The year 1840 with reference to Robert Schumann's compositional legacy is colloquially referred to as the song year. It was then that Schumann composed a significant part of his compositions for voice and piano. The year 1840 is a breakthrough for the composer also for another reason. After many years, bringing only piano works, Schumann finally broke the peculiar routine and showed interest in a wider spectrum of genres. The present album from tenor Leszek Swidzinski, associated not only with the Warsaw opera stages, but also an excellent teacher, with the participation of pianist Zofia Antes, includes two popular cycles of Schuman songs: Liederkreis, Op. 39 and Dichterliebe, Op. 48.

The present album from the Polish Chamber Choir can be described as a short guide to Polish choral music created over the past few decades. It's repertoire is conceived in order to pair the works of composers closely related to choral music (including Juliusz Luciuk, Pawel Lukaszewski) with works by other esteemed Polish artists. The album includes both relatively simple works (Lumen by Wojciech Kilar, We Also Shepherds by Krzysztof Penderecki), as well as texturally complex, sonoristic explorations (Meditations for 4 sopranos, 4 altos, 4 tenors, 4 basses, and organ by Augustyn Bloch), prompting the listener to reflect. The 30-year-old Polish Chamber Choir belongs to the elite, narrow group of fully professional chamber choirs in the world. It gives around 80-100 concerts a year, preparing over 50 different programmes. The ensemble's primary aim is to work regularly on the instrumental, "orchestral" level, which, apart from many other abilities, demands complete mastery of the vocal apparatus, enabling the realization of all technical and artistic nuances of the compositions.

The present release of Korean pianist Sunhwa Park is an extremely attractive musical reading. The artist decided to present a number of works from the output of three, little-known today, composers active in the 19th and 20th centuries, which can satisfy the lovers of repertoire treats. The album opens with Songs, Op. 8 by Fanny Mendelssohn, a talented composer and pianist, older sister of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. The following compositions are two fragments from the cycle Soir�es Musicales, Op. 6 by Clara Schumann, showing the talent of the composer on the basis of musical genres representative of the Romantic era. The album closes with selected works by one of the most acclaimed American composers, Amy Beach.

This is the debut album of a Polish violinist - Marta Gebska. The young artist is a laureate of extremely numerous competition prizes, and considering her young age, she presents a very mature personality. Her interpretations testify to a unique performance craftsmanship combined with excellent violin technique and signal the emergence of a genuine talent on the Polish music stage. The multitude of artistic means of expression used, the variety of colors, the variability of the character of the sound and it's beauty is a matter of the soloist's rich imagination, enhanced by the values of the great French instrument Gustave Vuillaumme 1923. Listening to her recordings, one can experience not only artistic satisfaction, but also the joy resulting from the harmonious development of Polish violin music, to which both Marta's masters and outstanding violinists, Roman Lasocki and her father Andrzej Gebski, contributed.

Piano works by Karol Szymanowski pose a considerable challenge to their performers. Although the composer himself was an active instrumentalist, he never thought about his works in a purely pianistic way. This work is full of textural complexities which, in combination with numerous compositional indications, regulating tempo and dynamics, do not facilitate interpretation. This recording of a pianist who earned a reputation as promoter of Polish music, Radoslaw Sobczak, shows that even the most difficult textural traps do not pose any difficulty for this artist. Born in 1981 in Pisz, Radoslaw Sobczak completed a piano performance degree in the studio of Prof. Edward Wolanin at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw in 2006. He then supplemented his musical studies with Prof. Victor Macarov. The pianist won 2nd Prize at the 1 European Piano Competition in memory of Halina Czerny-Stefanska in Poznan (2008). He also won an honorable mention at the 14th Fryderyk Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw in 2000, receiving the title of 'Best Polish Competitor', along with many special prizes, among them a Yamaha piano from the Prof. Regina Smendzianka Foundation and a scholarship from the Crescendum est Polonia Foundation. St

In Poland, the need to reinterpret the cultural (and in general) peasant's scale has been growing for two decades, especially in recent times. It is difficult to unequivocally attribute the folkloric work of Zygmunt Krauze from the 1970s to the thoughtful, ideological harbingers of these reappraisals, but it certainly became the strong antithesis of patronizing "polishing" that had it's apogee a quarter of a century earlier. Unconventional attitude connects Krauze with "immersion" (to use the word of the composer) in the sound environment, resulting in an original and fresh work, and on the Polish background of his time - a separate one.

Born on 20 October 1957 in Jasienica, Andrzej Dziadek is a composer who, as one of few contemporary Polish artists, refers to the Romantic tradition. Andrzej Dziadek, after graduating from his studies under the supervision of J�zef Swider (Academy of Music in Katowice) and Francis Burt (Hochschule f�r Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna), developed a brilliant artistic activity, presenting his works at many prestigious festivals. The present album featuring the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice and the Polish Radio and Television Choir and Symphony Orchestra in Krak�w contains works created over the span of almost 30 years, which prompts the listener to reflect on a series of musical transformations that were gradually taking place in the composer's musical language.

In the work of Johann Sebastian Bach, two groups of sonatas composed for violin and harpsichord can be distinguished. The first group features the harpsichord performing only the role of basso continuo. The second group includes the harpsichord as an equal partner to the violin. This release features six sonatas of the latter category. Aleksandra Bryla is a versatile violinist with rich artistic achievements. She performs as a soloist and chamber musician, cooperating with prominent figures of the international music scene. She is a laureate of several violin and chamber music competitions around the world. In 2007 she cofounded the Meccore String Quartet, with which she carries out dynamic international concert activity. As a soloist, she has achieved major success at the National Zdzislaw Jahnke Violin Competition in Poznan, the Michael Hill International Competition in New Zealand, the International Violin Competition Valsesia-Musica in Italy and the International Violin Competition in Avignon in France. Maria Banaszkiewicz-Bryla is a graduate of the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan, where she studied in the harpsichord class of Z. Brencz-Budny and E. Mielczarek-Poprawa and in the organ class of R. Sroczynski. She has taken numerous courses in the interpretation of early music, and is founder and director of the early music ensemble Brill'ante.

Anna Miernik has been promoting Polish music abroad since 2013 and treats it as her artistic mission. Till now she has performed works by 37 Polish composers. Besides playing Polish music during the concerts she came up with the idea to record some of her favorite works. My Polish Reflection presents the pieces of 10 Polish composers from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Their compositions were written over the period of 185 years, ranging from Chopin's Variations in B flat major that date back to 1833, to a series of compositions by M. Papara that were created in 2018. The artist hopes that thanks to this 'musical kaleidoscope' you will see how varied Polish music is in terms of it's imagery, character, color and tone. Apart from Chopin there are many other Polish composers from which probably only a few are known - Paderewski, Moniuszko, maybe Szymanowski. In the series of compositions by M. Papara one can hear many sound clusters. Sometimes it was even necessary to use the entire piano keyboard in order to produce them. That was possible thanks to specially designed felt-padded panels that were placed on piano keys, allowing in this way a simultaneous production of all piano sounds. Their exceptional timbre is the crucial and underlying component of this series.

This release, the second joint album of composers related to Gdansk and the Chair of Composition of the local Academy of Music presents new works created in 2014-2016 (the first album appeared in 2015). The compositions vary in terms of genre and expression, sometimes subtly marked with individual preferences, sometimes clearly characterized by fixed elements of the musical language of their creators. In each of them we are dealing with creative reference to traditional forms, genres, or compositional techniques - with a sui generis synthesis, impressive evocation or postmodern game with the music of the past in an original, attractive sound approach.

The Classicpair chamber ensemble is made up of Agata Hanko and Jakub Jarosz. Their cooperation began in 2012 during their studies at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels. They have had an opportunity to perform on a number of occasions in Europe and the United States. Their concerts in Texas (Corpus Christi, Houston) and Illinois (Chicago) opened them the way for the debut in the famous Carnegie Hall in New York. Inspired by their own experiences and cooperation with many artists, they are open to a variety of styles and musical genres. Their repertoire includes both classical music, written originally for saxophone and piano, many transcriptions, and contemporary sounds. Spark is their first album, and features plenty of marvelous saxophone and piano sounds, virtuosity, but above all - authentic colorful emotions.

It is rare to find a situation where one of the most exquisite national operas, according to many, has been recorded only a few times. Although The Haunted Manor by Stanislaw Moniuszko has been considered to be an outstanding showcase of Polishness in opera for more than 150 years, the modest number of comprehensive recordings of this composition may give rise to profound disbelief. This recording was created thanks to the determination of the artists of the Stanislaw Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdansk, who wished to honor the Patron of the university on the occasion of it's 70th anniversary in a special and permanent way. This album is a documentary of a concert performance of The Haunted Manor, prepared with the participation of the most eminent pedagogues of the Academy. An interesting recording was made, faithful to the spirit of the Opera and, like it, full of noble humor, which is the setting of extremely serious content.

This release is an original album featuring two outstanding instrumentalists - Cezary Paciorek (accordion) and Piotr Lemanczyk (double bass). The musicians play a double role here; they are performers and composers of the music written for these two inventively juxtaposed instruments. Their music is inspired by jazz, Polish and Latin American folklore, and traditions of the European classics. Both poetic and vivid, this music is beautiful and interesting. Cezary Paciorek began his musical career at the age of 15 when he joined the Big Band of Gdansk led by Jerzy Partyka. Since then, his four albums have received critical acclaim and award nominations, and he is a regular at jazz festivals all over the globe. Piotr Lemanczyk is considered one of the greatest European jazz bass players on the scene today. He frequently performs and records with the biggest names in world jazz. He is also the founder and artistic director of the Kartuzy Jazz Bass Day festival.

A large part of Feliks Nowowiejski’s work, especially his larger works, remained in manuscripts and soon after the composer’s death in 1946, he was forgotten. As if he’d faded into oblivion. This state of affairs lasted until the last few years, when part of the Polish music community began to notice severe gaps in knowledge about the work of the composer. The Opole Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Przemyslaw Neumann has also played a big role in decoding Felix Nowowiejski’s music. The testimony of this is a smaller album that gathers the symphonic works of Rota’s creator, previously only rarely performed and almost absent in phonography. These are extremely interesting, selected symphonic works, composed with incredible impetus, full of melodic invention, pathetic culminations and deep romantic aesthetics.

The Quintet of Silesian Musicians is composed of leaders of the Silesian Chamber Orchestra. The ensemble, known for classical arrangements of entertainment music and popular works, has among it's long list of achievements, the premiere recording of Leaves from an Unwritten Diary by Krzysztof Penderecki in the version for string quintet. The present release, with participation of German pianist Christoph Soldan, includes two compositions belonging to the most recognisable and popular chamber music repertoire. The youthful Piano Quintet in A major by Franz Schubert - Trout is a light and graceful composition, very different from subsequent works of the composer, as far as the atmosphere is concerned. It is contrasted with the Piano Quintet in F minor by Johannes Brahms, an extremely serious work, dark, with plenty of dramatic power.