It is a beautiful and long-standing tradition of the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir in the pre-Christmas period to invite music lovers to a concert of Christmas carols and songs based on the best arrangements in the repertoire. The audience will hear both well-known works as well as those less frequently performed. Poland boasts an immense treasure trove of hundreds of Christmas carols composed over the course of half a millennium. One of the first individuals to collect and research them was Rev. Michał Mioduszewski, the author of the very important and ground-breaking collection Pastorałki i kolędy z melodiami (1843); numerous carol melodies and words were also written down by Oskar Kolberg, Zygmunt Gloger and Aleksander Brückner, among others, as well as by Rev. Jan Siedlecki, who collected and edited the Śpiewnik kościelny (1878), which is the foundation for many choral and solo arrangements to this day.
The concert programme will be complemented by other masterpieces of choral music, which in their mood reflect both the solemn and joyous sides of the Christmas spirit.
