It sometimes seems like Poland has its own, peculiarly national, hotline to God. Why this should be, beyond the fact that it produces the occasional pope, is more a question for historians than music critics. But the Poles are undeniably and overwhelmingly devout, and it’s reflected in their music, which leans heavily these days toward the spiritual.
Their sacred choral music claims a certain prominence now – rivalling the fashionably meditative choral works that pour out of the Baltic states – and it’s just had a major British platform in a festival organised by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Poland’s equivalent of our British Council. Called Joy & Devotion, it featured concerts at London’s St Martin-in-the-Fields.
