This opera depicts the story of Alice, who by a magic mirror goes to a land of magic and spells. The inspiring story of a battle between good and evil, and true friendship moves adult viewers to use their imagination and back to a child-like mentality. This production was created with a rich composition of modern techniques and instruments, stylized to be similar to popular movies with a glamorous stage and costumes. This opera premiered in March, 2015 at the Opera at the Castle in Szczecin. "An homage to the film version of Alice in Wonderland, directed by Tim Burton...will long remain in the memory of viewers and will go down in the history of Szczecin opera as a representation of opening a new chapter in its activities." (Official Theater) "Poetry, poetry intertwined with drama, comedy and the grotesque, which makes this "Alice" received with a bated breath. This is because it does not give the viewer not a second to fatigue. A rare variability and climate ditates the music." (Akant, Theatre for you)

Ottorino Respighi’s Il Tramonto is the first of a six-work string of Mediterranean pearls for voice and string quartet offered up by soprano Joanna Tylkowska-Drozd, the Baltic Neopolis Quartet and guests the April String Trio. These, in some cases lesser-known, works by the late-Romantic and/or early modernist Italian composers Nino Rota, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Martucci, Giuseppe Verdi, Joaquín Turina (of Italian descent on his father’s side) and Mr. Respighi are by turns, lyrical, prayerful and emotional, the listener bathed in glares and shadows of a Mediterranean sunset.

The five composers featured on this new release, Olczak, Dziadek, Luczkowski, Dixa, and Czerniewicz, are all contemporary composers whose paths crossed in the city of Gdansk. Whether their connection was by choice or by chance, all of these composers link in some way to the city. The Chamber Orchestra of the Academy of Music in Gdansk, directed by Andrzej Kacprzak, rightfully perform these works. The ensemble’s youthful freshness combined with the conductor’s experience creates a powerful combination. Professor Krzysztof Langman founded the Academic Chamber Orchestra in 1999. The ensemble was created to enable the academic youth to perform with the most prominent concertmasters of famous Polish chamber ensembles.

Sonatina für Alina

Ignacy Jan Paderewski was particularly fond of using poems by the classics of Polish Romanticism, notably Adam Asnyk, Adam Mickiewicz and Wladyslaw Syrokomla. His first song cycle was a setting of five poems by Asnyk. Several of the compositions on this release come from those poems Paderewski was so fond of. Anna Radziejewska, Karol Kozlowski and Agnieszka Hoszowska-Jablonska bring Panderewski's works to life with the stylistic voices and talent.

Fryderyk Chopin transformed the scherzo into an autonomous, independent work, rather than a part of a symphony or sonata as it was previously part of during the Classical era. Expanding this genre gave it a newer, more romantic and dramatic expression. The composer's polonaises give us a glance into his Polish patriotism. The polonaise is the most important national dance of Poland, and Chopin composed 18 over his lifetime. Polish pianist Raphael Alexandre Lustchevsky performs these works brilliantly. He has won multiple international awards, and has performed with some of the world's leading orchestras, such as the Krakow Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and Royal Oman Philharmonic.

Paulina Viardot and Luigi Bordèse’s Chopin Mazurkas transcriptions attempted to bring the 19th c. style of vocal-instrumental chamber music closer to its then present-day listeners. Chopin’s settings to texts by Polish poets remain little known, particularly outside Poland; the transcriptions of his mazurkas for voice and piano, performed extremely rarely, have fallen almost into oblivion. Recorded using a historical Pleyel piano, these transcriptions aim to recreate the pleasurable listening atmosphere of those distant years.

In contrast to the majority of the Dresden composers who focused on church music and opera, Binder's oeuvre is almost entirely of instrumental. Theoreticians of his time described him as a composer of great power. Richard Engl�nder wrote that "in the Dresden circle Binder held the same position as Philipp Emmanuel Bach in Berlin." The Sonatas of Op. 1 contain a wide range of experiments within the genre: from the Baroque period Binder took the genre of the suite in individual movements, replete with polyphonic textures and contrapuntal techniques; from the classical style, Binder adopted the sonata form along with homophonic texture, often highlighted by the Alberti bass.

This lovely album contains works by three major composers: Beethoven’s Sonata in A major Op. 47 ‘Kreutzer’, Brahms’ Sonata in D minor Op. 108, and Massenet’s Meditation from Thais. Violinist Aleksandra Kuls performs with pianist Justyna Danczowska. Aleksandra Kuls has won a number of competitions despite her young age, including the Georg Philipp Telemann Competition, Groblicz Family Competition, and Tadeusz Wronski Competition.

Another album devoted to the work of Krzysztof Baculewski - one of the most interesting Polish contemporary composers, pedagogues, music critics, and essayists associated with the Warsaw University of Music. The present release contains all of Baculewski's string quartets, the first three of which, composed in the 1980s, in annual intervals, constitute a specific musical cycle in a symmetrical arrangement, with refined mutual connections. The Quartet No. 4 is a composition created about thirty years later. This music is characterized by formal precision, perfect construction, and transparent texture. A variety of ideas, consistency of the appearance of elements of tonal centralization, versatility of references to the music of the past - it is a combination of youthful energy and life wisdom.

The Fortuna/Dys duo is known primarily for their achievements in jazz and improvised music. They embrace combining styles to engage the contemporary, young listener. A pupil of Nadia Boulanger, a friend of Arthur Rubinstein, and "a star amongst the students" according to Lutoslawski, Roman Maciejewski would eventually "relinquish the more glittering and at the same time superficial life of an artist with 'a career' in order to continue work in my appropriate field with the complete determination and inner peace." The tracks "Eco", "Drommen" and "Fjattrad" are among those of Maciejewski's compositions which had never been published.

Situated around the work of Assen Karastoyanov, the program of this album exemplifies true wonders of flute repertoire. Alongside the works by Karastoyanov, compositions by Fikret Amirov, Bela Bartok, and Ivan Bellocq are presented. Ivan Bellocq studied flute with Madeleine Chassang, Robert Bourdin, and Michel Debost, and composition with Olivier Greif. He has recorded almost a dozen CDs, and given countless concerts across Europe and the US. Bellocq’s composition featured on this recording, Slavic Suite, is a special delight. Of the piece, Bellocq writes, “I have set myself several challenges in writing this suite; firstly, to define a common ground between my habitual language and that of traditional popular music which inspired me. Secondly, to find a different manner than Karastoyanov and Amirov in organizing each piece, as well as the entirety they form. Hence, for example the harp and flute solos.”

The history of the Benedictine Abbey in Staniatki goes back to the thirteenth century. It was founded between 1228 and 1238. It was from silence and in silence that the many melodies included in the old manuscripts have been created down the centuries. All composers remain unknown, as do the origins of the songs on this release.

The International Flute Competition in Krakow was founded in 1999 and is held every three years. It’s organized by the Academy of Music in Krakow under the honoary patronage of Krzysztof Penderecki. Olga Leonkiewicz received 6th place at the International competition in 2014.

Grzegorz M. Olkiewicz’s album consists of nine pieces by seven representatives of the “Upper Silesian School,” which undoubtedly affected the Polish music (and not just the Polish one) of the second half of the twentieth century. Naturally, being a native of Katowice and a graduate of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music, he became interested in the repertoire composed by the university’s pupils. Sometimes it was he that served an inspiration for them and edited scores for printing and premieres. The presented recordings were made in studio, at the National Philharmonic and at the Silesian one. They emerged gradually from 1984 to 1997 thanks to the Polish Radio in Katowice and Warsaw. One could consider this selection as representative for the community although it is inevitably complete. Grzegorz Olkiewicz was born in Katowice in 1959. He has performed with most of Poland’s orchestras, and has given recitals and performed with orchestras in Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, The US, and more. Many Polish composers have dedicated their compositions to him.