A concert by the Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra and the Men’s Choir of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic in Białystok has inaugurated the 51st Wratislavia Cantans festival in southwestern Poland.

The concert was conducted by Andrzej Boreyko.

The programme of the concert included Shostakovich’s Symphony Nr. 13 ‘Babi-Yar’ which was inspired by the killing of several dozen of Russian Jews by the Germans in September 1941 in Babi-Yar near Kiev, and “Zan Tontemiquico”, a piece by Mikołaj Górecki, the son of the late Polish composer Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, now a resident of Mexico.

The programme of the 11-day Wratislavia Cantans includes 36 concerts, 19 in the city of Wrocław itself and the remaining ones in the smaller localities of the province.

Featured musicians and ensembles include Jordi Savall, John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists and Hesperion XXI.

Wratislavia Cantans is one of the oldest music festivals in Poland. Founded in 1966, it is a member of the Geneva-based European Association of Music Festivals and of the International Society for Performing Arts Foundation in New York.