Maciej Skrzeczkowski

Maciej Skrzeczkowski

harpsichord / fortepiano
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COMING UP:

15/11 London (UK), London International Festival of Early Music

John Bull

2/12 Warsaw (PL), National Philharmonic, Chamber Hall

French Suites BWV 812-817 by Seb. Bach

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Maciej Skrzeczkowski releases his first solo album

The colourful, though rather mysterious biography of John Bull (c. 1562–1628) can be boldly compared to the fight between Lent and Carnival depicted in Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s famous painting. Two opposing natures repeatedly clashed in the English composer’s behaviour — the devout organist and academic measured up against the hedonist and troublemaker.

The dichotomy evident in Bull’s life attitude can also be seen in his works. On the one hand, Bull was an absolute master of polyphony and observed the principles of counterpoint much more strictly than many of his contemporaries. On the other hand, his compositional output is characterised by a certain irreverence, manifesting itself in a capricious virtuosity, sometimes not integrated into the form, and an individualised musical language, full of chromaticism and unexpected harmonic successions.

The Real John Bull provides a unique opportunity to explore the diverse repertoire of the English master, performed entirely on the virginals, undoubtedly significant instruments of the time. Contrary to the performance practice of our time to use these instruments only for smaller and uncomplicated works (toys, some dances and variations), the album also includes virginal interpretations of elaborate fantasias and extended pavans and galliards to demonstrate the versatility of these instruments.

The reality is displayed here on many levels — from the use of the virginals, the important role of which in musical life in Bull’s time is marked not only by the elaborate decoration of these instruments, no less generous than that of harpsichords, but as well by their omnipresence in paintings, to the real variety of Englishman’s output (the juxtaposition of certain pieces as not seen nor heard before) and the word real meaning ‘kingly’, ‘regal’, ‘royal’ in the language of the sovereigns of the Spanish Netherlands.

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The first single from the upcoming album The Real John Bull

An excerpt from Skrzeczkowski’s recital in Vleeshuis Museum, Antwerp

Maciej Skrzeczkowski

harpsichordist / fortepianist

Maciej Skrzeczkowski (2001) specializes in historical performance on the harpsichord and fortepiano. He received numerous awards in piano and harpsichord competitions in Poland and abroad, including the 3rd prize at the Concorso Internazionale di Clavicembalo in Milan in 2019 and the 1st prize and special Outhere award at the Musica Antiqua Competition for harpsichord in Bruges in 2023, where he was one of the youngest winners in the competition’s long history.

Skrzeczkowski has performed at numerous venues in Poland (e.g. Chopin Museum in Warsaw, Polish Radio Hall in Warsaw, Auditorium Maximum in Warsaw, Chopin’s birthplace in Żelazowa Wola, Potocki’s Palace in Kraków during Misteria Paschalia festival, Opole Philarmonic, Villa Atma in Zakopane) Italy (Urbino Musica Antica Festival), France (tours in Ardèche and Provence), Belgium (Vleeshuis Museum in Antwerp, Concertgebouw Brugge) and Japan (Iwaki Alios Recital Hall, Izumi Hall in Osaka, Philia Hall in Yokohama, Hamarikyu Asahi Hall in Tokyo, Tokorozawa Muse Cube Hall, Atorion Akita, Kurara Hall in Hiroshima).

In 2019, he participated in the premiere recording of Roman Palester’s Concertino per clavicembalo e dieci strumenti with Sinfonia Iuventus and Łukasz Borowicz. The album was later nominated for the prestigious phonographic award Fryderyk.

He is also a promoter of Franciszek Lessel’s music — in 2022, he gave the first ever concert presentation of all of the composer’s sonatas at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague; since then he regularly includes Lessel’s works in his concert programmes.

In 2023, he was nominated for Koryfeusz Muzyki Polskiej, the most prestigious Polish music award, in the category ‘discovery of the year’.

In 2024, as a result of winning the first prize and Outhere award during MA Competion for harpsichord a year prior, Skrzeczkowski recorded his debut solo album The Real John Bull, which presents the real variety of the English composer’s output through twenty diverse masterpieces, performed entirely on virginals (English and Flemish ‘mother and child’). It was released in September 2024 by Ricercar, a Belgian label specialised in early music recordings. Skrzeczkowski promoted the album with his concert during the MA Festival in Bruges that year and will perform a selection of Bull’s pieces during La Folle Journée in Warsaw and at the London International Festival of Early Music.

He graduated from the State Music School in Płońsk in Anna Koźniewska’s piano class. Later, he studied piano with Marek Bracha and harpsichord with Beata Popis at the Zenon Brzewski Music School in Warsaw. Then, he proceeded to study harpsichord and fortepiano at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague with Carole Cerasi, Bart van Oort, and Petra Somlaï. For the moment, he continues his studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory with Kris Verhelst and Menno van Delft.

He has honed his skills through participation in numerous masterclasses, including those with Skip Sempé, Pierre Hantaï, Władysław Kłosiewicz, Elżbieta Stefanska, Kristian Bezuidenhout, and Christophe Rousset.

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