The best proof that Mieczyslaw Weinberg's music has fortunately and deservedly been experiencing a renaissance in recent years is another album devoted entirely to the person of this composer. This album entitled Weinberg � Sonatas for Violin and Piano was created on the initiative of violinist Michal Kowalczyk and pianists Dagmara Niedziela and Mateusz Rozek. The focus of the artists' interpretative vision is the multidimensionality of the composer's sound language, resulting from both the composer's tragic life experiences and him being rooted in three different cultural traditions. Each of the sonatas featured on the album seems to fully resonate with the events that were accompanying it's creation in terms of emotional expression. The recorded works, although they have just begun to make a regular appearance in concert programs, are undoubtedly a staple of the 20th-century chamber music.

The main idea behind this recording was to focus on the presentation of pieces composed by Hungarian and Polish artists in one particular year: 1948. We wanted to show here compositions of two major artists from each of those countries. Both Hungarian pieces featured on the album naturally continue the 'Hungarian sound,' characteristic of the interwar period, shaped by the output of Zolt�n Kod�ly. Cast in four movements, the Serenade for String Orchestra by Endre Szerv�nszky (1911-1977) is an example of one of the outstanding compositions symptomatic of the generation of the master's successors. Let us quote the words of an excellent music critic, Marianne P�ndi: 'This work combines all the qualities of the Hungarian music of that period: it is melodic, understandable, Hungarian in style, and rhythmic. It is a source of first-class entertainment.'

I have had one student here, a promising talent and a very good young man, I sincerely recommend him to you, put in a good word for him when he comes back, take him to your class; he is your namesake, I think you have played some of his pieces in Prague. His name is Nov�k, I am full of hope, since he is not only talented but also sensitive... This is a fragment of a letter from Bohuslav Martinu to Karl Nov�k of 14 February 1948 in which he mentions his student Jan Nov�k. Jan Nov�k (born on 8 April 1921 in Nov� R�e, died on 17 November 1984 in Ulm) was a Czech composer and pianist who would combine various influences in his music, including Classical period, Czech folklore, dodecaphony, and jazz inspirations. The composer's out-put is very varied in terms of instrumental selection. Apart from solo pieces for such instruments as guitar, organ, harpsichord, flute, violin, or piano, we find therein works for two, three, or more instruments. He also com-posed cantatas, film, ballet, theatre music, music for solo voice with accompaniment, and orchestral works.

Here we present the latest album by Leszek Dlugosz, one of the most famous Polish singing poets. The album features a unique cast: Sinfonietta Cracovia and invited guests conducted by Jurek Dybal in a completely new, symphonic version of the singer's cult compositions in a perfect arrangement by Andrzej Zarycki. Leszek Marek Dlugosz (born 18 June 1941 in Zaklik�w) is a Polish actor, poet, writer and composer. For many years he has been a member of cabaret "Piwnica pod Baranami", one of the most famous cabarets during the times of People's Republic of Poland.

Slawomir Wilk writes: "I first came across Sergei Bortkiewicz's music while studying at the Academy of Music in Gdansk. It was only his etudes that I had the opportunity to listen to, but even then I found his output extremely interesting. During the pandemic, I chanced upon the composer's Piano Sonata No. 2 while looking for new repertoire and inspiration for myself and the group of my students. I was surprised that such a beautiful piece was practically unknown and not performed in public. Being under the impression of that composition, I decided to learn more about it's creator. Sergei Bortkiewicz turned out to be not only an extremely colorful figure with an interesting biography, but also a very 'prolific' composer who left behind many wonderful works, not only for piano."

From the conductor: "We live in an era of musical discoveries. For years manifested and defined only through the work of it's most outstanding composers, Polish music has been reclaiming it's all-embracing capacity: we get to know forgotten, underrated, sometimes outright ignored authors (in spite of their significant contribution to Polish culture). The epoch in the history of Polish music that is basically written anew is the time of the Partitions. In the history of European music, the nineteenth century was a period of profound changes: a bumpy road running from the late-Classicist period to the bloom and twilight of Romanticism, to the beginning of all modernist trends. In Polish music, it was the time of two titans: Fryderyk Chopin and Stanislaw Moniuszko; it was thanks to their work that Polish music survived, and gained new, original appearance. For generations of younger composers Chopin's genius was a source of inspiration; his shadow, on the other hand, became for many an obstacle they were unable to surmount (among those who complained about the difficulty to break away from the "post-Chopinesque" tradition we find such names, as Mieczyslaw Karlowicz and Karol Szymanowski). Political situation in the 19th-century Poland hindered development of the orchestral movement; it was the opera, as well as chamber, and, above all, piano music that enjoyed greatest popularity. Such was the reality that shaped Michal Bergson, the hero of the current album..."

The opera Faniska, which premiered at the K�rntnertor Theatre in Vienna in 1806, is said to have been enthusiastically received by both Haydn and Beethoven. The libretto is available in German and Italian, and is based on the melodrama Les Mines de Pologne by the Nancy-born French playwright Ren� Charles Guilbert de Pix�r�court. The action takes place in Poland, from where the first recording of the opera also comes. Zamoski, the Baron of Sandomir, orders his henchman Oranski to kidnap Faniska, the wife of the Baron of Rava, Rasinski. Faniska is taken to Zamoski's castle. Various attempts to free her fail. After being imprisoned with her husband, the couple finally manage to escape with Rasno's help. Rasinski's soldiers attack the castle, Zamoski is killed, Oranski is captured and put on trial. Faniska is sometimes called an op�ra comique, but more often (and more accurately) an opera in three acts or even a 'grand heroic opera'. Like Lodo�ska, Faniska is a typical example of the 'rescue opera' genre. Cherubini invested all his melodic talent in this work. Compared to Lodo�ska his talent has clearly gained in quality. Natalia Rubis sings the technically difficult title role very sensitively and with a beautifully led but somewhat tight voice. Krystian Adam remains all too pale as her husband Rasinski. In the role of Rasno Piotr Kalna's singing is rather strained. The supporting roles are more or less well cast. With only one really good voice, that of bass-baritone Robert Gierlach as Zamoski, the vocal side is somewhat weak. On the other hand, Lukasz Borowicz is all the more impressive as the conductor. He puts a lot of lightness and transparency into the orchestral part, which he controls admirably, enlivening it with many details. Because Cherubini's score is so imaginative and so closely connected to the drama, this counts for a lot.

Ewa Podleś has been widely recognized as the most authentic contralto of her generation by Opéra Int’l, Gramophone, New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times and Opera News due to the specific color, huge range and agility of her voice. Her vocal abilities make it possible for the artist to successfully perform repertoire spanning the baroque to the contemporary on the world’s most prestigious opera stages and concert venues. Long regarded as one of the world’s leading Chopin exponents, pianist Garrick Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire that spans the entire piano literature.

V 2: LECTURES OF PROF. JASINSK

BOGUSLAW SHAEFFER ASSEMBLAGE

V 1: LECTURES OF PROF. JASINSK

Alessandro Stradella (1639-1682) was considered one of the greatest creators of his time during his lifetime, and his compositions were deemed excellent in many aspects. Currently, his works are not so well known to a wider audience. The present video album, presented by the Institute of Opera – a joint project of Warsaw art universities: the Theatre Academy, the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music and the Academy of Fine Arts, includes the complete performance of the opera Il Trespolo tutore by Stradella. This is the first phonographic undertaking in the world associated with this work.

Wojciech Blecharz is somewhat an exhibitionist. An emotional one, of course. With his music, he doesn’t create a vision of the contemporary world burdened with disasters, being neither a “digital indigen” nor a fan of algorithmic passages. He’s not even recognized as a political rebel who discloses his outlook on life between the notes. In the centre of his interest remains what’s closest to him – the human psychological condition in the context of experiencing crises and break-ups, traumatic memories. And he is not ashamed of deriving from life experiences, talking about them in interviews, private conversations, programmatic notes but also through musicians performing on stage. He, therefore, creates music that is emotional, even autobiographical and he has no problem with sharing it with the wider audience. To Blecharz, the sound is a dynamic material – sometimes on the verge of audibility, another time waking us from the torpor with a strong bang against the table. In the final scene, Izabella Szalaj-Zimak, Elwira Przybylowska, Marek Czech and Michal Pepol conduct a musical autopsy of two cellos – lying almost as on a catafalque. We can hear the constantly repeated phrases, rhythmical knocks on the resonator, rustles (as if the composer is still haunted by the invasive earworms). Blecharz leaves us without an answer. Has “it” already ended?

Halina Krzyzanowska was a Polish pianist and composer. She studied the piano at the Paris Conservatoire with Félix Le Couppey and at the age of 17 won the prix d’honneur. Then she studied counterpoint and composition with Andrès and Ernest Guiraud. She performed throughout Europe, though mainly in France and Poland, and in 1896 was made officier of the Académie de France. In 1900 she was appointed professor of piano at Rennes conservatory. Greatly influenced by Saint-Saëns, Krzy?anowska composed a symphony, a Marche héroïque for orchestra, a Fantasy for piano and orchestra, a string quartet and other chamber works, many solo piano works (including two sonatas, programmatic works and pieces in dance forms), settings of French and Polish poems, incidental music to S. Duchi?ska’s play Jasyr (‘Tatar Captivity’), a one-act opera Magdusia (to a libretto by H. ?wiejkowski, composed before 1894) and an oratorio. Unfortunately, her works are today largely unknown. This album featuring the Camerata Vistula String Quartet aims to change that, and presents a program of her chamber music.

The Passenger by Mieczyslaw Wajnberg is much more than a stage or musical work: It is a testament to the cruel 20th century, telling about totalitarian regimes which led to annihilation of millions of lives. Completed in 1968 in Moscow, the artwork by Mieczyslaw Wajnberga and librettist Alexander Medvedev, plenty of universal, anti-totalitarian significance, waited for it's world stage premiere until 2010. In Russia, it was only in 2016 that the Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Yekaterinburg made the effort to fully stage this extremely important opera. The present DVD, issued in cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, is a registration of this excellent Russian performance.