Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival is one of the largest and most important musical events in Poland. It takes place in the week before Easter and is traditionally preceded by the exhibition of musical manuscripts from the Jagiellonian Library.
The topic of this year’s exhibition, corresponding to the motto of the 22nd Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival is Beethoven and Great Anniversaries. As the programme of the festival refers to a number of important anniversaries celebrated this year, the Jagiellonian Library exhibition particularly refers to one of them: the 100th anniversary of regaining independence by Poland. Hence, along with the manuscripts of the works by the Viennese master, including his symphonies, chamber music pieces, and piano compositions, the exhibition also comprises manuscripts by the most famous Polish composers from the period of foreign rule after the partitions of Poland (1795-1918), when Polish culture was primarily focused on shaping and maintaining national identity of Poles, who were deprived of their own statehood.
Besides Beethoven’s manuscripts, the exhibition also features the medieval manuscript of the oldest Polish religious song Bogurodzica, the early edition of Mazurek Dąbrowskiego, the song which became the Polish national anthem, Śpiewy Historyczne by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, along with their musical adaptations, Stanisław Moniuszko’s songs, as well as world-famous works by Frederic Chopin and Karol Szymanowski. The common feature of the exhibits is their relation to the Polish national identity.
The exhibition features musical manuscripts from the former Prussian State Library in Berlin and the Musical Collections of the Jagiellonian Library, whereas the photographs and prints are part of the Graphic and Cartographic Collection of the Jagiellonian Library.
The exhibition can be visited from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.