Goldberg Baroque Ensemble
AGENDA
06/12/2026
Meder
05/12/2026
Meder
14/11/2026
Festiwal Bydgoska Scena Barokowa
27/09/2026
Amor Artis
Pucklitz Opera Omnia IV
26/09/2026
ORGANy PLUS+
Pucklitz Opera Omnia IV
05/07/2026
Amor Artis
Meder
03/07/2026
Festival Omnia Beneficia
Meder
31/05/2026
Amor Artis
Mozart Requiem
30/05/2026
ORGANy PLUS+ Mozart Requiem
Ensemble
Goldberg Baroque Ensemble
The Goldberg Baroque Ensemble, founded by Andrzej Szadejko in 2008 and directed since then, specializes in interpretations of vocal-instrumental music from old Gdańsk and Pomerania. The ensemble’s baroque-classical repertoire is performed on the basis of historical performance practice with appropriate instruments. The orchestra is made up of Polish and foreign musicians, graduates of renowned European centers for early music (Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Royal Academy of Music in London, Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague). The ensemble is responsible for concerts in Poland and abroad as well as award-nominated 14 CDs and SACD’s premiere recordings of Pomeranian Music for Polish labels Dux and Sarton, and now for the German label – MDG, which aim is to promote music from the Baltic region.
MUSICIANS:
Violin: Radosław Kamieniarz (concertmaster), Katarzyna Olszewska (concertmaster II) Agata Front, Anna Nowak, Mateusz Janus, Gabriela Żmigrodzka, Angelika Leśniak, Viktoria Melik, Paulina Woś, Alicja Sierpińska, Małgorzata Malke,, Mateusz Małecki, Łukasz Strzelczyk,
Viola: Piotr Chrupek, Anna Luiza Aleksandrow-Bertasch, Wojciech Witek, Ivan Bertasch, Dymitr Olszewski
Cello: Bartosz Kokosza, Stanisław Stanicki
Double bass: Michał Bąk, Łukasz Macioszek, Rafał Makarski
Theorban: Henryk Kasperczak, Maciej Kończak
Traverso, piccolo: Maja Miro-Wiśniewska, Magdalena Pilch, Karolina Więsek
Oboe: Katarzyna Pilipiuk, Elżbieta Boguszewska, Marek Niewiedział
Clarinet: Jakub Drygas, Marek Michalski
Bassoon: Leszek Wachnik, Agnieszka Siemiankowska, Krzysztof Fiedukiewicz, Tomasz Wesołowski, Kamila Marcinkowska-Prasad
Horn: Mateusz Cendlak, Paweł Piętka, Agnieszka Rozwadowska, Karolina Mikołajczyk, Bartosz Duchnowski, Krzysztof Kur
Trumpet, pistoi: Paweł Hulisz, Filip Pysz, Justin Bland
Trombone:
Ferdinand Hendrich, Karl-Heinrich Wendorf, Andrzej Tkaczyk, Fryderyk Mizerski, Adrian Zawadzki
Ofikleida: Hans Martin Schlegel
Percussion instruments: Paweł Szewczyk, Anna Szadejko
Basso continuo/organs/harpischord: Agnieszka Wesołowska
Harp: Carlos Montoya
Glass harp: Anna i Arkadiusz Szafraniec (GlassDuo)
Goldberg Vocal Ensemble
VOCALISTS
Soprano: Maja Zalesińska, Magdalena Zięba- Lewandowska, Ewa Dubiella, Karolina Kotkowska, Marta Twardowska, Maria Krueger-Milej, Natalia Wojtasik
Alty: Aleksandra Zawada, Karolina Borowczyk, Pamela Chłodna, Alicja Weydmann, Justyna Kołakowska, Jagoda Staruch
Tenor: Miłosz Janiak, Adam Kupper, Krzysztof Lorek, Patryk Dopke, Piotr Bruździak
Bass: Damian Giczewski, Dominik Mazan, Szymon Chyliński, Szymon Kokocha
CONDUCTOR
ANDRZEJ SZADEJKO
He graduated with honours in 1998 from the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and in 2002 from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. He is a finalist and prizewinner of many international organ competitions in Poland, Belgium and Denmark. Szadejko has taken part in over 30 organ, harpsichord and pianoforte master classes and interpretation courses around Europe. Since 2006, he has been teaching organ and basso continuo in the Gdańsk Music Academy. He is a lecturer, creator of masterclasses and workshops in Poland, Germany, Finland and USA. In 2021, he became Professor of Arts. A scholarship holder of many Polish and European institutions. Since 1994, Szadejko has performed many concerts in Poland, most of the European countries and USA as a soloist, chamber musician and conductor. He is a leader, advisor and organ expert in many projects of historical and modern organs in Poland and Lithuania. Leader of Goldberg Baroque Ensemble.
As a soloist and conductor, he has over 30 original CD releases with Polish (Sarton, Dux, Acte Préalable, Ars Sonora) and German (Motette-Psallite, MDG) labels that received multiple nominations for Fryderyk and Opus Klassik awards. In 2022, he received the OPUS KLASSIK award in the Best World Premiere category for the album MUSICA BALTICA 9. Johann Daniel Pucklitz – Oratorio Secondo. A manager and artistic director of many musical events in Gdańsk and Warsaw: i.e. Concerts for Gdańsk residents, Pomerania 2008 – international meetings for organbuilders, GdO Tagung 2018 – International Meeting for Organ Lovers, ORGANy PLUS+® festival, MONIUSZKO_150, Pucklitz (2023), Amor Artis concerts in Malbork.
Johann Gottlieb Goldberg
Goldberg’s name is widely known. There is probably no musician who would not have heard J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Unfortunately, the extent of the common knowledge usually ends there.
Johann Gottlieb was the oldest son of Johann Goldberg, a violin maker born in Orunia in 1701, and Concordia Renata Witting. On 14 March 1727 he was baptised at St. Mary’s church in Gdańsk. The instruments made by Goldberg the father where highly valued in his times. They can still be seen in many collections such as the collection of Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte, Kunsthistorische Museum in Koln, Fr. Wildhagen’s collection in Hallensee, or the Museum of Musical Instruments in Berlin. Moreover, the archives of the National Museum in Warsaw include a 1916 coloured catalogue initialled W.S, showing a theorbe made in 1740. The instrument was a part of the collection accumulated by Gustaw Soubise-Bisier, who lived at the turn of 19. and 20. centuries.
Unfortunately, his collection has not survived World War 2 and the fate of that particular instrument is unknown.
Apart from making instruments Johann Goldberg engaged in organising musical life and became the focus of a group of amateur musicians. Young Johann Gottlieb Goldberg was growing up in the aura of music. He might likely have taken lessons from Johann Balthasar Chrisian Freislich, the then bandmaster at St. Mary’s church and a friend of the Goldberg family.
Johann Gottlieb left Gdańsk together with Count Hermann Carl von Keyserlingk, who was born in Courland in 1696 and died in Warsaw in 1764. The Count was the president of the Academy of Science in Petersburg, and from 1733 the Russian ambassador at the royal court in Dresden. His political missions led him to Gdańsk on two occasions. In 1728, coming back from one of his visits to the city, he took the talented Goldberg boy with him to be taught by the two Bachs: Wilhelm Friedmann and Johann Sebastian. On Keyserlingk’s recommendation J.S. Bach was appointed a court composer of the royal band on 19 November 1736. Several days later, on 1 December, in the presence of his patron Bach gave a grand organ concerto in Dresden to celebrate the appointment distinction which had been his goal for the past three years. For the patron, too, Bach composed his famous Air with Variations (BWV 988), later called the Goldberg Variations after the name of their first performer.
This is what Johann Nicolaus Forkel, the first biographer of Bach, wrote in 1802 referring to the origins of the Variations: “Count Keyserling was frequently ill and when down he suffered from insomnia. When the Count was sleepless Goldberg, who lived at his house, was asked to spend nights playing in the adjacent room. On one occasion the Count told Bach that he would like him to write several harpsichord pieces for his Goldberg and that he wanted the pieces to be so light and merry that they would entertain him during the sleepless nights. Bach believed that he could address the wish best by writing variations, which was the musical form he had so far considered an arduous task because of the repeated harmonic base. Later, the Count would only refer to the variations as ‘his’ variations. He was never bored of listening to them and for a long time, during the sleepless spells, he would always repeat: Dear Goldberg, play for me one of my variations. No other masterpiece, it seems, earned an equally high fee to Bach. The Count rewarded him a golden cup filled with 100 Louis d’or coins”.
In 1751 Goldberg joined the orchestra of Count Heinrich von Brühl, the first minister at the Dresden court, where he worked till his last days. “Curiosa Canonica” published in Dresden recorded his death on 15 April 1756, and an issue of “Kern Dresdenischer Merkwürdichkeiten” included his obituary: “Moreover, on 15 April Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, a court musician aged 29, died of tuberculosis. He will be greatly missed for his exquisite skills in playing the harpsichord…”
Reichardt’s “Autobiography” of 1805 is a valuable source providing a brief characteristics of the early deceased harpsichordist. It describes Goldberg as a “melancholic and stubborn eccentric”, who fervently either offered or refused his friendship. As to his compositions, he used to tear them to pieces and was reluctant to discuss his decision. Reichardts refers to Goldberg’s surviving pieces as “dull miniatures for ladies”. We also learn from Reichardt that Goldberg’s hands were “of an unusual build” and his talent for reading music was exceptional. He could easily do it even with the sheets turned upside down. His passionate playing, which he exercised from his early years, was full of fantasy and evidences a great improvising talent.
I hope that the Johann Gottlieb Goldberg Festival started in 2006 will bring the composer’s figure back to the public memory and popularise the music of this virtuoso, one of the greatest in 18. century. I also hope that the Goldberg Variations will always evoke the image of Gdańsk in us. Had it not been for the city and the climate of its music Count Keyserlingk might have never heard ‘his’ Variations…
repertoire
Johann Georg Alberchtsberger (1736-1809)
Koncert B-dur na organy i smyczki;
Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751)
Adagio g-moll;
Anonim (XVII w.)
Veni Sancte Spiritus BG PAN Ms. Joh. 273;
Anonim (XVIII w.)
Veni Sancte Spiritus BG PAN Ms. Joh. 274;
Thomas Augustine Arne (1710-1778)
6 organ concertos;
Jan Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Jauchzet Gott in Allen Landen BWV 51;
Geist und Seele wird verwirret BWV 35;
Moteten BWV 225-229;
Missa in h-moll BWV 232
Johannespassion BWV 245
Matthäus-Passion BWV 244
Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen BWV 12
Johann Jeremias du Grain (?-1756)
Alter Adam du musst sterben;
Willkommen, Erlöser der Eden;
Hertzlich lieb hab ich dich o Herr PL-GD Ms. Joh. 187;
Willkommen Erlöser der Eden. Cantata am ersten Weynachts-Feurtage, PL-GD Ms. Joh. 188;
Alter Adam, du musst starben, PL-GD Ms. Joh. 189;
Herr, nun lässest du Deinen Diener in Frieden gehen. Cantata am Fest der Reinigung Mariae a 6., PL-GD Ms. Joh. 185;
Mitten wir im Leben sind. Trauermusic bey Beerdigung des weyland Herrn Burger-Meisters Jung Schultz Neodici von Robern, PL-GD Ms. Joh. 186;
Johann Balthasar Erben (1626-1686)
Herr Christ, der ein’ge Gottes Sohn;
Johann Balthasar Christian Freislich (1687-1764)
Kinder der Musen. Occasional Cantata for the “induction” of professors January 9, 1749 for Soli, Chorus and Orchestra, PL-GD Ms. Jon. 37 FreisWV E 28;
Eilet, ihr beglückten Schiffe, aus dem weiten Orient. Coffee Cantata for Bass Solo and Orchestra, PL-GD Ms. Joh. 11 FreisWV E 33;
Auf, Danzig, lass in jauchzenden Chören. Jubelee Cantata on the 300th anniversary of the liberation from the rule of the Teutonic Order February 27, 1754 for Soli, Chorus and Orchestra, PL-GD Ms. Joh. 15 FreisWV E 20;
Jauchzet dem Herrn alle Welt, PL-GD Ms. Joh. 17;
Cantata post sacram coenam – Gott ist die Liebe, PL-GD Ms. Joh. 18;
Das ist meine Freude PL-GD Ms. Joh. 22;
Der Tod ist verschlungen in den Sieg, Cantata Feria 1. Paschali, Ms. Joh. 33;
Er ist darum für alle gestorben, Cantata feria llda Paschali;
Lobe den Hern meine Seele;
Caspar Förster (1693-1745)
Jesu, dulcis memoria;
Johann Balthasar Christian Freislich (1687-1764)
— final choir from cantata Auf, Danzig, lass in jauchzenden Chören PL-GD Ms. Joh. 15, FreisWV E 20
Gessel (XVIII w.)
Vater ich will, dass wo ich bin BG PAN Ms. Cath. f. 46;
Johann Gottlieb Goldberg (1727-1756)
Haprischord Concerto D minor (Allegro, Largo, Allegro di molto)
Haprischord Concerto E flat major (Allegro, Largo con sordini, Allegro di molto)
Carl Heinrich Graun (1704-1759)
Concerto F-dur für Orgel und Streicher;
Johann Georg Hoffmann (1700-1780)
Nun lob meine Seel den Herren PL-GD Ms. Joh. 162;
Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759)
6 Organ Concertos Op. 4;
Sonata per Organo Concertato e Orchestra nell’opera „Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno“;
Messiah HVW 56;
Johann Valentin Meder (1649-1719)
pro festo S. Michaelis archangeli: Singet, lobsinget mit Hertzen und Zungen a 11, PL-GD Ms. Joh. 192;
Lauda Jerusalem Dominum;
Quid est hoc quod sentio;
Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder;
Gott, mein Herz ist bereit;
Die höllische Schlange darf nimmer uns beißen;
Wünschet Jerusalem Glück;
Vox mitte clamorem;
Wie murren denn die Leut’ im Leben also?;
Meine Seele seutzt und stöhnet (Andächtige Communion-Musique);
Gott, du bist derselbe mein König;
Friedrich Christian Mohrheim (1719-1780)
Preise Jerusalem den Herrn;
Ich weiss, dass mein Erlöser lebt, Cantata Feria 1. Paschali;
Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen d. 29. Decembr. 1768 BG PAN Ms. Joh. 35;
Johann Daniel Pucklitz (1705-1744)
Ist Jemand in Christo, Ms. Joh. 246
Denen zu Zion wird ein Erlöser kommen, Ms. Joh. 262
Erstanden ist der heil’ge Christ, Concert ex D # auf Ostern, Ms. Joh. 241
Erstanden ist der heil’ge Christ, Cantata in Fest Pasch., Ms. Joh. 240
Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt, BG PAN Ms. Joh. 245;
Concerto post 22 Trin. Kehre wieder, PL-GD Ms. Joh. 235;
Concerto 27 post Trin. Ich will in allen Sachen, PL-GD Ms. Joh. 237;
Der sehr unterschiedene Wandel und Tod der Gottlosen und Gottsfurchtigen / The very different Conduct and Death of the Godless and God-fearing;
Cantata Am 2. Sonntag nach dem Fest d. Erscheinung Christi (Du hast den guten Wein) PL-GD Ms. Joh. 228
Cantata Am 3. Sonntag nach dem Fest der Erscheinung Christi (Dein Schade ist verzweifelt böse) PL-GD Ms. Joh. 229
Cantata Am 4ten Sonntag nach dem Fest der Erscheinung Christi (Erwecke dich Herr) PL-GD Ms. Joh. 230
Cantata Am 5ten Sonntag nach dem Fest der Erscheinung Christi oder Sexagesima (Herr hast du nicht guten Samen) PL-GD Ms. Joh. 231
Missa ex D♮ et in Terra D# PL-GD Ms. Joh. 226
Cantata Nimm was dein ist PL-GD Ms Joh. 243
Cantata Wohl dem, der mit Lust PL-GD Ms Joh. 232
Concerto Befiehl dem Herrn deine Wege PL-GD Ms Joh. 244
Cantata Höchster Priester der du dich PL-GD Ms Joh.242
Cantata Herr Jesu Christ wahrer Mensch und Gott, PL-GD Ms Joh. 247
Cantata Wir haben einen Fürsprecher PL-GD Ms Joh. 249
Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872)
Msza Es-dur;
Msza d-moll;
Benedictus;
Na Memineris Psalm 79, Ojcze Nasz;
Psalm 119 Vide humilitatem meam
Litania Ostrobramska I
Litania Ostrobramska II
Litania Ostrobramska III
Marsz Żałobny pamięci Antoniego Orłowskiego
Ecce Lignum Crucis w instrumentacji Z.Noskowskiego
Wolfgang Amadeusz Mozart (1756-1791)
Kirchensonaten: C-dur KV 336, in D KV 245, in G KV 274, in F KV 244 i in C KV 328;
Missa Brevis KV 49;
Requiem KV 629
Valentin Rathgeber (1682-1750)
Missa in F;
Johann Theodor Roemhildt (1684-1756)
Ich Freue mich dess, dass mir geredt ist RoemV 144;
Zeuch doch allerliebster Jesu RoemV 35;
Ach dass die Hülffe aus Zion über Issrael käme RoemV 28;
Kommt, ihr Herzen, kommt ihr Lippen “C. G. S. Ao. 1727”, ROEM V 29, Ms. Joh. 58
Nun danket alle Gott, RoemV 30, Ms. Joh. 58
Jesu schenk uns deinen Frieden, Cantata Feria 3. Paschat., RoemV 12, Ms. Joh. 75;
Ermuntre dich mein gantz Gemüthe, RoemV 7,
Muss nicht der Mensch immer im Streit seyn, RoemV 5,
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Concerto per archi e organo RV 767;
Nisi Dominus RV 608;