Tuesday 6 December 2022

In the coming year, we will enjoy the special 20th edition of Misteria Paschalia, which will provide an opportunity for a reminiscence journey into the past. The programme will focus on celebrating the festival’s history, its contribution to the development of the early music sector in Poland and the extraordinary bonds that have been forged during this time.

So, let us celebrate! Primarily through music. We offer a selection of outstanding works by distinguished composers that have already been performed at the Misteria Paschalia Festival on many occasions, such as the arrangement of the Stabat Mater sequence by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (probably the most famous one), Dietrich Buxtehude ‘s Membra Jesu nostri or a selection from Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Leçons de Tenebrae. We will also offer works to be presented for the first time, such as Michelangelo Falvetti’s oratorio Il diluvio universale and Heinrich Schütz’s Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund. We will hear what the festival audiences loves the most, namely passion songs, music by masters of the French Baroque and the Italian South.

We celebrate relationships, because every festival should, above all, connect. We will see in Kraków once again such artists as Vincent Dumestre with Le Poéme Harmonique and Christophe Rousset with Les Talens Lyrique – two outstanding ensembles that have made festival history over the years. Their concerts are planned for, respectively, the opening and closing of the main festival programme. Another returning artists is Leonardo García Alarcón, while Sebastien Daucé and Ensemble Correspondances will be performing at our festival for the first time. They will bring with them a programme specially prepared for the 2020 Misteria Paschalia Festival, a memorable edition cancelled at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. We will have the opportunity to hear them twice, including at the “Wieliczka” Salt Mine, which has been their dream for a long time.

We are celebrating the youth, energy and freshness of performance that is an essential component of the festival. We have always been committed to showcasing young musicians and to enabling local creators to work with some of the world’s greatest artists. We are fulfilling both of these missions by inviting the Cohaere Ensemble, a group of four charismatic young artists from Silesia, to the festival.

A new feature, about which we have been thinking for several years, will be a concert on Easter, celebrated in the Eastern Rite, which in 2023 falls a week after the festival. It has been integrated into the main line-up of events, so the next year’s Misteria Paschalia will last longer than usual. This concert is a pretext of sorts to introduce festival audiences to the early music of the eastern regions of Europe with its beautiful and rich tradition, which does not find its way into concert programmes as often as it deserves. That is why we have invited Ensemble Irini, a young vocal ensemble from France, exploring the differences and similarities in the traditions of East and West, to bring them together in a programme dedicated to the broadly understood mystery of rebirth.

It is Jacek Majchrowski, Mayor of the City of Kraków, and Carolina Pietyra, director of the Krakow Festival Office (KBF), who invite you for the Misteria Paschalia Festival in 2023.

For many years, the city of Kraków has hosted a unique event, one of the largest early music festivals in Europe: Misteria Paschalia. In April, we will traditionally meet in Kraków’s most beautiful sacred interiors and concert halls to experience the Holy Week together with the best world-renowned performers of early music. I would like to invite you to take part in the Misteria Paschalia Festival and continue with us this beautiful, twenty-year-old tradition. During Easter, Kraków becomes not only the capital of culture, but also the world centre of early music, says the city’s mayor, Jacek Majchrowski.

Carolina Pietyra, Director of KBF, adds:

Misteria Paschalia Festival could not be missing from KBF’s plans for 2023. We listen to the voices of our audiences, for whom early music concerts have become an integral part of Kraków’s cultural map in the springtime. Next year’s edition will be special because of the round anniversary, which will provide us with an opportunity to reminisce, summarize and recall the most beautiful musical moments of the past years. With a sense of mission, we embrace the challenges that the modern world poses to culture, while at the same time having well-established basis in the beautiful 20-year tradition of Misteria Paschalia.

That is why the jubilee edition of the festival is for us at the same time another journey into the world of early music, a sentimental journey through the rich history of this event and a journey to its roots. It is also a kind of crossroads: an opportunity to draw on the past, in a beautiful way, to close a chapter of our history and begin another one, which, we all hope, will be equally fascinating and full of delights.

It is worth mentioning that the graphic design for Misteria Paschalia 2023 was created in a place that knows the festival inside out and is actually its home: the Krakow Festival Office (KBF). It draws inspiration from minimalism, medieval typefaces such as fraktur and bastarda, and Baroque engravings, especially by Rembrandt. The use of gold is a reference to the jubilee of the festival and the three main elements of the composition refer to the Holy Trinity.

Misteria Paschalia 2023 will take place on April 4-16. The concerts will take place, among others, in the Church of St Catherine of Alexandria, the Kraków Philharmonic and the “Wieliczka” Salt Mine. Ticket and festival passed sales will start at midnight on December 9 this year. For participants in the KBF:PLUS loyalty programme, a pre-sale with a 20% discount will be open from December 6, 14:00, to December 8 this year.

We encourage you to check out the festival programme at misteriapaschalia.com and to buy tickets at kbfbilety.krakow.pl or through the KBF:PLUS app. 

Misteria Paschalia Festival is organised by: The City of Kraków and Krakow Festival Office (KBF). Kraków Philharmonic is partner of the festival.

More news

Keybord Days – apply for a masterclass and improvisation workshop!
Tuesday 5 March 2024

Keybord Days – apply for a masterclass and improvisation workshop!

Keyboard Days – a three-day celebration of keyboard instruments – include not only an exhibition and recitals but also masterclasses, improvisation workshops and panels. These events form the educational part of the Misteria Paschalia Festival. Masterclasses to be conducted by Jean-Luc Ho, Justin Taylor and Pierre Hantaï are addressed to students and graduates of music […]

read more
Misteria Paschalia 2024. Showcasing the programme of one of the most important early music festivals in Europe.
Monday 15 January 2024

Misteria Paschalia 2024. Showcasing the programme of one of the most important early music festivals in Europe.

Eight days, ten locations, dozens of events… This year, the artistic direction of the Misteria Paschalia Festival was entrusted to Vincent Dumestre, who is already very well known among audiences in Krakow as the founder, artistic director and conductor of Le Poème Harmonique ensemble, whose concerts have been highly anticipated by festival audiences for many […]

read more
Anniversary edition of Misteria Paschalia! Explore the festival programme | 4–16 April 2023
Tuesday 6 December 2022

Anniversary edition of Misteria Paschalia! Explore the festival programme | 4–16 April 2023

In the coming year, we will enjoy the special 20th edition of Misteria Paschalia, which will provide an opportunity for a reminiscence journey into the past. The programme will focus on celebrating the festival’s history, its contribution to the development of the early music sector in Poland and the extraordinary bonds that have been forged […]

read more
Return to the Sources.  Misteria Paschalia Festival 2022
Friday 25 February 2022

Return to the Sources. Misteria Paschalia Festival 2022

Misteria Paschalia has been discovering and presenting compositions linked with Holy Week and Easter for many years. The festival continually evolves by inviting a new director-in-residence each year. Their different experiences and interests mean that every festival is unlike the previous, and we can experience events surrounding Easter with a fresh perspective. To make sure […]

read more
Early Mmusic Day
Sunday 21 March 2021

Early Mmusic Day

For the last nine years, the first day of spring has coincided with Early Music Day. The symbolic date is no accident, since it marks the birthday of J.S. Bach. The REMA European Early Music Network has established the event as a celebration of European music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and the Baroque. This […]

read more
Misteria Paschalia Festival
Monday 1 March 2021

Misteria Paschalia Festival

One of the most important early music festivals in Europe, Misteria Paschalia is held every year during Holy Week. Held for the 18th time, this year’s festival is a continuation of the journey through Europe launched in 2017. This time, Misteria Paschalia’s perambulations take us even further afield, exploring the music and culture of the Iberian […]

read more

Organizers