Julia Kociuban is considered as one of the leading polish pianists of her generation. Her debut solo album ‘Schumann, Chopin, Bacewicz’ was praised by critics as one of the most interesting Polish piano debuts of the past years. Her two albums with Bacewicz and Tansman Piano Concertos and Quintets were nominated for the Polish Music Industry Prize ‘Fryderyk’. She has already been invited to perform in renowned European concert halls including the Herkulessall in Munich, the Konzerthaus of Vienna and of Berlin and the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg. She has also performed in America and Asia and at the most known international music festivals in the world, including La Rouge d’Antheron, La Folle Journée, Kissinger Sommer, The Young Euro Classic Piano Festival, and The Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival.

Kociuban graduated from the Royal College of Music in London, Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg and Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw where she studied with Dmitri Alexeev, Pavel Gililov and Piotr Paleczny. In 2019 she received her doctoral degree in music, and a year later she completed postgraduate studies for cultural managers at the Warsaw School of Economics. Alongside her solo career Julia Kociuban teaches at the Bacewicz University of Music in Lodz (Poland). She is also a founder and director of BISMA Bacewicz International Summer Music Academy. On the present release she presents a showcase of Polish Polonaises.

Although the two violin sonatas featured on this album were created less than fifteen years apart, they differ from each other in many respects. What is more, the former is known to a small group of recipients, while the latter has been conquering concert halls around the world for over a hundred years, gaining more and more followers. A well-known Polish violinist and teacher, Adam Wagner is a graduate of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice in the violin class of Prof. Ryszard Fastnacht. He received the title of Doctor of Musical Arts at the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. On a number of occasions, he has performed as a soloist, interpreting, e.g. violin concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven, Jean Sibelius, Mieczysław Karłowicz, or Johann Sebastian Bach. His repertoire also includes orchestral solo parts in such works as Missa solemnis by Ludwig van Beethoven, Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss, Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, The Soldier’s Tale by Igor Stravinsky as well as in masses and oratorios by Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Friedrich Handel.

Works by the composer, organist, conductor and organizer of the musical life Feliks Nowowiejski (1877–1946) are relatively rarely performed today, which is why they are little known to a wider audience. Associated with Poznań, the composer of the famous "Rota", among various genre and highly skilled creative works, also left behind a unique Oratorio for solo voices, choir, orchestra and organ, Op. 3 to the libretto by Theobald Rehbaum. The work "Die Heimkehr des Verlorenen Sohnes" ("The Return of the Prodigal Son”) was composed in 1901, during Nowowiejski's studies in Berlin under the supervision of the outstanding composer and conductor Max Bruch. The world premiere of the work took place only in 1993 (the composer himself had never heard the entire work) and since then one of the first oratorios of Polish music has not been performed. Thanks to the DUX label, the recording of the oratorio concert "The Return of the Prodigal Son" in the original language version is available to listeners, recorded by the Symphony Orchestra of the Warmian-Masurian Philharmonic.

Theatre music in Poland is a peculiar phenomenon. Almost every Polish composer wrote at least one score for the needs of a theatre performance or a radio play. Many creators devoted themselves entirely to this field. This music is often awarded and honored. However, it does not exist in concert, publishing or recording circulation, as opposed to film music. Krzysztof Penderecki (1933–2020), one of the most outstanding Polish composers of the 20th/21st century, also wrote music for theatre performances. The album features the most interesting compositions of this genre created for plays dedicated both to adults and children. The performers are: The Beethoven Academy Orchestra, consisting of young Cracow musicians, vocal ensemble Cracow Singers and soloists Annika Mikolajko-Osman – coloratura soprano and Jacek Wróbel – baritone. All the performers here are under the baton of Maestro Maciej Tworek. "This is a generous treasure trove that dusts off some of the late Polish composer’s more obscure early pieces," raves BBC Music Magazine.

The present release is a collection of chamber works for viola by Gordon Jacob, composed between 1946 and 1975. Violist Jadwiga Stanek writes: "From the very beginning of my artistic activity, I have been particularly fond of promoting the viola and have been performing chamber music in various instrumental ensembles. Gordon Jacob's output shows my passion for performing various genres of that music in a special way. I appreciate the selected compositions of Jacob for the universal character of the viola part, since it's different faces, elements of virtuosity, and warm timbre have an impact on the versatile artistic value of the interpreted pieces."

Mateusz Ryczek's album Cello works features compositions in which the cello plays various roles - solo (Hidden Light), as a soloist (in the concerto Phantoms) or in a duo with violin (Duo) or live electronics (Signs of Decay). Almost all the works are dedicated to excellent cellist (and composer) Tomasz Skweres, which is the result of the artistic (as well as personal) friendship of both musicians. The performers are, in addition to the soloist, Duo Skweres and the New Music Orchestra led by Szymon Bywalec. The live electronics part is performed by the composer himself.

This is the third volume in the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio’s survey of the orchestral works of Grazyna Bacewicz. Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio was founded in 1968 by conductor Agnieszka Duczmal and originally appeared under the auspices of “Jeunesses Musicales” and Poznań Music Society. Aside from an active international touring schedule, the orchestra regularly takes part in recordings for Polish Radio with repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music (they have already recorded over 7,500 minutes of music for Polish Radio). The orchestra also works with radio broadcasters abroad, including NDR, WDR and SFD in Germany; BBC in London; CBC in Montréal. For Polish Television, they have made 110 programs and concert broadcasts, and for French TV1, more than five hours of recorded music.

There is good reason that Romantic music (because it would be a gross over-simplification to say that this style refers solely to the 19th century) best embodies the spirit of romanticism across the arts, which blossoms with varying intensity throughout the history of European culture. Nevertheless it is true, that this style, that combines both national and folk elements and sublimely expresses a wide range of feelings, was at its peak between 1800 and 1900. The rapid and simultaneous development of the other arts such as poetry, painting and theatre nevertheless had a major influence on music. When considering Romantic works, the first to come to mind are the great musical forms (operas, symphonic poems, sonatas, concerts, etc.), but the lighter, more intimate forms of expression (both instrumental and instrumental-vocal) also reflect the genius of composers. The present release is a showcase of Romantic Duets, presented by soprano Justyna Reczeniedi, mezzo-soprano Anna Radziejewska, and pianist Krzysztof Trzaskowski.

The accordion-guitar duo of Elwira Śliwkiewicz-Cisakand Jakub Niedoborek eagerly reaches for music inspired by the tango in their repertoire search. Their programs often feature compositions by Astor Piazzolla. Although the album does not contain any piece by the tango nuevo master, his spirit patronizes each of the recorded compositions. The present release features Albert Hamann’s Suite ‘Azanca’ for guitar, accordion, and string orchestra, Maximo Diego Pujol’s Suite ‘Buenos Aires’ for accordion and guitar, and Richard Galliano’s Opale Concerto for accordion and string orchestra.

Adrian Robak was born in Bytom in 1979. He studied composition in the class of prof. Aleksander Lasoń at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, from which he graduated in 2008 (diploma with honors). There he also studied Music Theory. He was a two-time scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage for outstanding academic results during his studies. He participated in composition workshops (Per Nørgård, Helmut Lachenmann, and others) and workshops devoted to performing early, contemporary and improvised music (Jacek Sykulski, Ramesh Shotam, and others). In 2011, he received a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in Music and Dance. He regularly receives Composer Commissions from the National Institute of Music and Dance. In 2015, he completed his doctoral studies in the class of prof. Eugeniusz Knapik (Academy of Music in Katowice) and received the title of doctor of musical arts.

The present release includes four cycles: Five pieces for viola da gamba and harpsichord, Concerto for pardessus de viole and harpsichord, Trois inspirations pour l’orgue, and A la recherche d’un maître pour contrebasse et orgue.

An agnostic Jew, a descendant of rabbis, brought up in a lay environment. A Jewish composer in Poland, a Polish composer in France, in America- a refugee mingling with the elite. Among his concert tours, he visited Hawaii, Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Ceylon, Bali, Greece, Egypt, and Israel. Greeted by Gandhi during his stay in Bombay; in Japan he was a guest of Emperor Hirohito. Grande Ville- a great city- became this composer’s destiny. Tansman, an eternal wanderer, he would arrive in each new great city with a head full of music and leave with a suitcase full of manuscripts. His biography is as colorful and outstanding as his work. He was an extremely prolific composer. The list of his works is a book of over 100 pages, one fifth of which is chamber music. In 1937, Tansman married the outstanding pianist Colette Cras. Most of the composer’s pieces for two pianos and four hands were written with the intention of performing them in a duet with his wife. Tansman’s works, intended to be performed by the couple, are extremely diverse- displaying neoclassical lightness or the darkness of war experiences, including inspirations from the works of other composers, and entertainment music. Identified with the contemporary avant-garde, dubbed the first Polish neoclassical by his critics, he himself avoided labeling his own art. Faithful to tradition and open to modernity, he defied all categorizations.

“I spent [...] almost three years in Oświęcim and my biographies, both the psychical and musical ones, could not resist the influence of what I saw and experienced there. [...] It was hard to return to a normal life, like to an interesting book which one stops just in the middle. Much water was to run under the bridge before it all settled somehow and before composing made sense to me again” – said Szymon Laks (1901‑1983) in an interview of Tadeusz Kaczyński for “Ruch Muzyczny” (21/1964). The number 49543 in the Auschwitz‑Birkenau concentration camp, an outstanding composer, violinist, writer, a passionate linguist and translator, admitted that it was music that saved his life: in the extermination camp where he was from 1942 to 1944, he was a kapellmeister, musician, and copyist of the male orchestra. It was also there that he arranged and performed together with instrumentalists‑prisoners Three Warsaw Polonaises by an unknown author from the 18th century for a chamber orchestra. They were found by accident and published by the Polish Music Publishing House already in 1950 and became the first published camp music literature.

The BALTIC TRIO was established in 2019. It is made up of young, talented musicians who connected through the Academy of Music in Gdańsk. Each of them has won many awards in national and international music competitions, both solo and chamber ones. All of them are also multiple scholarship holders of the Minister of Culture and the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. The present release presents Antonín Dvořák’s Trio “Dumsky” in E minor, Op. 20 B. 166, and Arno Babadjanian’s Trio in F-sharp minor.

Monopercussion 2 is the second expedition of Milosz Pekala - a virtuoso of modern, jazz, experimental and avant pop percussion - into the world of idiophones and membranophones treated soloistically, though supported by twisted electronics, also the ones that are very hardly heard in philharmonic halls, such as the Brazilian pandeiro or the Indian tabla. After all, new rhythms are not to be found in classical composition textbooks. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the list of composers of Monopercussion 2 comprises masters of jazz, ethnic and rock percussion: Thymme Jones (American band Cheer-Accident) or Sergio Krakowski from Brazil, besides Pawel Mykietyn or Milosz Pekala himself.

In homage to the master of tones is a record release created on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the death of Ignacy Jan Paderewski, our Patron, in 2021. It is worth emphasizing how great and extraordinary he was and what merits he made not only in the artistic field, but also in the social and patriotic field. Although his phenomenon and charisma are universally recognized, it is our duty - the institution that bears his name - to constantly cherish his memory and protect the heritage he has left behind. We do it the best we can - through the music he loved and the songs he composed. We also try to draw inspiration from the extraordinary personality of Paderewski, who has repeatedly shown the face of a protector and promoter, supporting people and ideas. Therefore, feeling responsible for music education, we once again give emerging talents a chance. On the album, alongside excellent singers and pianists, who are also outstanding teachers, there are their students - exceptionally gifted young adepts of the vocal art, with a bright career in front of them. We hope that the meeting of these two artistic generations will bring many positive impressions and emotions to the audience, and the figure of Ignacy Jan Paderewski will be constantly alive both in his work and the general awareness of future generations.” (Lukasz Gaj)