Sarasa Ensemble turns to Poland’s colorful cultural landscape for musical inspiration, visiting boisterous Baroque works by Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) and Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (1623-1680), alongside the soulful 2nd String Quartet by popular 20th-century Polish composer, Henryk Górecki (1933-2010). Despite the many years that separate their eras, all three encountered enough musical ideas “to last a lifetime”—as Telemann wrote in his autobiography—through Poland's rich traditions of folk music, folk dance, and its many distinct regional characters. The program opens with Tomás Luis de Victoria’s sublime call to the miracles of the world in ‘O Magnum Mysterium’.

Jesse Irons, Miranda Fulleylove, violins; Jason Fisher, viola; Jennifer Morsches, cello

Program:
Tomás Luis de Victoria - O Magnum Mysterium
Telemann - Polish Dances from the Rostock Manuscript, TWV 45
J.H. Schmelzer - Polnische Sackpfeifen à 3
Górecki - String Quartet No. 2, Op. 64 “Quasi una Fantasia”