It was a very special evening, as the synagogue hosted the first performance of Margaret’s Toy for quarter-tone-tuned harpsichord, a work by our dear friend and one of Poland’s most distinguished living contemporary composers, Paweł Szymański.
Immediately after the concert, a meeting and conversation with the composer and performer took place at the White Synagogue. The discussion was moderated by Emil Pietrzyk.
STYLUS FANTASTICUS
Meditations, laments and plaintive reflections shaped into free forms of expression and presented in the rich harmonies of meantone temperament. How strongly does the tuning of an instrument determine a performer’s interpretation? Can today’s listener perceive the clashes created by the temperament as deliberate rhetorical devices?
The programme consisted of unmeasured works from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, arranged by the performer into a fluid musical narrative – a journey through the Baroque stylus phantasticus, shaped as a personal fantastic suite.
A surprising harmonic counterpart was Paweł Szymański’s latest work for harpsichord, Margaret’s Toy, composed for Małgorzata Sarbak in 2024.
STYLUS FANTASTICUS – Programme
François Couperin (1668–1733)
Premier prélude from L’Art de toucher le clavecin in C major
Johann Jakob Froberger (1617–1667)
Plainte faite à Londres pour passer la Mélancolie la quelle se jouë lentement et à discretion from Suite No. 30 in A minor
Fantasia II, FbWV 202, A minor
Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (1665–1729)
Prelude III, A minor
Johann Jakob Froberger
Fantasia VI, FbWV 206, A minor
Louis Couperin (1626–1661)
Prélude à l’imitation de Mr Froberger, A minor
François Couperin
Seconde prélude from L’Art de toucher le clavecin, D minor
Johann Jakob Froberger
Toccata II, FbWV 102, D minor
François Couperin
Cinquième prélude from L’Art de toucher le clavecin, A major
Jean-Henri d’Anglebert (1629–1691)
Tombeau de Mr de Chambonnières from Pièces de clavecin, D major
Louis Couperin
Pavane, F-sharp minor
Johann Jakob Froberger
Meditation faite sur ma mort future, la quelle se joue lentement avec Discrétion from Suite No. 20 in D major
A break
Paweł Szymański
Margaret’s Toy (2024)
Małgorzata Sarbak
Małgorzata Sarbak is a harpsichordist, pianist and teacher, closely associated with Warsaw’s Lado ABC community. She obtained the 2025 C. K. Norwid Award in Music.
Her achievements include Poland’s first complete publication of J. S. Bach’s harpsichord Partitas (Lado ABC), as well as a monographic album devoted to the music of Paweł Szymański, released by Bôłt Records and nominated for a Fryderyk Award.
She has given the world premieres of Szymański’s works, including Les Poiriers en Pologne ou une Suite de Pieces Sentimentales de Clavecin faites par Mr Szymanski, as well as works written specifically for and dedicated to her: Dissociative Counterpoint Disorder (2014) and Margaret’s Toy (2024).
She has composed music for several theatre productions and has published articles in Forum Muzykologiczne. She studied in Warsaw with Prof. L. Kędracki and Prof. W. Kłosiewicz, and at the New England Conservatory in Boston with Prof. J. Gibbons. She further developed her skills with leading harpsichordists including Prof. H. Dreyfus, K. Haugsand, B. van Asperen, J. Van Immerseel, J. Ogg and M. Van Delft.
She has received a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.
Sarbak collaborates with Danish flautist Bolette Roed. Together, the artists focus on fundamental works of Baroque music, presenting them in new instrumental settings, including sonatas for harpsichord and violin and Bach’s sinfonias transcribed for harpsichord and recorder.
She is also a member of Mitch & Mitch con il loro Gruppo Etereofonico, with whom she received a Fryderyk Award in 2023 for the album Amore assoluto per Ennio.
For the past 20 years, Sarbak has taught harpsichord, basso continuo and chamber ensembles at the F. Chopin State Music School Complex in Warsaw.
Her artistic work also focuses on the music of F. Chopin. She performs his Mazurkas on an exceptionally rare tangent piano, exploring new means of expression and drawing on the instrument’s unique possibilities.
In autumn 2026, her next album devoted to the music of Paweł Szymański is due to be released. Together with her 2016 album, it will form a complete publication of the composer’s works for harpsichord.