The key of C minor was described in the Baroque era as exceptionally pleasant, gentle, and expressing both love and sadness. It even had moments of deep lament. It is perfectly outlined by the system of temperament of 1732, which was used in the organ built by Andreas Hildebrandt in Paslek, newly restored (2010-2013) and featured in this recording. Ms. Wiselka-Cieslar is Dean of Piano, Organ, Harpsichord and Period Instruments at the Academy of Music in L�dz. Her honors include a distinction of Meritorious Culture Activist (2001), the Golden Cross of Merit (2005), and the Knight's Cross of the Order of Rebirth of Poland.

Another album presenting the output of Pawel Lukaszewski (DUX Lukaszewski Collection). The characteristic stylistic language of Lukaszewski is close to artists such as Arvo P�rt, John Tavener and Mikolaj G�recki, and at the same time it strongly refers to the pre-modern traditions of the Renaissance vocal music and Gregorian chant. "Among Polish composers younger than Penderecki and Lutoslawski, Lukaszewski has become by far the best known. Although he has composed orchestral and chamber music, his reputation is based on his sacred music. He is an ardent Roman Catholic and sets texts mostly in Latin, which, whatever it's difficulties, is for English-speaking listeners more accessible than Polish. He has accumulated an extensive discography and this latest album is listed as the fifth in a series called Musica sacra - though the earlier albums are not in fact all of sacred music." (Stephen Barber, MusicWeb)

Pasquale Anfossi, the child of a Ligurian family with musical traditions, was schooled at the famous conservatory of S. Maria di Loreto in Naples, studying the violin and compositions. Of course, Naples has always cultivated a love of opera, and it was only natural that the young Anfossi developed an interest in this area. He wrote for the opera stages of Naples and Rome, in the opera seria as well as opera buffa conventions. His renown as an opera composer steadily grew across Europe. His oeuvre comprises 60 operas in the dramatic and comical conventions, 20 oratorios, and an assortment of liturgical and instrumental works. There are several moments within the present oratorio which are particularly memorable Some of these we owe to the choruses, beginning with the melancholy lament of the Roman people- simple and suggestive- which opens the composition. There is also the idyllic choir of Angels for two sopranos and an alto, with mild, enchanting melodies and a soft sound, whose euphonic chords occasionally disperse into dialogues in evocation of heavenly bliss.

Le violin fran�ais features violinist Christian Danowitz (b. 1983) and pianist Anna-Rutkowska Schock playing five well-known French works from the 19th-20th century "The longing for a country where one spent his childhood and youth is one of the most common inspirations in art. French music, even in the cases of the pieces I've chosen, reflects the unique and subtle climate of France, evoking thoughts of it's landscapes, poetry and paintings. Nostalgia is a very strong inspiration that allows everyone to experience art in reference to their personal memories and emotions. (C. Danowitz)

The Clarigotto Duo presents a collection of Romantic works transcribed for the unusual combination of clarinet and bassoon and joined by piano on the trio selections in an aurally fascinating glimpse at the sonic possibilities of these two instruments, so closely allied in orchestral settings yet seldom present within chamber settings.

During Roman Lasocki’s 45-year-long career, he has performed in numerous renowned concert halls. Lasocki’s fascination with the French atmosphere has to do with the Parisian composers’ lifestyle. All Polish compositions on the CD are linked by dedications for Roman Lasockie and the fact that the artist premiered the pieces, performed them a number of times.

Chroniques, written in 212 and the most recent score in this recording, is a collection of seven pieces for piano that evoke various states of passionate love, somewhat in the manner of Schumann's Kreisleriana. The entirety rests on a harmonic scale consisting of triads associated with four chords, which together cover the chromatic universe. Stupeur is a piece without indication of meter that begins with a succession of ascending motives in a very impressionistic atmosphere. It closes in an enigmatic manner with an alternation of silences and sighs. Un regard sees itself as amomen to freedom, both in regard to tonality - the movement is clearly polytonal - and rhythm, left predominantly to the performer's free choice. Paralysie is a state well-known from passionate love. It's impression is rendered through a systematic interruption of motive sthat cannot develop. Un sourire is a lighter piece, with a pronounced modality. It's expression is soft and graceful, free of constraint. Once again it is a piece without an indication of metre, expressed with much freshness and tenderness. Romance, the finale, respects the traditional manner of writing in this genre: tonal affirmation, overflowing lyricism and passionate exaltation, expressed in a true set of pianistic fireworks that the great Romantics would not disavow.

Even though the merits of Debussy’s music can be appreciated most fully in his orchestral and vocal compositions, works for piano occupy an important place in his output. His pieces for piano solo are mainly small, chamber forms, of which the present CD features three cycles. Pianist Piotr Machnik, prizewinner of numerous national and international piano competitions, has embarked on many foreign recital and concert tours that have taken him to Japan, Turkey, Kuwait and across Europe. He also pursues a teaching career as a member of faculty at Kraków Music Academy, his alma mater, since 2008.

The Polish tenor Tadeusz Szlenkier joined by pianist Mariusz Rutkowski in a collection of Italian popular easy listening songs.

Two of the late 19th century’s greatest and most distinctive violin and piano sonatas feature on this Dux release, those of César Franck, his sole sonata, in A major, dedicated to Eugène Ysaÿe and the late, last and most dramatic of the three violin sonatas composed by Johannes Brahms, the D minor, op. 108 (1889), dedicated to Hans von Bülow. + Violinist Patrycja Piekutowska (“A phenomenal violinist… authentic virtuosity, class, beautiful sound, and most of all, exceptional charisma.” – Buenos Aires Herald) partners with pianist Anna Miernik.

Paweł Kamasa studied piano with Rudolf Buchbinder, Jorge Bolet and Harry Datyner. Since his German debut at the Kissinger Sommer Festival in 1987, he has performed in recitals, orchestral concerts and chamber settings in many major European centers. Paweł Kamasa was the very first pianist ever to perform the complete cycle of Mazurkas by Karol Szymanowski in Paris (1994). Since 2008 he has been performing a program called “Letters of music”, devoted to Johannes Brahms’ late works for piano accompanied by the correspondence of Clara Schumann to the composer in Kamasa’s own Polish translation.

Music can, perhaps more than the other arts, capture something of the mystery described with the term sacrum; this topic has been discussed for ages and some have tended at times to adopt this hypothesis. This other dimension permeates the universe of the human with his mortality and probably also the one of nature with its cyclical self renewal: untouchable, crumbling into nothingness when no one tries to reach it, explored yet impenetrable, it constitutes a sphere towards which spells, prayers, and pleas have perpetually been directed. The creative tension between ritual and its cultural sublimination, art, has resulted in masterworks created by the force of the human imagination: masses by Guillaume de Machaut and Bach, the Requiems of Johannes Ockegham, Morales, Mozart, and others. Pawel Szymanski has referred to this tradition in his works for voices and instruments almost from the very beginning.This new release focuses on the music of Szymanski, and features his works Lux aeterna (1984), Miserere (1993), In paradisum deducant te Angeli (1995) and Phylakterion (2011). Pawel Szymanski currently lives and works as a freelance artist in Warsaw.

SZABELSKI, GORECKI, KNAPIK

The present album presents two examples from Schnabel's rich oeuvre- a religious piece and a secular one. Miss in As, written for a mixed choir (with solo parts) plus a string quintet, two clarinets, four horns, and the organ, dates back to Schnabel's first years as orchestra master, and it was composed under interesting circumstances. Ignatius Lucas, Rector chori of the nunnery of the Virgin Mary na Piasku in Wroclaw and Schnabel's companion from the Premonstratensian orchestra, recounts that Schnabel wrote the piece in December 1806 at one of the altars of the church of St. Bartholomew where the composer was hiding from the Napoleonic army occupying the city under the command of Jerome Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon. Appositely enough, the composition is known as the Siege Mass. The Quintet in C Major, which appears here opposite the Siege Mass, is stylistically consistent with the classical four-part string quartet, and bears an affinity to the works of Luigi Boccherini.

The young Polish accordion virtuoso Rafal Luc, presents a collection of music for accordion and electronics by contemporary Wroclaw composers. 'acuca' showcases the sonic possibilities of the accordion with works containing a multiplicity of collaborations with electronic musicians that point a way to perhaps a new paradigm in classical composition.