In the 17th century, Poland was one of the most dynamic cultural centres in Europe, mainly due to royal patronage and great magnate families. Opera and ballet performances were organized, in many churches organs were built. An important role in the development of Polish musical culture of that period was played by numerous court ensembles, of which the royal one was of course of the highest quality. It was also the long-time Kapellmeister of the court of Wladyslaw IV, Bartlomiej Pekiel, that belonged to the European musical elite. OCTAVA – one of the most interesting Polish vocal groups presents, along with a group of early music specialists invited to perform this work, pieces of this composer, most important for the Polish music of the 17th century. This is the first comprehensive and complete phonographic edition of the works of Bartlomiej Pekiel, which features pieces not yet published, including works found in the Archives of the Wawel Cathedral Chapter.

The Goldberg Variations - alongside Wohltemperiertes Klavier, Musikalisches Opfer, Die Kunst der Fuge - constitute the most intense link of Bach's art of polyphony. Thus, they focus on the whole essential problem of polyphonic composition using the counterpoint technique, on the problem of the polyphonic composition given to perform. In none of Bach's other works, these two moments - the composer and the executive - are so closely connected, almost identifying with each other. This work, originally for harpsichord, is at the same time the most pianistic of all Bach's keyboard works. This subtle interpretation of the Variations is performed by Professor Won-Sook Hur, one of the most recognized pianists in Korea, and should interest every fan of composer and didactic Bach craftsmanship.

One of the most respected Polish mezzosopranos, Urszula Kryger and outstanding pianist Agata G�rska-Kolodziejska, present a number of songs by four female composers active throughout the 19th and 20th centuries: Irene R�gine Wieniawski (pseudonym: Poldowski), Clara Schumann, C�cile Chaminade and Agathe Backer Grondahl. The material includes 17 carefully selected songs that allow the recipient to place the aforementioned works in the context of well-known pieces of the most representative 19th-century composers, commonly associated with vocal and instrumental lyrics. This album also makes us aware of the different stylistic influences of those composers, active in similar years, but coming from different cultural backgrounds.

A Lviv-Lublin composer, Andrzej Nikodemowicz, after emigrating from his native Lviv, became one of the central figures of Lublin's musical life as a lecturer of local universities, as well as a composer and animator of the musical life and culture of the region. In 1989, he became the President of the newly founded Lublin Branch of the Polish Composers' Union, which, among others, initiated and co-organized a series of concerts devoted to the works of Lublin composers titled AKORD. As part of the cycle, many premieres of symphonic, chamber, solo, choral and electronic works took place. The idea behind recording this album was born during a piano recital of Michal Drewnowski, which was dedicated to Professor Nikodemowicz's jubilee, as part of the AKORD XV cycle. The material contained on this release is an extended version of the compositions performed at that time, associated with the legacy of Andrzej Nikodemowicz.

The present album by Zuzanna Budzynska and Szymon Ogryzka can be regarded as a short anthology of polonaise in the work of highly regarded Polish composers. Each of the seven works recorded on this album is a manifestation of an ingenious adaptation of Polish folklore based on violin music. As the artist herself points out, the work of the composers presented on this album has a special meaning for her- Karol Lipinski was born in her hometown, Henryk Wieniawski came to Lublin to attend the school where he graduated with his degree in music, and for many years, Emil Mlynarsi was the rector of the University with which the violinist is currently associated. The album also contains Piotr Wrobel's transcription of three Polonaises op. 9 Karol Lipinski, premiered by Zuzanna Budzynska in 2017.

Polish pianist Katarzyna Musial, who currently resides in Canada, is, according to the Chicago Classical Review, "a great talent with amazing technique and interpretive brilliance." She performs regularly as a soloist, chamber musician, and alongside orchestras across North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The New York Concert Review described her playing as "pure bliss... miraculously presented... a clearly precise interpretation that reached emotional depth with harmonious colors." According to Beijing Press, Katarzyna Musial is "a pianist who enchants her listeners with a dazzling game." Fanfare Magazine emphasizes that "if an artist is able to show charisma through his playing, Musial is proof that it is possible." On this new release, Karatzyna performs a programme of Spanish piano music. Her concerts of the recorded pieces have been widely acclaimed.

Over the years, Krzysztof Baculewski, born on 26 December 1950, has become known not only as a great composer, but also as a publicist and teacher. Until 1974, he studied at the then Higher State School of Music in Warsaw under the supervision of Witold Rudzinski and from 1975 he continued his education in the composition class of Olivier Messiaen in Paris. For over 30 years, Baculewski has been a member of the repertoire committee of the Warsaw Autumn Festival. It is worth pointing out that the composer reconstructed the increasingly popular Piano Concerto in A flat major, Op. 2 by Ignacy Feliks Dobrzynski, as well as Beata by Stanislaw Moniszuko, also recently released by DUX. The present album includes a number of representative chamber works by Krzysztof Baculewski and selected pieces composed for flute solo.

This release is a new release in the series 'New Music In Eastern Europe' implemented together with the publishing house B�lt Records. The album is dedicated to the work of Corneliu Dan Georgescu - one of the 20th century's classics, underestimated by the phonographic industry. Composing as a contemplation of the musical archetype - this is the best summary of what Georgescu says about his music. The core and strength of this work are not rooted in the originality of the musical material, in composition tricks, or in castling. It can even be said that Georgescu does not compose, does not "combine" sounds, but contemplates archetypical figures, turns to basic factors, and implements pure elements. Georgescu's approach is based on the idea of "stopping time," and depicting the "eternal stillness."

We present a selection of the most beautiful compositions by Pawel Lukaszewski – an outstanding contemporary Polish composer, whose music we have had the honor to record and propagate on sixteen releases published by DUX in recent years. Lukaszewski is a composition professor, conductor, known and appreciated in the world, a laureate of numerous awards and honorable mentions at composers’ competitions, a laureate of ten FRYDERYK awards and numerous nominations is an artist whose works have been performed at over 100 festivals in Poland and abroad. The selection of composition on two albums, Lukaszewski – The Most Beautiful will allow music lovers to find pearls among his works, learn about their diversity and taste the beauty of music. These recordings will also allow you to listen to the mastery of 6 choirs and 3 orchestras under the baton of 6 conductors, 11 soloists and a string quartet.

On his next "classical" album, one of the busiest Polish musicians, Krzysztof Herdzin, performs in a double role: as a composer and conductor. The album is the phonographic premiere of two exceptional compositions: concertos for orchestra with a completely unusual combination of solo instruments - viola with saxophone and a trio of woodwind instruments. Herdzin perfectly uses classical means, referring at ease to the style of Impressionism, Expressionism, or Neoclassicism. The composer does not hide his musical inspirations concentrating in the areas dominated by Ravel, Debussy, Poulenc, Shostakovich, Rachmaninov, Grazyna Bacewicz and Tansman. It is music with a slightly extended tonality, affecting the imagination with the help of suggestive "sound" images.

Currently, Feliks Nowowiejski is recognisable mainly as the author of music to Maria Konopnicka’s Oath, alternatively as composer of organ and oratorio music. His symphonic output, overshadowed by the works of Karol Szymanowski, who was composing at the same time, is rarely performed and has not been presented to the wider audience yet. The present album, thanks to the efforts of the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Lukasz Borowicz, fills this gap in the image of the Polish music of the interwar period. We display on it the symphonies Nos. 2 and 3 by Nowowiejski (the Symphony No. 1 is lost). The first of the pieces, with extended percussion parts, is a genuine apology of rhythm, while the Symphony No. 3, dedicated to Iris, the goddess of rainbow, enchants us with ingenious instrumental solutions – colors of the orchestra.

It is not without reason that the most recent album of French pianist Jean-Claude Henriot is dedicated entirely to Schumann's music. The artist considers him to be the first composer who explored the musical areas discovered by Beethoven. Through precise and sensitive interpretation of works by both composers, the pianist devotes himself to the search of a beautiful sound as reflection of speech and it's transcending qualities. The pieces presented on the album vary in terms of style, form and atmosphere. Kreisleriana, Op. 16, composed on the basis of contrasts and written under the influence of meetings with Chopin, refers to the literary output of E.T.A. Hoffmann and constitutes an opposite to both dark, ordered according to a completely different principle Nachtst�cke, Op. 23 (Schumann wrote, "While composing, I kept seeing funeral processions, coffins, unhappy, despairing people. While I was composing I was often so overcome that tears came forth...") and Geistervariationen from the last year of composing, which in turn are characterized with simplicity, calm and reflectiveness.

Franz Xaver Mozart, the youngest son of Wolfgang Amadeus, has some 30 piano works to his name. They include nine cycles of variations with opus numbers, three sets of Polonaises melancholiques, sonatas, fantasies, rondos, and several smaller forms. In contrast to his father, he never displayed a performing interest in any instrument other than the piano. He used his outstanding performing skills in his compositional output, the lion's share of which was for the piano. It is these works that pianist Anna Liszewska has included on this release. Anna Liszewska studied at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, gaining her diploma in 1995. She later went on to study under Barbara Halska, John Owings, and Andrzej Jasinski. In addition to an active performing and recording career, Anna is a teacher, and has directed a piano class at the Henryk Wieniawski Primary and Secondary Music Schools, and is on the faculty of the Music Academy in Lodz, lecturing in the Department of Piano, Organ, Harpsichord, Early Music, and Jazz.

For over 60 years, George Crumb's music has been recognised as a sonoristic phenomenon that cannot be compared to the output of other artists composing at the same time. Although the catalogue of artistic influences under which Crumb was over the years is extremely extensive (starting from introducing quotes from the works by Johann Sebastian Bach, ending with a sporadic use of harmonic and rhythmic means identical with the style of Claude Debussy and B�la Bart�k), these inspirations - even in the earliest phase of his activity - would usually turn out to be only a contribution to the creation of original music forms and crystallisation of a sonoristic sound landscape typical of the composer. This album includes three completely stylistically different compositions by George Crumb, depicting different stages of the composer's sonoristic quest.

Francesco Bottigliero’s numerous interests, creative energy and talent could fill more than one artistic biography. The artist pursued his passions while studying piano interpretation, composition and music education at the same time and then conducting and philosophy. On this album, we present this versatile artist in a triple role: As a composer, conductor, pianist, and chamber musician, presenting pieces inspired by known and important to him figures from the world of art. Bottigliero’s musical language is based on playing with sound and sonoristics, formed on already culturally coded associations. Although by definition it is tonal, the composer often uses very revealing and innovative means. The inspiration for this music is poetry, painting, architecture. It is the instrumentation that is unusual in the Portraits project, in which the main role is played by chamber string ensembles constructed in such a way as to leave room for genuine virtuosity, inherent in chamber music, in their sound palette, eagerly extended beyond classical combinations.