Julia Kociuban is considered as one of the leading polish pianists of her generation. Her debut solo album ‘Schumann, Chopin, Bacewicz’ was praised by critics as one of the most interesting Polish piano debuts of the past years. Her two albums with Bacewicz and Tansman Piano Concertos and Quintets were nominated for the Polish Music Industry Prize ‘Fryderyk’. She has already been invited to perform in renowned European concert halls including the Herkulessall in Munich, the Konzerthaus of Vienna and of Berlin and the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg. She has also performed in America and Asia and at the most known international music festivals in the world, including La Rouge d’Antheron, La Folle Journée, Kissinger Sommer, The Young Euro Classic Piano Festival, and The Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival.

Kociuban graduated from the Royal College of Music in London, Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg and Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw where she studied with Dmitri Alexeev, Pavel Gililov and Piotr Paleczny. In 2019 she received her doctoral degree in music, and a year later she completed postgraduate studies for cultural managers at the Warsaw School of Economics. Alongside her solo career Julia Kociuban teaches at the Bacewicz University of Music in Lodz (Poland). She is also a founder and director of BISMA Bacewicz International Summer Music Academy. On the present release she presents a showcase of Polish Polonaises.

The Cracow Harp Quintet was founded in 2019; it consists of an unusual set of instruments: flute, harp, and a string trio. As the only such professional chamber ensemble in Poland, it promotes music that has been forgotten or has not been published yet. Thanks to the joint initiative, the members of the ensemble share many years of experience of concerts, festivals, and competitions in Poland and abroad. The album Hommage is a tribute to the output of the composers associated with the Quintette Instrumental de Paris – a formation whose 100th anniversary of the foundation falls this year. The album will feature compositions by artists who were closely related to the ensemble, such as Jean Absil, Jacques Pillois, Aleksan der Tansman, and Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur. The repertoire is distinguished by its diverse nature: French Impressionism, medieval monody motifs, fascination with East Asian culture as well as the 20th-century idiom of Polish music. The album will feature the world recording premiere of Jacques Pillois’s suite 5 Haïkaï and the Polish recording premiere of Sonatina da camera by Aleksander Tansman.

The Bellarti Trio was formed in 2004. The members of Bellarti Trio met during their studies at the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College of Music and immediately realized that in spite of their different backgrounds they represented the same values in music making. Since then the trio has made regular performances and continuously broadened their repertoire. On this release they present a program of works by Anton Arensky and Dmitri Shostakovich.

The variety of styles, forms, and colours has fascinated and inspired Polish composers for many years. From Baroque to contemporary music, in the time of the First Polish Republic, during the partitions, and during the most tragic 20th century. It was Chopin that made Polish music famous in the world. However, there are still many other composers who are very interesting and deserve to be remembered and sometimes even discovered. Polish composers created music regardless of unfavourable circumstances, and in their music we find, above all, the Polish spirit that tied them to their country forever, even when it was impossible to find it on maps, but nevertheless it existed in the inalienable identity. It was that output and those biographies that inspired the creation of the International Competition of Polish Music, whose first edition was held in 2019; therefore, it is one of the youngest performance competitions in Poland.

Its programme differs from the one of typical performance competitions, as it consists solely of music by Polish composers. Moreover, the emphasis is on the quest for new repertoire, constantly rediscovered by researchers, but also by the performers themselves. One could ask whether such a competition makes sense. Similar questions arose when the Chopin Competition was founded less than 100 years ago. Very few people believed in the success of Jerzy Żurawlew’s initiative. 26 pianists came to the first Chopin Competition in 1927. Later, the list of participants grew steadily to reach over 500 in 2021. We are convinced that the International Competition of Polish Music will follow the same path. It was Poles that dominated the second edition of the event that ended in 2021, but – despite 6 the pandemic turmoil – there were also guests from far away. Among the pianists, the first two places were taken by foreigners, i.e. American Canadian pianist Carter Johnson and Ivan Shemchuk from Ukraine. A Pole – Michał Karol Szymanowski – won the third place.

The above proves the importance of the Competition, which attracts interesting and ambitious artists from different countries. The presented album is a selection of particularly interesting artistic creations. The first CD features excerpts from the performances of the winners of the first three prizes in both categories (piano and chamber music), while the second includes the interpretations awarded with special prizes and honourable mentions. Thus, an extraordinary panorama of Polish music emerges, from Karol Mikuli to Witold Lutosławski, which allows us to show the paths of Polish 19thand 20th-century music in an unconventional way. Our album features recording premieres of works by Henryk Pachulski and Miłosz Magin, but also charming piano Waltzes by Stanisław Moniuszko, a fragment of an exotic suite by Leopold Godowsky, impressive compositions for two pianos by Roman Maciejewski, or Grażyna Bacewicz’s Piano Sonata No. 2, full of virtuoso splendour.

We present you with an album that is a great exploratory adventure; it will satisfy every experienced seeker of new artistic discoveries. It includes works by as many as 20 composers active over the course of over 100 years. Thus, we close the second chapter of the International Competition of Polish Music and launch the next one, which will be completed in 2023. It is already now that we invite you to this extraordinary meeting with outstanding performers and wonderful output of Polish composers.

The Karol Rathaus Ensemble, carrying out its mission to bring this outstanding Polish composer back to the concert life, once again reached for the rarely performed music of its patron. 2021 saw the world recording premiere of two chamber works by Karol Rathaus, i.e. the Trio, Op. 53 from 1943 and the Trio Serenade, Op. 69 from 1953 (DUX 1712). Now the ensemble decided to record more compositions; what is important, some of them have also been recorded for the first time. The repertoire of the album has been selected in such a way as to give the listener the opportunity to get to know both Rathaus’ new works and his new face: not only did he create chamber music, but also songs, so the album also features ‘guest’ performers. Expanding the circle of artists ready to take the risk of discovering the above work is of great importance, since the music of 20th-century Polish exile composers is still marginalized both in musicological research and in the concert repertoire. Its absence in the domestic culture resulted from the fact that for several decades the communist authorities did not allow information about the art created outside Poland: emigrants were to plunge into oblivion. Nowadays, we are witnessing a gradual renaissance of their music, and the names of such eminent artists as Jerzy Fitelberg, the Łabuński brothers, Karol Rathaus, Szymon Laks, Roman Maciejewski, or even Roman Palester and Andrzej Panufnik are slowly enter-ing the collective consciousness.

The present release is a collection of chamber works for viola by Gordon Jacob, composed between 1946 and 1975. Violist Jadwiga Stanek writes: "From the very beginning of my artistic activity, I have been particularly fond of promoting the viola and have been performing chamber music in various instrumental ensembles. Gordon Jacob's output shows my passion for performing various genres of that music in a special way. I appreciate the selected compositions of Jacob for the universal character of the viola part, since it's different faces, elements of virtuosity, and warm timbre have an impact on the versatile artistic value of the interpreted pieces."

The fact that music has a communicative power has been known for a long time by its creators and performers. It has also often been used to emotionally move the listeners, to convey to them the values supporting the attitudes promoted in society: nobility of feelings, sensitivity to beauty or love of such values as the homeland. The present recording fits into this trend. The originators of the present album return to the concept of supporting music – uplifting, warming the heart. This was exactly the idea that accompanied Stanislaw Moniuszko (1819–1872), an outstanding Polish composer active in the 19th century, while he was creating his works. He is known mainly for his vocal output – almost all Poles are familiar with his Songbooks For Home Use, which were developed with home, amateur music making and communing with the Polish word during partitions in mind, at a time when Poland was not on the map of Europe. Moniuszko’s operas are probably even more recognizable, including The Haunted Manor, an aria from which we will hear on this album. His oeuvre had an integrating effect on Polish society, speaking not only with a rich language of symbols, but above all with beautiful, original melodies. On the presented album, Moniuszko’s music will be performed by Zbigniew Stepniak, an acclaimed Polish singer of international renown. He will be accompanied by Krzysztof Kiercul at the piano.

Requiem is a personal piece in Lukaszewski's oeuvre, the individual movements of which are dedicated to his friends and loved ones. At the same time, everyone can relate it to the sphere of their own experiences thanks to the accessibility of the musical language used by the composer, emphasising the intimate, contemplative nature of the piece. It is the harmony suspended between the tonality of the major-minor system and the simplicity of the melody, whose task is to follow the text, which plays a leading role, that are particularly noteworthy. The Mass fits into the tradition of a consoling, comforting requiem, devoid of the threat of the Last Judgment. The colour of the work is perfectly matched by the voices of both soloists, who are able to express every emotion - regret, hope, peace - while leaving the listener space for their own emotional reactions. Despite the definitely religious nature of the composition, you can also interact with it on the level of sincere admiration for the beauty of Lukaszewski's musical language, for an elusive aura between mystery and certainty.

An agnostic Jew, a descendant of rabbis, brought up in a lay environment. A Jewish composer in Poland, a Polish composer in France, in America- a refugee mingling with the elite. Among his concert tours, he visited Hawaii, Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Ceylon, Bali, Greece, Egypt, and Israel. Greeted by Gandhi during his stay in Bombay; in Japan he was a guest of Emperor Hirohito. Grande Ville- a great city- became this composer’s destiny. Tansman, an eternal wanderer, he would arrive in each new great city with a head full of music and leave with a suitcase full of manuscripts. His biography is as colorful and outstanding as his work. He was an extremely prolific composer. The list of his works is a book of over 100 pages, one fifth of which is chamber music. In 1937, Tansman married the outstanding pianist Colette Cras. Most of the composer’s pieces for two pianos and four hands were written with the intention of performing them in a duet with his wife. Tansman’s works, intended to be performed by the couple, are extremely diverse- displaying neoclassical lightness or the darkness of war experiences, including inspirations from the works of other composers, and entertainment music. Identified with the contemporary avant-garde, dubbed the first Polish neoclassical by his critics, he himself avoided labeling his own art. Faithful to tradition and open to modernity, he defied all categorizations.

This new release from Lilianna Zalesinska and Jolanta Pszczółkowska-Pawlik is a showcase of songs by Polish composer Piotr Maszyński. Mezzosoprano Liliana Zalesinska graduated with distinction from Universitat fur Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna. As a chamber musician, she participated in a special program of Udo Reinemann’s, dedicated to song interpretation, where she worked with such artists as Peter Schreier, Felicity Lott, Edith Wiens, and Hartmut Holl. She has taken part in the stagings of contemporary works at such stages as the Konzerthaus in Vienna and at the SIMN Festival in Romania, among others. Jolanta Pszczółkowska-Pawlik is a pianist, chamber musician, producer and a culture manager. She is a graduate of F. Chopin Academy of Music in the piano class of Prof. B Hesse-Bukowska and the chamber music class of K. Makowska-Lawrynowicz. As a culture manager, she is president of the Across Music Foundation and the Pawlik Relations Concert Agency.

“I spent [...] almost three years in Oświęcim and my biographies, both the psychical and musical ones, could not resist the influence of what I saw and experienced there. [...] It was hard to return to a normal life, like to an interesting book which one stops just in the middle. Much water was to run under the bridge before it all settled somehow and before composing made sense to me again” – said Szymon Laks (1901‑1983) in an interview of Tadeusz Kaczyński for “Ruch Muzyczny” (21/1964). The number 49543 in the Auschwitz‑Birkenau concentration camp, an outstanding composer, violinist, writer, a passionate linguist and translator, admitted that it was music that saved his life: in the extermination camp where he was from 1942 to 1944, he was a kapellmeister, musician, and copyist of the male orchestra. It was also there that he arranged and performed together with instrumentalists‑prisoners Three Warsaw Polonaises by an unknown author from the 18th century for a chamber orchestra. They were found by accident and published by the Polish Music Publishing House already in 1950 and became the first published camp music literature.

Poniatowski’s music became lost in the mists of history. It is good, therefore, that nowadays it has become the subject of research by the musicologists Irena Poniatowska and Ryszard Daniel Golianek as well as an object of interest for performers. It is good that artists take it up in their interpretations and bring it back to the listeners. Words of gratitude are due both to the Polish Music Association for presenting Poniatowski’s works during the Festival of Polish Music in Krakow and to the organizers of the English premiere of Mass in F Major at Westminster in London in 2015 led by Dr. Marek Stella-Sawicki. Prince Poniatowski was born in Rome in 1816 and in 2016 we celebrated the 200th anniversary of his birth. “On the eve” of this symbolic occasion, his Mass in F Major received, thanks to Maciej Jablonski and Sebastian Perlowski, a new symphonic life.

This is the third volume in the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio’s survey of the orchestral works of Grazyna Bacewicz. Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio was founded in 1968 by conductor Agnieszka Duczmal and originally appeared under the auspices of “Jeunesses Musicales” and Poznań Music Society. Aside from an active international touring schedule, the orchestra regularly takes part in recordings for Polish Radio with repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music (they have already recorded over 7,500 minutes of music for Polish Radio). The orchestra also works with radio broadcasters abroad, including NDR, WDR and SFD in Germany; BBC in London; CBC in Montréal. For Polish Television, they have made 110 programs and concert broadcasts, and for French TV1, more than five hours of recorded music.

Music for Culture Wars / Peszat

This new release is a brilliant collection of chamber music works by Polish composer Józef Elsner and his disciples Józef Władyslaw Krogurski and Ignatzi Felix Dobzinski. Known as Chopin's teacher, Elsner was also active as a violinist and conductor, and was also a renowned educator. He established the Warsaw Conservatory and taught excellent composers. On this release, enjoy a number of very beautiful works by these early Polish Romantic composers. Also notable is the participation of Yakubu Kushrik, a virtuoso who won the 4th place (the highest Polish person in the competition), which is the same as Aimi Kobayashi at the 18th Chopin International Piano Competition in 2021

MODERN LULLABIES is an original album created on the initiative of an outstanding flautist, Agata Kielar-Dlugosz. She invited renowned harpist Carlos Pe�a Montoya to participate in the project. The album contains premiere recordings of works by outstanding Polish and foreign composers for a rare combination of instruments, a duo of flute and harp. The presented collection of miniatures includes lullabies only, i.e. pieces derived directly from the utilitarian tradition of folk song, which over time, permanently and quite seriously, became part of world music. The most famous and well-established compositions in the history of music in the form of a lullaby include Johannes Brahms's Wiegenlied, Op. 49 No. 4 for voice and piano, Fryderyk Chopin's Berceuse in D-flat Major, Op. 57 for piano, or Gabriel Faur�'s Berceuse for violin with piano accompaniment.

EMOTIONS is a collection of miniatures by outstanding Polish and foreign composers. This unique project of an album with works by Polish composers (including world premiere recordings) for flute and organ is a novelty on the music recording market. It consists of works by, e.g. Zygmunt Noskowski, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Karol Szymanowski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Pawel Lukaszewski, Lukasz Wos, Wojciech Kilar, Michal Lorenc, Gabriel Faur�, Eug�ne Bozza, or Felix Mendelssohn. We hope that this musical showcase, consisting of miniatures created in various eras and styles, will be an interesting suggestion for every music lover.

I have had one student here, a promising talent and a very good young man, I sincerely recommend him to you, put in a good word for him when he comes back, take him to your class; he is your namesake, I think you have played some of his pieces in Prague. His name is Nov�k, I am full of hope, since he is not only talented but also sensitive... This is a fragment of a letter from Bohuslav Martinu to Karl Nov�k of 14 February 1948 in which he mentions his student Jan Nov�k. Jan Nov�k (born on 8 April 1921 in Nov� R�e, died on 17 November 1984 in Ulm) was a Czech composer and pianist who would combine various influences in his music, including Classical period, Czech folklore, dodecaphony, and jazz inspirations. The composer's out-put is very varied in terms of instrumental selection. Apart from solo pieces for such instruments as guitar, organ, harpsichord, flute, violin, or piano, we find therein works for two, three, or more instruments. He also com-posed cantatas, film, ballet, theatre music, music for solo voice with accompaniment, and orchestral works.

For years chamber music of Polish composers born in the first decades of the 19th century has been considered almost forgotten. Apart from Fryderyk Chopin’s works, and recently also by Józef Nowakowski and Stanisław Moniuszko, the output of many representatives of Polish Romanticism is known mainly from textbooks on the history of music, scientific articles, and encyclopedic entries. This album features three pieces that undoubtedly deserve an artistic renaissance and greater presence in the programs of philharmonics and concert halls. Following the history of music, it is easy to find profiles of artists whose works were appreciated only just many years after their death. At this point it is worth mentioning, e.g. Johann Sebastian Bach and Franz Schubert, today perceived as one of the greatest – in relation to all eras. Unfortunately, the output of Karol Kątski suffered an entirely opposite fate. The composer (born in 1813 in Krakow) established himself as a talented instrumentalist at an early age, performing in 1822 in the Knotz concert hall. In later years, the artist would successfully and regularly perform as a violinist, often in a duo with his talented brothers Antoni and Apolinary (he taught the latter for some time). After moving to Paris, Karol Kątski’s concert activity remained in the shadow of the fame of the younger brother, Apolinary. In the end of the 1830s, the artist devoted himself almost entirely to composing. He died in 1867 in Paris. His oeuvre includes a number of pieces, mainly chamber works.

The piano trio began to be embraced by Estonian composers around the turn of the 20th century. Composers of that era, many of whom were educated in St. Petersburg, were greatly influenced by the then Russian capital’s rich musical life. Estonia’s own national musical awakening was later spearheaded by these very composers. The piano trio POLL-VAREMA-POLL was founded in 2013 by Mihkel Poll (piano), Mari Poll (violin) and Henry-David Varema (cello), and since then has performed in Europe as well as in Russia and China, at venues such as the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia and the Estonia Concert Hall. All three artists have prominent recital, orchestral, teaching careers and are recognized for their distinctive creative perspectives. They are enthusiastic champions of the piano trio genre, per-forming the widest possible range of repertoire from Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms to con-temporary composers. Works by Estonian com-posers including national classics Artur Lemba and Heino Eller, and modern-day composers such as Erkki-Sven Tüür, Arvo Pärt and Riho Esko Maimets have an important place in their concert programs.

The present release features an exciting program of works for flute and orchestra performed by Sylwia Kubiak-Dobrowolska and the Sinfonia Nova Orchestra led by Lukasz Wojakowski. Sylwia Kubiak-Dobrowolska graduated with honors from the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw in the flute class of Prof. Elzbieta Gajewska-Gadzina. During her studies she honed her skills in courses with such outstanding flutists as Jean-Pierre Rampal, Miriam Nastasi, and Peter-Lukas Graf. She won distinctions and awards at competitions in Poland and abroad, took part in Concerts of Young Talents, performed as a soloist of the Jeunesses Musicales Orchestra under the direction of Robert Satanowski, and was the first flutist of the Spring Orchestra at Festival of Contemporary Music Warsaw Autumn under the baton of the greatest Polish conductors Jerzy Maksymiuk and Jacek Kaspszyk.

The main idea behind this recording was to focus on the presentation of pieces composed by Hungarian and Polish artists in one particular year: 1948. We wanted to show here compositions of two major artists from each of those countries. Both Hungarian pieces featured on the album naturally continue the 'Hungarian sound,' characteristic of the interwar period, shaped by the output of Zolt�n Kod�ly. Cast in four movements, the Serenade for String Orchestra by Endre Szerv�nszky (1911-1977) is an example of one of the outstanding compositions symptomatic of the generation of the master's successors. Let us quote the words of an excellent music critic, Marianne P�ndi: 'This work combines all the qualities of the Hungarian music of that period: it is melodic, understandable, Hungarian in style, and rhythmic. It is a source of first-class entertainment.'

A composition, as a phenomenon or an act of creation, can be understood as a reflection of the time in which it was written. An improvisation, in some sense, is also an act of creation, a kind of composition, and it also reflects its time. Performing transcriptions, “borrowings” (even of whole pieces), remakes, and quotations was a common thing at the time of George Frideric Handel (1685–1759). Handel himself, as the first cosmopolitical composer in the world, was open to various styles and cultures and would quote and remake his own works. He was a Great Master, undoubtfully equal to Johann Sebastian Bach, but he was not a purist, which may explain some of the solutions we used on this album. Handel was a star and a celebrity of his times. He would compose, understand, and love the genre of opera, which, out of all kinds of art, is closest to the man (with his issues, traumas, and challenges); a genre that is full of life and “venous” like a human body. He was perfectly at ease in the world of theatre, stage, and entertainment. All the above can be easily heard in the harmony and melodies of his sonatas. In some way, we are following this way of thinking – being fascinated by the music of the Great Master, we allow ourselves some surprising (in our opinion) differentiations and modifications. We are doing this here and now, drawing on the past eras (classicism and especially romanticism [sic!]). We are also not afraid to refer to different forms of popular music such as jazz or even pop music. We are doing it, because the music of our time, i.e. popular music, is all around us and sneaks into our minds. We are being impregnated with it beyond our conscience and will, since it is “everywhere we listen”, i.e. in restaurants, shops, on our way to work. Although this aspect of entertainment stands out a bit on our recording, we decided not to remove it. The sonatas presented on this CD are not one-dimensional – there are many parenthesis, interrupted thoughts, and surprising endings. However, the listener will quickly find the beauty, charm, elegance, logic, and depth of this music, always combined with masterful harmony and melodies. The audience can notice perfect, but natural and sincere melodies, in which Handel vents his feelings in a bit uncontrolled and improvised way; feelings that are “poignant in their poetry.” It is especially the slow movements that sound like elegies, epitaphs, or odes, full of pain, longing, mysticism, and wisdom. “Our art, weary of post-Beethovenesque and post-Wagneresque art, can find in Handel’s music (similarly to chamber music by Mozart) a poetic refuge, to heal its futile anxiety and to experience again silence and wellbeing.” Paweł Losakiewicz & Robert Morawski

The Musica Warmiensis project unearths from the depths of history sacred music from the 18th century performed by church bands existing in Warmia. Their scores were found in the collection of the Library of the Warmia Metropolitan Seminary “Hosianum” in Olsztyn by its director, Father Tomasz Garwoliński, who is the originator and main executor of the project. Some of the works were composed by well-known and popular composers of their time, such as Isfrid Kayser, Lambert Kraus, Antonio Sacchini, Jan Křtitel Vaňhal (Johann Baptist Vanhal) or Józef Kozłowski, while others were composed by anonymous, possibly even local, composers.

Anbild: Piano Concerto, Echoes of the Holy Cross Mountains for Symphony Orchestra, Rhapsody for Piano and Symphony Orchestra