The word
Before the music comes in, somebody names the intention of the evening. Every concert is preceded by a short introduction — most often by a Jesuit, such as Fr Jarek Naliwajko or Fr Przemysław Wysogląd.
Via · The path of the concerts
Spiritual Concerts.
Every evening in this cycle has an intention of its own — and a programme of its own, grown out of it.
It is a contemporary form of the old Concerts Spirituels — walk them in order, towards the one that has not happened yet.
Step onto the path
Image I · Incarnatio
Contemplation of the Incarnation
An attempt to enter the mystery of the Incarnation: from Isaiah's prophecy to the Canticle of Simeon, in music from Sandström to Monteverdi.
Et egredietur virga de radice Iesse And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse Is 11:1
4 / 8 / 12 voicesRenaissance — 21st centuryThe cycle's debut
Open the concert page → Production: Ars Sonora Studio
The concert programme — Contemplation of the Incarnation
- Jan Sandström — Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen
- Bernat Vivancos — Le cri des bergers
- Jacob Handl (Gallus) — Canite tuba
- Bernat Vivancos — A Child is born
- Tomás Luis de Victoria — Alma Redemptoris Mater
- Krzysztof Penderecki — O gloriosa Virginum
- Mariusz Kramarz — Gdy śliczna Panna
- Philip Stopford — Lully, Lullay
- Arvo Pärt — Nunc dimittis
- Claudio Monteverdi — Cantate Domino
- Anonim / aranż. Brian Kay — Gaudete
Image II · Terra
The Call of the Mountains
The mountains were this programme's breath. Twelve voices and the violin of Radu Ropotan led from sacred polyphony towards songs in which a landscape becomes the memory of a community.
Ad te clamamus, exsules filii Hevae To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve Salve Regina
12 voices and violinThe PieninyFrom the Pyrenees to Indonesia
Open the concert page → Violin: Radu Ropotan
The concert programme — The Call of the Mountains
- Bernat Vivancos — Le cri des bergers
- Anonim / tradycja Oksytanii — Salve Regina
- David MacIntyre — Ave Maria
- Polifonia korsykańska — Tantum ergo sacramentum
- Ēriks Ešenvalds — O salutaris hostia
- Henryk Mikołaj Górecki — Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus
- Ēriks Ešenvalds — Stars
- George Enescu — Ménétrier
- Claudio Monteverdi — Quel augellin che canta
- J. S. Bach — Preludium z Partity E-dur BWV 1006
- Ralph Vaughan Williams — The Lark Ascending · oprac. P. Drayton
- Jacek Sykulski — Stoi lód na Prośnie
- Ken Steven — Dawn and Dusk
Image III · Psalmi
Nine Leaves from the Book of Psalms
A psalm is the place where one need not simplify oneself before God. Allegri's Miserere, divided into nine parts, was wound around the whole evening; between its penitential stanzas came psalms of thanksgiving, of wisdom and of joy in turn.
Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam Have mercy upon me, O God, after thy great goodness Ps 51
9 psalms6 / 8 / 9 / 12 voicesThe Miserere as a clasp
The concert programme — Nine Leaves from the Book of Psalms
- Gregorio Allegri — Miserere mei, Deus 9× through the evening
- Orlando di Lasso — Laudate Dominum omnes gentes
- Anton Bruckner — Os justi, WAB 30
- Charles Villiers Stanford — Beati quorum via, op. 38 nr 3
- J. S. Bach — Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225
- Orlando Gibbons — O clap your hands
- Salomone Rossi — Barukh habba beshem Adonai
- Heinrich Schütz — Jauchzet dem Herrn, alle Welt, SWV 36
- Claudio Monteverdi — Cantate Domino
- Orlando Gibbons — Drop, drop, slow tears
Image IV · Memoria
Hymn to the Fallen
A tribute to those who gave their lives in defence of Ukraine, and a prayer for peace for those who carry the weight of the war onwards. At its climax, with the altarpiece of St Mary's Basilica opened, an organ improvisation on the Ukrainian anthem sounded.
Боже великий, єдиний, нам Україну храни Great and only God, preserve Ukraine for us Prayer for Ukraine
St Mary's BasilicaA prayer for peaceRemembrance for Ukraine
Open the concert page → Organ: Michał Piechnik · Krzysztof Michałek
The concert programme — Hymn to the Fallen
- J. S. Bach — Fantazja i fuga g-moll, BWV 542
- John Rutter — A Ukrainian Prayer
- Siergiej Rachmaninow — Ektenia Pokoju, op. 31 nr 1
- Giovanni P. da Palestrina — Super flumina Babylonis
- Dieterich Buxtehude — Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder, BuxWV 178
- Arvo Pärt — The Deer's Cry
- Ēriks Ešenvalds — O salutaris hostia
- John Tavener — Song for Athene
- John Williams — Hymn to the Fallen
- Jean Sibelius — Be Still My Soul · hymn z Finlandii, op. 26
- Gabriel Fauré — Pie Jesu · z Requiem op. 48
- Edward Elgar — Lux aeterna (Nimrod) · oprac. J. Cameron
- Michał Piechnik — Impresja organowa na temat „Szcze ne wmerła Ukrajiny”
- Edward C. Bairstow — I sat down under his shadow
Image V · Lamentum
Aeternam — Epitaph for Gaza
Faced with the suffering of the people of Gaza we chose the language of compassion, not of commentary. The programme led from Vivancos's Aeternam and the lament Vox in Rama, through prayers for peace by Pärt, Havrylets and Gjeilo and Lotti's image of the Passion, towards Shaw's refuge and Tavener's act of commendation.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them Requiem Introit
4 / 8 / 12 voicesLament and prayerKraków · Niedzica
The concert programme — Aeternam — Epitaph for Gaza
- Bernat Vivancos — Aeternam
- Mikołaj Zieleński — Vox in Rama
- Arvo Pärt — Da pacem Domine
- Ola Gjeilo — Serenity
- Hanna Havrylets — Prayer · Молитва до Пресвятої Богородиці
- Antonio Lotti — Crucifixus
- Caroline Shaw — and the swallow
- John Tavener — Mother of God, here I stand
- John Tavener — A Hymn to the Mother of God
- Rihards Dubra — O crux, ave
The coming concert
Image VI · Laudes
In Praise of Creation
The concert grows out of St Francis’s Laudes creaturarum, known in English as the Canticle of the Sun: in it the whole of creation is a road to the Creator. The programme leads from wonder at the world towards human frailty, towards change, suffering and death, and between the groups of works Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel returns from the gallery, the mirror of that relation. The whole road is closed by Dubra’s Stetit Angelus, the image of an angel censing the altar with the prayers of all the saints, sung in the church of All Saints.
Laudato si', mi' Signore, cum tucte le Tue creature Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures St Francis's Canticle of the Sun
Free admission Festival “Fenomen człowieka”Voices, violin, organSt Francis’s Canticle of the Sun
The concert programme — In Praise of Creation
- Arvo Pärt — Spiegel im Spiegel 5× through the evening
- Marian Borkowski — Gloria II
- Marian Borkowski — Lumen
- Carl Orff — Laudes creaturarum
- Jules Massenet — Méditation z opery Thaïs
- Ēriks Ešenvalds — Stars
- Ralph Vaughan Williams — The Lark Ascending
- Jacek Sykulski — Stoi lód na Prośnie
- George Enescu — Ménétrier z cyklu Impressions d'enfance op. 28
- Marian Borkowski — Dona eis requiem I
- Rihards Dubra — Stetit Angelus
Nuntius · Invitations
We will let you know about upcoming concerts.
One short letter before each concert: the place, the hour, the programme. Nothing else.
Officia · Outside the cycle
We also sing where the music serves a rite.
A Mass, a solemnity, a wedding: the programme is then shaped for the liturgy, not for an evening. These performances stand outside the cycle’s numbering.
-
Liturgia
The Solemnity of St Andrew Bobola
Here the music served the liturgy. On the centenary of both Polish provinces of the Society of Jesus, the singing took its place within the rite, presided over by Archbishop Adrian Galbas, with the homily preached by Fr Arturo Sosa SJ.
Warsaw16 May 2026Centenary of the Jesuit provinces
Concert spirituel · The rules of the evening
The same four rules lead every evening.
When the opera fell silent in eighteenth-century Paris for the feast days, Concerts Spirituels were given in a hall of the Tuileries Palace — sacred music outside the frame of a service. We are returning to that tradition.
The order
The order of the pieces is part of the composition. The same note comes back beside every programme in the ensemble's notes: “order matters very much”.
The silence
Silence stays between the pieces. We ask for it plainly, in print in the programme — including the silence after the last chord.
The light
The light has a score of its own: the fades and the cues are settled together with the programme. Ada Bystrzycka has watched over the lighting of many of these evenings.
Repertorium · Seven centuries
The repertoire our programmes are built from.
Renaissance polyphony, the Baroque and contemporary minimalism stand side by side in one evening. We build the programme out of the tension between them.
Renaissance
15th–16th c.- Gibbons, Orlando 1583–1625 Drop, drop, slow tears 1623 · O clap your hands ok. 1622
- Handl, Jacob (Gallus) 1550–1591 Canite tuba 1590
- Josquin des Prez ok. 1450–1521 O salutaris hostia pocz. XVI w.
- Lasso, Orlando di 1532–1594 Laudate Dominum omnes gentes 1574
- Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da 1525–1594 Super flumina Babylonis 1581
- Victoria, Tomás Luis de 1548–1611 Alma Redemptoris Mater 1581
- Zieleński, Mikołaj 1560–1620 Vox in Rama 1611
Baroque
17th – mid-18th c.- Allegri, Gregorio 1582–1652 Miserere mei, Deus ok. 1638
- Bach, Johann Sebastian 1685–1750 Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225 ok. 1727
- Händel, George Frideric 1685–1759 Hallelujah 1741
- Lotti, Antonio 1667–1740 Crucifixus ok. 1717–19
- Monteverdi, Claudio 1567–1643 Cantate Domino 1620 · Quel augellin che canta 1603
- Rossi, Salomone 1570–1630 Barukh haba beshem Adonai 1622
- Schütz, Heinrich 1585–1672 Jauchzet dem Herrn, SWV 36 1619
Classical and Romantic
18th – early 20th c.- Bairstow, Edward C. 1874–1946 I sat down 1925
- Bruckner, Anton 1824–1896 Os justi, WAB 30 1879
- Elgar, Edward 1857–1934 Lux aeterna 1899 / aranż. J. Cameron
- Fauré, Gabriel 1845–1924 Pie Jesu 1887–90 / aranż. B. Smith
- Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus 1756–1791 Ave verum corpus 1791
- Rachmaninow, Siergiej 1873–1943 Ektenia Pokoju 1910
- Sibelius, Jean 1865–1957 Be Still My Soul 1899 / aranż. Matheson
- Stanford, Charles Villiers 1852–1924 Beati quorum via, Op. 38 No. 3 ok. 1888–90
- Vaughan Williams, Ralph 1872–1958 The Lark Ascending 1914 / aranż. P. Drayton
The modern era
20th–21st c.- Dubra, Rihards ur. 1964 O Crux ave 1995
- Ešenvalds, Ēriks ur. 1977 O salutaris hostia 2005 · Stars 2011
- Frisina, Marco ur. 1954 Anima Christi 2000
- Gjeilo, Ola ur. 1978 Northern lights 2012 · Serenity 2010
- Górecki, Henryk Mikołaj 1933–2010 Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus 1986
- Havrylets, Hanna 1958–2022 Prayer / Молитва до Пресвятої Богородиці 2004
- Kramarz, Mariusz Gdy śliczna Panna aranż. współczesna
- Kusz, Dawid OP Alleluja laterańskie pocz. XXI w.
- MacIntyre, David ur. 1952 Ave Maria 1994
- Pärt, Arvo ur. 1935 Da Pacem Domine 2004 · Nunc dimittis 2001 · The Deer's Cry 2007
- Penderecki, Krzysztof 1933–2020 O gloriosa Virginum 2009
- Rutter, John ur. 1945 A Ukrainian Prayer 2022
- Sandström, Jan 1942–2019 Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen 1990
- Shaw, Caroline ur. 1982 and the swallow 2017
- Steven, Ken ur. 1993 Dawn and Dusk 2020
- Stopford, Philip W. J. ur. 1977 Lully, Lullay 2008
- Sykulski, Jacek ur. 1964 Stoi lód na prośnie 2017
- Tavener, John 1944–2013 A Hymn to the Mother of God 1985 · Mother of God, here I stand 2003 · Song for Athene 1993
- Vivancos, Bernat ur. 1973 A Child is born 2001 · Aeternam 2014 · Le cri des bergers 2004
- Williams, John ur. 1932 Hymn to the Fallen 1998
Tradition
anonymous · traditional- Anonim / tradycyjne Gaudete XVI w. / aranż. B. Kay · O Virgo Splendens Llibre Vermell · Salve Regina trad. Oksytania · Tantum ergo polifonia korsykańska
We have sung in basilicas, in a cathedral and in a village church.
The Sacred Heart and St Mary's basilicas in Kraków, St Anthony's in Rybnik, Łódź Cathedral, the shrine in Warsaw, the spa manor house in Szczawnica, the church in Niedzica. Every time, we composed the programme anew — for that place and that occasion. We will prepare a spiritual concert, the music of a liturgy or of a celebration.