A recording of the series devoted to Krzysztof Meyer 's works includes his latest chamber music. Born in 1943, the composer has worked out the original style of 56 years of creative work, combining modern means of expression and intellectualism with a traditionally understood narrative of music influencing the emotions of the listeners. Three sound performances on this album are excellent examples of this. The virtuoso piano quartet abounds in contrasts and changes, the atmospheric String Quartet falls on its background in a much quieter, expressive climax brings the Quintet to four saxophones and piano , unexpectedly reminiscent of the last Bach to chant. These works are, of course, performed by some of the finest ensembles and chamber musicians in Poland.

In the works of Krzysztof Penderecki, the cello occupies a special place, being the main protagonist of numerous chamber and orchestra compositions of this outstanding composer. This CD, which continues the series of Krzysztof Penderecki's chamber music, was devoted entirely to cello, as a solo instrument and as a multiplexed composition. The next compositions on the record illustrate the richness of the artist's work, which in the long-term process of searching and improving his musical language reached both the avant-garde and the old epochs. So we will hear the full sonoric experiments of Capriccio per Siegfried Palm, referring to the tradition of Baroque and Romanticism. Suité, virtuosic and lyrical compositions of Agnus Dei, in a word full of palette of cello artistry and expression. Everything is performed in full concentration of performance by Jakob Spahn, a young German cellist, whose chamber music has accompanied the most prominent Polish virtuosos of this instrument.

Saxophone Impressions

Perhaps the most characteristic feature of the 20th-century musical landscape is the stylistic pluralism, visible not only across numerous schools and movements, but also in the language of individual artists who, unrestricted by the prevailing composition rules, would reach for various means of musical expression. The most crucial issues addressed by post-Romantic composers included the sound colour, important both for pre-war impressionists and representatives of sonorism. The album presents pieces from the beginning of the 20th century, performed by an international group of musicians related to the Belgian performance school, in which the play on the sound colour takes place in the chamber space. The leading pair of instruments are flute and viola - a couple which perfectly complements each other; its sound inspired a number of composers, like Debussy, Huybrechts, Roussel, and Schulhoff.

The American Born Cellist Zuzanna Szambelan Began Her Music Education in Piano in Poznan? at Age Five. A Year Later, She Also Began Cello Studies. The List of Her Award Wins Notably Includes the Special Award at the 18th Int'l Johannes Brahms Competition in Portschach (Austria, 2011) and a First Prize at the 8th Int'l Kazimierz Wi Komirski Competition in Poznan. Ms. Szambelan Is Presently a Student at the Hochschule Fu R Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. She's Heard Here in Dvorack's Cello Concerto, Op. 104 and Smetana's the Moldau from His Magnum Opus Ma Vlast.

Verbum Nobile is a one-act comic opera by Moniuszko, who developed a thriving national opera movement in the 19th century Polish music. This opera, like Moniuszko's other major operatic compositions, depict the charming and unpretentious picture of old-Polish customs.

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.

The 100th anniversary of regaining independence is a great opportunity to familiarize music lovers with works by Ignacy Jan Paderewski. This talented composer and world-famous pianist, thanks to many patriotic initiatives, often drew attention to the importance of independent Poland for Europe. This release from Radoslaw Sobaczak, who won a honorable mention at the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in 2000, is entirely devoted to the profile of the Polish artist. The album’s programme consists of a series of small pieces including the famous Minuet, Op. 14 No. 1, and the monumental three-movement Piano Sonata in E flat minor, Op. 21. Only a few artists can boast of recording this extremely difficult composition, and Sobaczak does it with aplomb.

Szymanowski: Stabat Mater - Litania - Demeter

SZYMANOWSKI: STRING QUARTETS

The Polish contemporary composer Slawomir Kupczak is introduced with a selection of compositions featuring the rich interplay of flute, accordion, piano and electronics.

It took more than five decades after the Psalms of David for Krzysztof Penderecki to produce another large-scale vocal-instrumental work setting Polish texts. It was a commission from the Fryderyk Chopin National Institute for a piece to be performed at the final concert of the Chopin Bicentenary celebrations that offered Penderecki a suitable opportunity to turn again to Polish poetry. The conductor Wojciech Rajski leads the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir and a trio of vocal soloists.

This new release of works by the Poland-based Dux label's greatest and most highly-acclaimed living fellow countryman composer Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) features two concerti - the Clarinet Concerto (1984; transcribed from the Viola Concerto), the Flute Concerto (1992) and his (2001) Concerto Grosso No. 1. These concertante works were written during a time when Penderecki had synthesized experiences of Romantic provenance (typical of his middle period) with other, sometimes drastically varying sources of inspiration, while aiming at an anchoring in universal humanistic values.

This is Andrzej Dobber's first solo album of baritone arias.

Pieces from the Daniel Croner Tablature

Chopin: Piano Concerto in E minor - Works for Piano Solo

DAS LIED VON DER ERDE

TCHAIKOVSKY WORKS

Szymanowski: Phantasy, Masques & Harnasie

MONARCA DELLA TROMBA

DAVIDSBUNDLERTANZE. 18 CHARAKT

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.

Born in Debica on November 23, 1933, Krzysztof Penderecki studied composition with Artur Malawski and Stanislaw Wiechowicz at the State Higher School of Music in Krakow (1954-58). In 1959 three of his works won him the top prizes at the Young Composers’ Competition of the Polish Composers’ Union. A year later, he captured the attention of Western critics with Anaklasis, performed at the Donaueschingen Festival. Penderecki’s international position was consolidated in the 1960s thanks to such pieces as Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, the St. Luke Passion, and Dies irae. This release in the Polish Sinfonia luventus Orchestra's Penderecki series features his Concerto doppio per violin, viola, e orchestra (2012), his Concerto per pianoforte ed orchestra Resurrection (2001-2002 rev. 2007), and his Concertino per tromba e orchestra (2015).

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.

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