The present album constitutes a juxtaposition of works of two musical families: the greatest one, without which it would be hard to imagine the history of modern music - the Bach family - and the Podbielski family, of Polish origin, who have almost been completely forgotten and pushed to the margin of consciousness. Four unique personalities emerge from this compilation - each immersed in their own time and operating with their individual expression style. The common denominator of the works presented on the album is a unique instrument, considered to be perfect in the times of Johann Sebastian Bach - the viola da gamba. The listener will hear it together with the harpsichord in the interpretation of a marriage of musicians specializing in Early Music performance - Krzysztof and Anna Firlus.

The operatic output of Stanislaw Moniuszko is most often associated with national themes and numerous references to patriotism and propagation of patterns related to the Polish culture. It turns out, however, that the composer’s main goal was not always to promote the native tradition. Beata, the last, one-act opera by Stanislaw Moniuszko, is a less emotionally complex composition than for example The Haunted Manor. During the life of the composer the work was not approved by the Polish audience, expecting from the composer rather works to cheer people’s hearts than a vaudeville. The action of this comic opera is based on numerous intrigues and love affairs of the main character, Beata. This album in a sense shows us the operatic output of Stanislaw Moniuszko from a different, not so obvious, perspective. The present recording is connected with the restoration to the life of this forgotten, as a result of World War II, work by the Kraków Opera. The reconstruction of the score destroyed in the ruins of the Warsaw Grand Theatre was performed by Krzysztof Baculewski on the basis of the piano reduction.

The theatre music of Poland is a peculiar phenomenon; almost every Polish composer has created a score for the needs of this spectacle, and many have entirely devoted themselves to this field. This music is awarded and honored. Nevertheless, it practically does not exist in a concert or recording community. Stanislaw RADWAN is one of the best known and respected composers of theatre and film music. He composed several hundred pieces on commission of the most eminent Polish directors and all leading theatres in Poland. He linked a great part of his artistic path to Cracow: starting from studies at the local State Higher School of Music in the class of Krzysztof Penderecki, through activities in the famous Krak�w theatres, ending at the cooperation with the Piwnica pod Baranami cabaret. It is natural that a series of recordings of The Musical Trace of Cracow, documenting the theatre and film music of eminent artists from this full of theatres, writers, actors, directors, and composers city, opens an album dedicated to the work of Radwan.

The album Choral Works by Juliusz Luciuk recorded by the Collegium Cantorum Choir of the Czestochowa Philharmonic under the direction of Janusz Siadlak is a part of the project Musical Monument of Juliusz Luciuk, which also includes autumn concerts created in cooperation with the composer and his relatives. The project gives an insight into the life of the composer, his story and the history of his family. Choral Works by Juliusz Luciuk is an album that was created in cooperation with the composer. He supervised it's implementation and final shape, making sure that his thoughts were perfectly expressed by the artists as accurately as possible. It includes pieces not yet recorded, as well as a completely new work composed for maestro Janusz Siadlak - Lullaby on the Cradle to the words of Galczynski.

David Walter has been associated with his home university - the Conservatoire National Sup�rieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris - for over 30 years, where he runs chamber and oboe classes. As a laureate of prestigious competitions (including in Prague and Belgrade), he became a recognizable soloist all over the world. In addition to pedagogy and artistic career, Walter also deals with composition and conducting, which is confirmed by his numerous compositions, recorded together with pianist Magdalena Dus. The album's core repertoire is a transcription for piano, oboe, and cor anglais of Cesar Franck's Violin Sonata in A major. The release was also completed with a number of smaller pieces, including: Chopin, Faur�, Schubert, or Marina Dranishnikova presented in the original versions or in Walter's original arrangements.

This new release is a musical journey of two jazz musicians through the land of melody, harmony, rhythm and the fully acoustic sound of instruments. These pieces offer up a clash of classical instrumental texture with the freedom of jazz improvisation. All of the music heard here was written especially for this duo, who extend what is between the notes, filling the space with dialogue and creation of new sounds, textures, and colors. Preludes - by definition - are short instrumental pieces, often of an improvised character, which are an introduction to a larger musical work. And here the author of the album, Marcin Wadolowski, has invited one of the best bassists, Piotr Lemanczyk, to explore these short pieces with him. The result is an exciting sound journey.

The life of Mieczyslaw Wajnberg, full of plenty of difficulties and adversities, reflects the history of an entire generation of Polish Jews, who had to face a cruel history fueled by the forces of totalitarianism. This fate left it's mark on the composer's work, who spent most of his life in the Soviet Union. As an artist of a "wrong origin," associated with Shostakovich, Rostropovich and Salomon Michoels, and not creating politically correct music, he was never a favourite of the authorities. The cello sonatas presented here carry a considerable aesthetic and emotional load, corresponding to the composer's socio-artistic relations and his cultural roots. Young Polish musicians - cellist Wojciech Fudala and pianist Michal Rot - successfully face the difficult work of the composer, who in fact belongs to three cultural circles. The closing the album piano miniature Berceuse, Op. 1, based on a poetic Slavic melody, entwined with a quasi-impressionist accompaniment, is a preview of Mieczyslaw Wajnberg's great compositional talent being born in the pre-war Warsaw.

The album of the Witold Lutoslawski Chamber Philharmonic in Lomza, devoted to contemporary instrumental concertos, makes it possible to confront the aesthetics of three Polish composers, highly regarded today. Each of the pieces recorded on this album is maintained in relation to the others in a somewhat related (corresponding to the 20th-century neoclassicism) postmodern aesthetics, which undoubtedly facilitates the perception of the whole material. Although the presented concertos in no way refer to the musical tradition of the avant garde, many of the applied compositional resources (ingenious instruments, varied means responsible for the form's architecture) testify to the individualism of these three works.

Penderecki's Concerto doppio per violin e viola was composed in 2012 on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Wiener Musikverein. The Concerto doppio is a piece with a clearly outlined neoromantic architecture. Although the composer often uses semitones as form shaping means, the Concerto is also saturated with many consonant solutions mitigating tensions. Penderecki's Concerto per viola ed orchestra has been transcribed for a variety of instruments. The original version was created in 1983 as a result of a composing commission by the Venezuelan government in the context of commemorating the bicentenary of birth of the hero of the fight for independence of South America- Simon Bolivar. Completed in 2003, the Concerto Grosso No. 2 for three clarinets and two basset horns, apart from the Spanish premiere has not been presented to a wider audience for 15 years. It is a composition that is difficult to consider only in the context of the inspiration with the form of musical expression developed in the Baroque.

Another album presenting achievements 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 Renaissance vocal music and Gregorian chant. The key feature of this release is the cycle titled Beatus vir, composed in 1996-2007. It consists of eight songs recalling - successively in this recording - the following characters: Saint Adalbert, Saint Martin, Saint Stanislaus, Saint John of Dukla, Saint Paul, Saint Anthony, Saint Zygmunt Szczesny-Felinski, and the Venerable Servant of God Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski.

Maurizio Grandinetti is one of the few world-renowned artists who are successful in performing both avant-garde and the 17th- and 18th-century works. The artist plays successfully on both classical and electric guitar, which undoubtedly influences the wide range of repertoire he has at his disposal. He regularly performs solo recitals, concerts with orchestra, and he often improvises and presents his own original arrangements. This album includes original works by Grandinetti, as well as chosen arrangements of carefully selected works composed in the Baroque and Renaissance era.

Participation in the Chopin competition often implies the danger of falling into a concert routine. Numerous participants, wanting to stay in the pianistic market at all costs, concentrate mainly on the performance of the works of the patron of the Warsaw event. Radoslaw Sobczak, one of the most interesting contemporary Polish pianists, has been consistently breaking out of this scheme for many years, presenting the audience with an extremely versatile repertoire. After two critically acclaimed albums with music by Paderewski and Szymanowski, Radoslaw Sobczak decided to record the seventeen Etudes by Marcin Lukaszewski, widely regarded as one of the most interesting composers of his generation.

The 100th anniversary of Mieczyslaw Wajnberg's birth in January 2019 is an excellent opportunity to bring his works closer to the Polish audience. Although in the recent years Wajnberg's works have been performed and recorded more and more often, his music in our country is well known only to a narrow group of recipients. The album of the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio conducted by Anna Duczmal-Mr�z, including three pieces by Wajnberg (Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 145, Concerto for flute and strings No. 1, Op. 75 and Chamber Symphony No. 3, Op. 153) allows the recipient to get to know various facets of the composer, starting from the influences of Neoclassicism, ending with inspiration from the works by Dimitri Shostakovich.

This release is a new release in the series 'New Music In Eastern Europe' implemented together with the publishing house B�lt Records. This is an album dedicated to the work of Octavian Nemescu - one of the 20th century's classics, underestimated by the phonographic industry. Octavian Nemescu is a Romanian composer of orchestral, chamber, choral, electroacoustic, multimedia, metamusic, imaginary, and ritual works that have been heard throughout Europe and around the world. From 1956 to 1963 Nemescu studied composition at the National University of Music Bucharest with Mihail Jora, harmony with Paul Constantinescu and orchestration with Alexandru Pascanu and Anatol Vieru. From 1971 to 1978 he taught music analysis and counterpoint at the Transilvania University of Brasov. Until 1990 he was professor of counterpoint, harmony and music history at the School of Art "George Enescu" in Iasi. The works featured on this album are his NonSymphony No. 5, and his PreSymphony No. 6, written in the late 1980s and the late 1990s, respectively.

The artists presented on this release - Jan Ekier and Karol Szymanowski - were united by a fascination with Chopin's music, as well as inspiration from folk music, particularly the highlander folklore. Szymanowski's influence on the entirety of the Polish music was not to be overestimated and it also left it's mark on the artistic sensitivity of young Ekier. In the '30s, the composer was appreciated by critics and audiences alike. He also occupies a particular place on the artistic path of a young pianist, Wojciech Pyrc, a graduate of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, and a laureate of numerous Polish and international competitions. On this release, he interprets piano miniatures by Ekier, as well as Szymanowski's works, including the daunting and rarely performed Fantasy in C major, Op. 14.