krakow.

For his pedagogical, artistic and organizational activities, he was awarded many ecclesiastical and state awards, including the Order of St. Sylvester, conferred by Pope Benedict XVI.

photo by A. Walanus

The KANTOREI SANKT BARBARA Choir was founded in 2000 and operates as part of the Pro Musica Mundi Artistic Association, and focuses mainly on the performance of vocal-instrumental music, especially German and Polish Baroque, and on a cappella choral music from the Renaissance to the 21st century.

The ensemble's permanent repertoire includes several dozen cantatas, motets, Lutheran masses, Oster-Oratorium, Johann Sebastian Bach's Himmelsfahrt-Oratorium and Magnificat, Georg Friedrich Handel's Dixit Dominus, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Passion, Grzegorz Gerwaz Gorczycki's Completorium, Wolfgang's Requiem by Amadeus Mozart, works by Joseph Haydn — Te Deum, Creation of the World, Stabat Mater, Oratorio de Noël by Camille Saint-Saens, oratorio Christus Ferenc Liszt, Requiem by Gabriel Fauré, Otčenáš Leoš Janačka or Stabat Mater by Karl Jenkins.

Since 2008, together with the L'Estate Armonico orchestra, as part of the series Forgotten Baroque — Living Baroque, KSB presents 17th and 18th century vocal and instrumental compositions, taking part in their Polish and often world premieres.

The band participates in prestigious international projects, such as a tour under the slogan Poland and Germany — Together in the Heart of Europe after Poland (Krakow 2000 Festival) and Germany (Hannover, EXPO 2000) with K. Penderecki's Te Deum, performance of works from the Magnus Liber Organi manuscript from Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris with the famous English vocal quartet Orlando Consort as part of the II Festival Misteria Paschalia (2005), participation in the 4th Festival of Choral and Vocal Music Vox Accademia in Nida (Lithuania) and concert in Vilnius (2007), concert tour of Israel with Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra as part of the Polish Year 2008/2009 or Esztergom Liszt Week (2011, 2012).

The choir also participated in major symphonic projects of the European Choral Academy in Mainz, with which it performed in the most prestigious concert halls of Europe, including the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Die Glocke in Bremen, Herkulessaal Munich and de Singel in Antwerp, collaborating with, among others. M. Gielen, V. Ashkenazi, E. Krivin, K. Penderecki and P. Domingo.

KSB has participated in many national choral competitions, winning top prizes and distinctions.

The band has four CDs: Music at St Barbara, featuring Magnificat and a cappella music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Gott ist die Liebe with church cantatas by Georg Anton Bendy (World premiere recording), O Crux, ave! with religious a cappella music and Missae, where you can hear vocal-instrumental works by Jan Dismas Zelenka and Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (World premiere recordings). The choir also recorded Johann Sebastian Bach's motet O Jesu Christ mein's Lebens Licht BWV 118b for the Polish Bach Society.

photo: K. Kalinowski

L'ESTATE ARMONICO Orchestra is a project ensemble, performing regularly with the Kantorei Sankt Barbara Choir for 25 years. It consists of excellent musicians, who play on a daily basis in many Polish and European early music ensembles. Artists play baroque instruments or their copies.