Le Trèfle Fleuri
Early music duo founded in 2020 by Magdalena Kasprzyk-Dobija (viola da gamba) and Maciej Skrzeczkowski (harpsichord and fortepiano)
They met while studying at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where they developed their artistic personalities under the guidance of Richard Egarr, Mieneke van der Velden, Bart van Oort, Lucia Swarts and other specialists in historical performance practice.
Inspired by the beauty and richness of the repertoire for viola da gamba and harpsichord, and also searching for new possibilities of these instruments, the musicians eagerly reach for the masterpieces of French, German and Dutch composers – starting with Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (in their own arrangements), through French masters such as Marin Marais, Antoine Forqueray and François Couperin, up to Johann Sebastian Bach, Christoph Schaffrath & Carl Friedrich Abel.
The duo’s activities have resulted in a project of the complete Sonatas by Johann Sebastian Bach for viola da gamba and harpsichord obligato, as well as performances during the Sweelinck Festival, Utrecht Early Music Festival and on radio Concertzender. Thanks to an emerging collaboration with flutist and harpsichord maker Jean-Pierre Menuge, they have given concert tours in Provence (2023) and Ardéche (2024).
Maciej Skrzeczkowski
Maciej Skrzeczkowski (2001) specializes in historical performance on the harpsichord and fortepiano. He received numerous awards in piano and harpsichord competitions in Poland and abroad, including the 3rd prize at the Concorso Internazionale di Clavicembalo in Milan in 2019 and the 1st prize and special Outhere award at the Musica Antiqua Competition for harpsichord in Bruges in 2023, where he was one of the youngest winners in the competition’s long history.
Skrzeczkowski has performed at numerous venues in Poland (e.g. Chopin Museum in Warsaw, Polish Radio Hall in Warsaw, Auditorium Maximum in Warsaw, Chopin’s birthplace in Żelazowa Wola, Potocki’s Palace in Kraków during Misteria Paschalia festival, Opole Philarmonic, Villa Atma in Zakopane) Italy (Urbino Musica Antica Festival), France (tours in Ardèche and Provence), Belgium (Vleeshuis Museum in Antwerp, Concertgebouw Brugge) and Japan (Iwaki Alios Recital Hall, Izumi Hall in Osaka, Philia Hall in Yokohama, Hamarikyu Asahi Hall in Tokyo, Tokorozawa Muse Cube Hall, Atorion Akita, Kurara Hall in Hiroshima).
In 2019, he participated in the premiere recording of Roman Palester’s Concertino per clavicembalo e dieci strumenti with Sinfonia Iuventus and Łukasz Borowicz. The album was later nominated for the prestigious phonographic award Fryderyk.
He is also a promoter of Franciszek Lessel’s music — in 2022, he gave the first ever concert presentation of all of the composer’s sonatas at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague; since then he regularly includes Lessel’s works in his concert programme
In 2023, he was nominated for Koryfeusz Muzyki Polskiej, the most prestigious Polish music award, in the category ‘discovery of the year’.
In 2024, as a result of winning the first prize and Outhere award during MA Competion for harpsichord a year prior, Skrzeczkowski recorded his debut solo album The Real John Bull, which presents the real variety of the English composer’s output through twenty diverse masterpieces, performed entirely on virginals (English and Flemish ‘mother and child’). It was released in September 2024 by Ricercar, a Belgian label specialised in early music recordings. Skrzeczkowski promoted the album with his concert during the MA Festival in Bruges that year and will perform a selection of Bull’s pieces during La Folle Journée in Warsaw and at the London International Festival of Early Music.
He graduated from the State Music School in Płońsk in Anna Koźniewska’s piano class. Later, he studied piano with Marek Bracha and harpsichord with Beata Popis at the Zenon Brzewski Music School in Warsaw. Then, he proceeded to study harpsichord and fortepiano at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague with Carole Cerasi, Bart van Oort, and Petra Somlaï. For the moment, he continues his studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory with Kris Verhelst and Menno van Delft.
He has honed his skills through participation in numerous masterclasses, including those with Skip Sempé, Pierre Hantaï, Władysław Kłosiewicz, Elżbieta Stefanska, Kristian Bezuidenhout, and Christophe Rousset.
Magdalena Kasprzyk-Dobija
Born in Cracow, Magdalena Kasprzyk-Dobija graduated Cum Laude with a Master’s degree in early music from The Royal Conservatoire in The Hague where she studied viola da gamba with Mieneke van der Velden and Joshua Cheatham and historical cello with Lucia Swarts. In the year 2019 she obtained her Master’s degree in performance on cello in the class of Piotr Janosik at The Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. In the years 2016-2020 she also studied viola da gamba at The Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław with Kazimierz Pyzik.
Magdalena performed in Poland, Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary and took part in world premieres of contemporary pieces and in recordings for Radio Cracow, Polish Television, Polish Radio, NPO Radio 4. She performed e.g. during festivals Utrecht Oude Muziek Festival, Emanacje (Poland), Świdnica Bach Festival (Poland), Sweelinck Festival (Amsterdam), BACHfestival (Utrecht), Pro Archi Fesztival (Hungary). Both on cello and viola da gamba, she is invited to concert projects by Dutch early music orchestras such as Utrecht Company of Music, Barokorchest La Sorpresa and Cappella Maria Barbara. As a chamber music performer she took prize in international competitions in Slovakia, Poland and Hungary.
Magdalena performed in Poland, Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary and took part in world premieres of contemporary pieces and in recordings for Radio Cracow, Polish Television, Polish Radio, NPO Radio 4. She performed e.g. during festivals Utrecht Oude Muziek Festival, Emanacje (Poland), Świdnica Bach Festival (Poland), Sweelinck Festival (Amsterdam), BACHfestival (Utrecht), Pro Archi Fesztival (Hungary). Both on cello and viola da gamba, she is invited to concert projects by Dutch early music orchestras such as Utrecht Company of Music, Barokorchest La Sorpresa and Cappella Maria Barbara. As a chamber music performer she took prize in international competitions in Slovakia, Poland and Hungary.
Magdalena Kasprzyk-Dobija attended courses and masterclasses with e.g. Philippe Pierlot, Paolo Pandolfo, Marianne Muller, Petr Wagner, Vittorio Ghielmi, Marcel Pérès, Peter Kooij, Roel Dieltiens, Irene Klein, Sara Ruiz, Alexander Gebert, Frans Helmerson, Martyna Pastuszka, Marcin Świątkiewicz. In the year 2015 she attended to II Summer Music Academy in the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music in Lusławice directed by Sharoun Ensemble Der Berliner Philharmoniker.
For the year 2024, Magdalena has been invited by the European Hanseatic Ensemble to take part in CD recording and concert tours in Germany and Sweden.