The goal of Adam Zukiewicz, a Polish pianist developing his artistic career in North America, is to provide the listener of this recording with a uniquely diverse musical experience. Zukiewicz, being an enthusiast of new music, regularly presents contemporary works and performs premieres of new compositions. This category includes, written especially for the purposes of this album, the cycle Images by Krystian Kielb, or Goodbye Old Friend by Oscar Peterson in the arrangement of Don Thompson and Adam Zukiewicz. It is not a coincidence, however, that the album bears an original title The Beginnings - the most classical piano staples with Beethoven and Chopin show how strong and diverse the musical inspirations of the artist are.

April 2018 saw the 40th death anniversary of Wojciech Lukaszewski - composer, pedagogue, music critic, and animator of the musical culture of Czestochowa. The present album is released on the occasion of this anniversary in order to recall some of the creative output of the prematurely deceased composer. The choral and vocal-instrumental compositions by Lukaszewski, recorded on the album, constitute a fragment of his varied and rich works. Lukaszewski's art is characterized by a diversified use of compositional techniques. His works are distinguished by the free use of various compositional techniques, they are unique due to the excellent technique; they are often aphoristic. Lukaszewski's musical language followed the path of evolution typical of the composers of his generation and developed from neoclassical inspirations, through sonoristic regulation with the use of aleatoric techniques and freely treated dodecaphony up to gradual reduction of the sound language and searching for own forms of creative expression.

The Mieczyslaw Karlowicz Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra began it's 2018 anniversary season by releasing an album featuring the only classical symphony of it's patron. The event is all the more interesting because this high-tech recording is the first one which, together with the Szczecin Philharmonic, was conducted by maestro Rune Bergmann, who was fascinated by the work of Karlowicz, the artistic director of this institution. The choice of Rebirth at the beginning of the jubilee is not accidental, as this composition, perfectly illustrating the whole spectrum of emotions and states of mind accompanying us in key moments of life, in a specific way is also reflected in the rich history of the orchestra and it's city. The programme and emotional ambiguity of the symphony causes it's correct performance to have a radically different character. Hence it is particularly worth getting acquainted with the latest interpretation of Rune Bergmann, who, known for his energy, spontaneity, and unconventional approach to work, is mentioned among the most outstanding conductors of the Scandinavian countries.

Krzysztof Kusiel-Moroz is a graduate of the Warsaw Academy of Music in the classes of Prof. Stanislaw Wislocki and Prof. Ryszard Zimak. Since 1990, he has become known as an experienced choral conductor, undertaking new challenges in this area. In 2017 (since the ensemble was established), he was appointed as the artistic director of the Chamber Choir of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, with whom he recorded this album. The Drrrum Dana Dam album includes two cycles inspired by Kurpie Songs; Kurpie Songs for mixed choir a cappella by Roman Maciejewski and 6 Kurpie Songs for mixed choir a cappella by Karol Szymanowski. Although the composers of these cycles may have never come into direct contact with the native Kurpie tradition, both are among the most perfect manifestations of inspiration by Polish folklore, ingeniously adapted on the basis of classical music.

Sechs Klavierstucke, Op. 118 by Johannes Brahms is one of the most difficult works of this artist in terms of interpretation. The mood of sadness, reflection and melancholy, which runs through almost all the links of the cycle, prompts both the performer and the listener to reflect. Also from Brahms' later period, the Sonata for Piano and Viola op. 120 No. 1 is also a demanding composition. This work contains elements of the classic sonata form, but also harmonic and melodic sections typical of late Romanticism. Both works on this album, performed by Zofia Antes and Aleksandra Batog, reveal delightful writing characteristic of this composer's late period.

Although the Greater Poland Uprising is the only such victorious initiative in the history of Poland, awareness of its importance in the context of Poland’s regaining independence is still underrated. Therefore, the 100th anniversary of the event is a great opportunity to recall selected songs sung by the insurgents, as well as those composed in the interwar period to commemorate the patriotic uprising. The present album contains a number of representative compositions, among others, by Ignacy Jan Paderewski and Feliks Nowowiejski, which for years have been the musical hallmark of the uprising. The album is complemented by the Greater Poland Symphony 1918, Op. 43 for symphony orchestra, created in 2018, a commemorative work by Marek Sewen, strongly associated with Poznan.

This debut album from the outstanding pianist Rafal Mokrzycki, devoted entirely to Fryderyk Chopin's music, is an ingenious compilation of musical genres, ranging from narrative forms (Ballade in G minor, Op. 23), ending with dance miniatures (Mazurkas, Op. 50 and waltzes). Rafal Mokrzycki is a Polish pianist. He is a winner of the Valletta International Piano Competition in Valletta, Malta, 2017, where he received also a special prize: a possibility to play with the National Radio and Television Orchestra in Tirana, Albania. He has been awarded in many other national and international competitions and was supported by the Karol Szymanowski Foundation and the National Fund for Children. He is now a member of Music Societies in Torun and Poznan, Poland.

The EXTEMPORE ensemble consists of three experienced and versatile artists involved in the historical performance of early music: violinist Malgorzata Malke, harpsichordist and organist Anna Firlus, and Krzysztof Firlus playing viola da gamba. The passion for chamber music, early music, and discovering the unknown prompted them to establish an ensemble in 2007, when they were still students of the Academy of Music in Katowice. Georg Philipp Telemann, traditionally a slightly underrated master of Baroque music, exceptionally well corresponds to the musical temperament of the ensemble. The album includes Telemann's trio sonatas and solo works, two of which are in a way "new" - compositions only a few years ago considered to be missing - arranged for the EXTEMPORE ensemble.

On this release, Aleksandra Dabek, young pianist and laureate of numerous music competitions all over the world, presents her interpretations of Romantic music; one of the greatest piano works is included - Carnaval, Op. 9 by Robert Schumann, as well as a selection of Chopin's nocturnes and polonaises. Aleksandra Hortensja Dabek is a pupil of the Mieczyslaw Karlowicz Secondary School of Music in Katowice, in the piano class of Professor Wojciech Switala. She began her musical education at the age of seven in the class of Beata Zajac at music school in Krzeszowice, before continuing her training under Olga Lazarska in Cracow. She has many significant achievements in piano competitions to her name, including First Prize in the under-18 category at the 21st International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition for Children and Youngsters in Szafarnia (2013), a first class distinction in the 7th EPTA Piano Competition for Secondary School Pupils in Cracow (2012), and Third Prize in the 14th All-Poland Halina Czerny-Stefanska Piano Tournament in Zagan (2009).

Reminiscence of the Future, Sonatas for accordion is one of the few albums presenting original literature for a concert accordion. Among numerous emerging musical projects, it is certainly a unique one, showing the sound qualities of this instrument and extremely valuable works, until now undiscovered in the world of classical music. In each of them, it is the above-average dose of content that plays the supreme role. The programme content of each sonata is closely related to the fate of a given composer. What connects the composers present on this album is the experience of the hardships of creating in the authoritarian regime. Adam Maksymienko is one of the most prominent accordionists of the young generation, a laureate of numerous competitions, and an artist with considerable stage performance achievements even at such a young age.

Ireneusz Lukaszewski's jubilee coincides with the fortieth anniversary of the founding of one of the most outstanding Polish vocal ensembles - the Polish Chamber Choir. This is an excellent opportunity to perform a jubilee recording, which consists of compositions created for this choir by it's founder and first conductor. The time and circumstances of the creation of Ireneusz Lukaszewski's choral works on the album, maintained in a religious character, show the composer's inspiration and artistic motifs. Lukaszewski's collaboration with the choir also resulted in a great number of musical studies. The jubilee album presents the latest of them - created for the hundredth anniversary of Niepodleglosci, arrangements of songs by Paderewski and Chopin.

The history of Polish contemporary music can be easily seen in the wake of simple oppositions. Vanguard versus reaction, sonorism versus new romanticism, tape versus orchestra. The case of Andrzej Dobrowolski (1921-1990) undermines these dialectical arrangements and breaks out of order. The composer transfers electroacoustic invoices to instrumental ensembles, and creates minimal moods with minimalist changes. Dobrowolski's music for various ensembles presents a very consistent process of expanding his own original sound world. However, these are stable and transparent structures only on the surface level - it is worth listening to them deeper and one at a time. Seen from different sides and under different light - Var�se's metaphor also accurately describes the works of this Polish composer.

Agata Kielar-Dlugosz, recognized Polish flutist and winner of numerous music awards, presents a recital consisting of works by Polish composers whose work is rooted in various popular trends of the 20th century. These gems were created somewhat off the beaten track of the artistic activity of their creators, commonly associated with other forms and different instruments, which probably influenced the relatively low popularity of these works. With this release, Agata Kiela-Dlugosz and pianist Andrzej Jungiewicz decided to remind the music lovers in a very interesting interpretation. Agata Kielar-Dlugosz is a graduate of the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater in Munich. She also completed post-graduate studies at the Hochschule fur Musik in Weimar and Yale University in New Haven. She is a prizewinner of international flute competitions, and performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician and has given premieres of several flute concertos which were dedicated to her by composers such as Pawel Mykietyn, Piotr Moss, and Pavel Lukaszewski. She has served as Principal Flute with the Bayerisches Symphonieorchester Munchen, the Munchener Kammerorchester and Bach Collegium in Munich.

The collection of songs included on this very record is not meant as an anthology, even the rough one. It is no more than a tiny window letting us see the depths of the Russian soul. Although all of the songs bear a distinctive folk character they were created in towns by enlightened authors transforming traditional chant in their own way. As a result these songs were closely related to European canon and became extremely popular outside the country; the exotic phrase of the melody and the unparalleled type of emotionality have fascinated the world for over two hundred years.

For the musicians associated with the Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki Sarmatian Choir the 450 anniversary of the conclusion of the Act of the Union of Lublin became a good opportunity for a sui generis reconstruction of solemn sacred music from that time. Based on extremely interesting monuments of Polish music of the “Golden Age,” the programme of the album is a kind of “fantasy” on the coverage accompanying the solemn sum that had to be celebrated after such an important event for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Wide historical and musical knowledge of the artists, knowledge of the liturgy, customs, and performance style of the early Polish music makes this experiment, carried out under the artistic direction of Robert Pozarski in cooperation with the Schola Gregoriana Silesiensis, Trombastic ensemble, and well-known soloists, very credible and will bring a lot of satisfaction to all music lovers interested in the Old Polish culture.