The cycle of Nine Preludes, Op. 1 gained recognition already two years before its official release. In 1904, Arthur Rubinstein – fascinated by the first contact with the Preludes, as well as with several other compositions of his later friend – used the following words to describe them: ‘This music indeed touched my deepest emotions; I have not experienced anything similar since the discovery of Chopin. Who is that man? Where does he live? Where is he now? I need to meet him!’ Undoubtedly, op. 1 can be considered the first great showcase of Karol Szymanowski’s talent. In each of the miniatures, a smooth synthesis of Romantic influences and harmonic and textural procedures typical of many of the composer’s works occurs. These works are beautifully performed by flutist Agata Igras and pianist Mariusz Rukowski.

The pieces featured on this album show two faces of Krzysztof Meyer’s music from the 1980s. The Piano Concerto was created in the spring of 1979 and performed soon afterwards, but apparently it did not satisfy the composer, since in the autumn of 1989 he once again approached the score and subjected it to thorough modifications. The Symphony No. 6, in turn, was born at the beginning of 1982. Although musically clearly related, which can be stated based on their harmony, the two works are different, because they were motivated by diverse incentives.

The Concerto is ‘music about music,’ i.e. a game or even a play on sounds that is supposed to capture the attention of the listener with its aesthetic qualities. At the same time, it provides the soloist with an opportunity to show his or her skills, which is one of the main magnets attracting music lovers to concert halls. The Symphony, on the other hand, is programmatic and emotional. It could be described as ‘music commenting on the world,’ referring to political events.

The present album is another in a series featuring music by Józef Zeidler, one of the leading representatives of the Classicist period in Polish music. He is a composer who for many years was known solely to a narrow circle of musicologists, one of the reasons being a scarcity of existing biographical data. What is known is that Zeidler arrived at the Holy Mountain in Gostyń in 1775. The local monastery of St. Philip Neri boasted one of the finest musical chapels in the whole of western Poland. It also ran a school for talented youth. Zeidler died on April 4, 1809 and was buried in the basilica of the Congregation of St. Philip Neri. A large part of his oeuvre has survived in the monastery archives; some of his compositions are kept in the musical collections of other monastery libraries in western Poland, as well as in the Pauline monastery at the Black Madonna shrine in Częstochowa. The works included in the present recording come from the musical collections in Gostyń, Gniezno and Poznań.

“I consider the album Accordion Concertos to be one of the most important musical achievements in my artistic life. On this [album], I present three stylistically diverse accordion concertos. Each of them is extremely close to my heart and has played a huge role in the development of my musical career... The recording of the material for the album took place in 2017 and was an artistic work in my doctoral dissertation. I am very happy to be finally able to share this album with you.” (Michał Gajda)

Michał Gajda began learning to play the accordion at the age of seven. He has been repeatedly awarded with scholarships of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, the Marshal of the Łódź Voivodeship, and the Rector of the Academy of Music in Poznań for his artistic achievements. Michał Gajda is also very active as a teacher. His students regularly win prizes in major national and international accordion competitions. He is invited to masterclasses as a lecturer (Poland, Georgia, South Korea, Italy) and often acts as a juror.

Bearing in mind the special pedagogical value of suites, Bach, already a kapellmeister in Köthen, in 1722, began to write Suites pour le Clavessin into his second wife’s private musical notebook, entitled Clavier-Büchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach. These were five suites, marked with BWV numbers 812–816, now known as French Suites. There is no certainty as to whether the composer intended to create a cycle of suites or whether he rather wrote them successively for the purpose of improving the harpsichord performance of the young wife.

Johann Sebastian Bach would never use the very name French Suites. It first appeared only in 1762, in the notes of Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (1718–1795), who described the sequence of six suites as a collection under the title "VI. franz. Suiten von reel Herrn Capellm. Bach." In the second half of the 18th century, the name became common in the Berlin circle. In 1802, Johann Nicolaus Forkel (1749–1818) called the cycle French Suites, because, in his opinion, they were composed in the French style. They are performed beautifully here by Ewa Mrowca.

Described as a ‘visionary and poet of the cello’, Bartosz Koziak has gained the acclaim of music lovers and critics not only for his extraordinary interpretation of works by both classical and contemporary composers but also for his thoughtful and often daring program choices. As an established performer of contemporary music, Bartosz Koziak was a long time and regular guest participant in Krzysztof Penderecki’s concert projects. He participated in the first album recording of the Concerto grosso conducted by the composer and has performed most of his cello works. On the present release he presents Martinu’s Cello Concerto No. 2 and Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 2.

Second Life' is the first-ever album featuring both acoustic guitar and string orchestra on each track. Acoustic guitarist Adam Palma is accompanied by one of the greatest European orchestras, The Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio AMADEUS, led by famous conductor, Agnieszka Duczmal. This album is a very personal record, an intimate look at music and life from the perspective of a man who "regained" his life after waking from a long coma. Recovering gave Adam time to reflect, to review his own musical roots, and to view his life deeply from a new perspective. We hear the songs that the soloist grew up listening to: folk melodies, a scout song, a song belonging to the patriotic trend of music, known film themes, Chopin's compositions (never before performed on the guitar), and Adam's own compositions that show what he himself describes as his Polish soul. All the arrangements have been written by Adam Palma and orchestrated by the outstanding Polish film score composer Krzesimir Debski. On this album, classical music and jazz are intertwined. All this against a background of the characteristic harmony of Polish songs, combining the sound of acoustic guitar and string orchestra!

The 24 Caprices for Solo Violin by Pierre Rode, next to an analogous cycle by Niccolò Paganini, should be considered one of the most important violin works of early Romanticism. Rode’s compositions are advanced and innovative, and their contribution to the development of the 19th-century cycle of instrumental miniatures is undeniable. Soloist, chamber musician, and teacher, Roksana Kwasnikowska graduated with honors from the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw in the class of her master, legendary violinist Prof. Jan Stanienda, receiving the ‘Magna cum Laude’ medal. On a number of occasions, she has been awarded in prestigious national and international competitions, including the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition in Sion, the 1st Karol Szymanowski International Music Competition in Katowice, the Beethoven’s Hradec International Music Competition, the Michał Spisak International Music Competition in Dąbrowa Górnicza, and the International Tadeusz Wroński Solo Violin Com-petition in Warsaw. In addition to her solo career, she is very devoted to chamber music.

Born in Jelenia Góra, Sulamita Ślubowska started playing the violin at the age of six under the direction of Ludmiła Sołowiewicz. Graduate of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice in the class of Prof. Szymon Krzeszowiec, in which she has been working as an assistant professor since 2020. Graduate of the NOSPR Academy. She has trained her skills under the guidance of outstanding artists, such as Pierre Amoyal, Gidon Kremer, Pinchas Zukerman, Roland Baldini, Bartłomiej Nizioł and Maria Szwajger-Kułakowska. Moreover, she has been appreciated many times at national and international com- petitions, winning, among others, first place at International ‘Young Paganini’ Violin Competition in Legnica, first place at National Stanisław Serwaczyński Competition of Young Violinists in Lublin, third place in the Michał Spisak National Music Competition in Dąbrowa Górnicza.

On this release, Ślubowska presents a program of works by Bacewicz, Prokofiev, and Pärt.

The Karol Rathaus Ensemble, carrying out its mission to bring this outstanding Polish composer back to the concert life, once again reached for the rarely performed music of its patron. 2021 saw the world recording premiere of two chamber works by Karol Rathaus, i.e. the Trio, Op. 53 from 1943 and the Trio Serenade, Op. 69 from 1953 (DUX 1712). Now the ensemble decided to record more compositions; what is important, some of them have also been recorded for the first time. The repertoire of the album has been selected in such a way as to give the listener the opportunity to get to know both Rathaus’ new works and his new face: not only did he create chamber music, but also songs, so the album also features ‘guest’ performers. Expanding the circle of artists ready to take the risk of discovering the above work is of great importance, since the music of 20th-century Polish exile composers is still marginalized both in musicological research and in the concert repertoire. Its absence in the domestic culture resulted from the fact that for several decades the communist authorities did not allow information about the art created outside Poland: emigrants were to plunge into oblivion. Nowadays, we are witnessing a gradual renaissance of their music, and the names of such eminent artists as Jerzy Fitelberg, the Łabuński brothers, Karol Rathaus, Szymon Laks, Roman Maciejewski, or even Roman Palester and Andrzej Panufnik are slowly enter-ing the collective consciousness.

This new release is a brilliant collection of chamber music works by Polish composer Józef Elsner and his disciples Józef Władyslaw Krogurski and Ignatzi Felix Dobzinski. Known as Chopin's teacher, Elsner was also active as a violinist and conductor, and was also a renowned educator. He established the Warsaw Conservatory and taught excellent composers. On this release, enjoy a number of very beautiful works by these early Polish Romantic composers. Also notable is the participation of Yakubu Kushrik, a virtuoso who won the 4th place (the highest Polish person in the competition), which is the same as Aimi Kobayashi at the 18th Chopin International Piano Competition in 2021

Slawomira Wilga and Izabela Wilga present a collection of works for violin and piano by the talented Kontski brothers. Sławomira Wilga was born in Bytom, where she began her music education at the Fryderyk Chopin General Education Music School. She graduated with honors from secondary school in the class of Joanna Cogiel, then continued her education at the Grażyna and Kiej-stut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź in the class of Prof. Łukasz Błaszczyk, receiving the Primus in Artibus Diploma for the most outstanding student. She has been developing her skills at many international music festivals and workshops in Europe and Africa under the watchful eye of excellent artists including Farid Bacharov, Andrej Bielow, Zakhar Bron, Boris Brovtsyn, Nikita Boriso-Glebsky, and many others. Izabela Wilga Born graduated with honors from the Fryderyk Chopin General Education Music School in Bytom in the piano class of Maria Wróbel-Zegalska. In 2013–2018, she studied in the piano class of Prof. Zbigniew Raubo and Piotr Banasik, DMA, and in the chamber music class of Prof. Grzegorz Biegas, with whom she continued postgraduate studies in 2018–2020. She has also worked under the super-vision of such pianists as Andrzej Jasiński, Alexei Orlovetsky, Wojciech Kocyan, Piotr Sałajczyk, Witold Holtz, and Carlo Palese. Her main focus is chamber music. She has taken part in many music festivals, e.g. the Sinfonia Varsovia Festival ‘Summer at Grochowska Street,’ ‘Emanations’, ‘Violin Under the Sails’, ‘Music of Nations’ Festival, ‘Żywieckie Suwakowanie,’ 43 Days of Karol Szymanowski’s Music, or the 31st International Festival of Young Winners of Music Competitions.

SEPIA ENSEMBLE is one of the few contemporary music ensembles in Poland. It was established in 2012 in Poznań on the initiative of Artur Kroschel and Rafał Zapała. It consists of musicians who share a special passion for performing latest music. The artists often extend acoustic sounds to include electronic means. The core of the group consists of eleven musicians/soloists performing in various configurations, from solo to large ensembles. In December 2012, the ensemble implemented two projects to celebrate the Year of Cage, which consisted of the American artist’s works. A year later, the musicians performed twice at the ‘Musicacoustica’ Electro-acoustic Music Festival in Beijing, devoting one concert to electroacoustic music and the other in tribute to Witold Lutosławski. Since 2013, the Sepia Ensemble has been the ensemble-in-residence at the Festival of Contemporary Music ‘Poznań Music Spring.’ As part of the Festival, the musicians have premiered works by recognized Polish and foreign composers, including Rafał Zapała, Artur Kroschel, Jaromir Gajewski, Chang Seok Choi, Kaveh Djodat, Arshia Samsaminia, Idin Samimi Mofakham, and Rein-hard Karger.

It is the successful combination of the low, chest baritone and high, head soprano registers that has come to characteristically define the rare and unique contralto singing voice at it's finest. This register combination results in a natural, three octave scale. Another specific contralto feature is a natural agility that, with professional training, becomes an overwhelming coloratura. Ewa Podles, considered the most authentic contralto of her generation, features her distinctive, dramatic and agile voice on this new Dux release of well-known 18th-20th c. operatic excerpts.

WOJCIECH KILAR, KATOWICOMÂ?WOJCIECH KILAR (B. 1932) SILESIAN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA AND CHOIR, MIROSLAW JACEK BLASZCYK, CONDUCTOR WOJCIECH KILAR, KATOWICOMSOLEMN OVERTURE FOR ORCHESTRA (2010)PASCHAL HYMN FOR A CAPPELLA CHORUSSYMPHONY NO 5 "ADVENT"