LAKS, SLOWINSKI, PSTROKONSKA-N

French Music for Piano Duo

HENRYK MIKOLAJ GORECKI & MIKOL

In the middle of the 18th c. The symphony evolved into a new form of orchestral music. It played various functions, represented various traditions, and assumed various shapes in different European musical centers: Salzburg, Vienna, Mannheim, Paris or London. It is with the Viennese Classics (Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven) that the symphony became the greatest genre of instrumental music. Sir Neville Marriner, one the finest living interpreters of these masterpieces, is heard live in concert with the Poznan Philharmonic conducting Mozart's "Jupiter" Symphony and Beethoven's Symphony No. 2.

Krzysztof Meyer (b. 1943, Kraków), pianist, composer, writer and pedagogue, began his composing career creating works using 12-tone technique, bruitism and aleatorism, eventually extracting from each what was most aurally agreeable to him before abandoning them all for more traditional aesthetic norms – order, balance and beauty. This recording of his 1999 oratorio “Creation of the World” features the Nastional Poish Radio Symphony, Katowice, soloists and choral forces, all conducted by Łukasz Borowicz.

The Polish contemporary composer Slawomir Kupczak is introduced with a selection of compositions featuring the rich interplay of flute, accordion, piano and electronics.

With Seven Sonnets, new music composer Katarina Glowicka has tapped the endless wellspring of the Shakespeare's 1609 sonnets with his penetrating and transcendent insights on love. Composed for quartet and countertenor, with Glowicka's distinctive electronic infusions, the 50-minute song cycle unfolds nearly 400 years after the sonnets' creation and presents a compelling profile of Glowicka's multiple stylistic influences and her place in Classical music. With the Rubens quartet and countertenor, Arnon Zlotnik.

Zvi Kolitz wrote Yosl Rakower Talks to God as a response to how he experienced Yiddishkeit (a Jewish way of life) and it's bond with the 'dybuuk', a bond of such profound empathy by a living person with someone who has passed away that it is reminiscent of possession by spirits. The living person speaks then with the voice of the dead person and feels his or her pain. Such a feeling can be so strong that it dominates all others and can even change the man's identity, for a short period of time or forever. Having learned about the dimension and scope of the Holocaust, Zvi Kolitz experienced this kind of possession by pain and used it, almost like a medium, to express the feelings of the victims of the Holocaust. The unique character of Zvi Kolitz's text stems also from the fact that it was written shortly after the war, at a time when the memory of the Holocaust was being pushed aside not only by it's perpetrators and victims but also by those who, having found themselves outside Europe, survived the war. Most of the survivors wrestled alone with their ordeal, which defies any description. What Yosl Rakower has to say is something more than the description of inhuman suffering - it is a testimony of the triumph of life which is founded on the values that are greater than the most horrible of evils that man can inflict on others.

Eben: Job for Organ

Wojciech Kocyan Plays Robert Schumann

This recording of various piano works by Rachmaninov, Scriabin, and Prokofiev, played by Konrad Skolarski, has received rave reviews all throughout Europe.

In 1597 John Dowland (1563-1626) published his first collection of music, The First Book of Songs or Airs of Four Parts with Tableture for the Lute. A groundbreaking work in several respects, not least in that it was the first published collection of English lute songs, it success was immediate, and was reprinted several times. His Second Book of Songs or Airs (1600) shows the increasingly solo nature of the lute-song, as Dowland left the first eight songs as lute solos. Soprano Maria Skiba specializes in historical performance practice with an emphasis on music from the 16th-17th c.

The NFM Wrocław Chamber Orchestra LEOPOLDINUM brings together high-calibre musicians and has earned substantial critical and popular acclaim with its appearances at such venues as the Philharmonie and Schauspielhaus in Berlin, the Tivolis Koncertsal in Copenhagen, the Teatro Victoria Eugenia in San Sebastian as well as numerous prestigious events.

Palestrina: Cantica Salomonis (Canticum Canticorum) - Montev

Krzysztof Penderecki is one of the most famous and prominent living Polish composers. Symphonies have a special place in his legacy, but until now have never been recorded in a series under his artistic direction. In celebration of his 80th birthday, DUX presents the best performances of his works with the Sinfonia luventus. His great musical authority influences the young musicians' energetic and fresh sound.