Roman Jablonski is considered one of the best cellists in the world. The born-in-Gdansk musician can boast a great artistic biography based on performances on the most prominent stages in the world, successes at competitions and festivals, a list of recordings including over 20 items, as well as the recognition of international critics and years-long didactic activity. The latest release by Professor Jablonski features a programme composed of masterpieces of the Polish cello music, from works by Fryderyk Chopin to contemporary pieces. Among them, a prominent place is occupied by Witold Lutoslawski's compositions, with whom Jablonski cooperated closely for many years.

Composer Witold Janiak, referring to Plato, invites us to an intellectually sophisticated journey through the world of his music. Noesis is the perception of music in the most perfect way! Witold Janiak is piano passionate, loves composing, teaches by choice, and out of necessity wears the shoes of conductor, manager, driver, technician, and more. He is a graduate of the Music Academy of Katowice, and a jazz professor in Zespol Szkol Muzycznych in Lodz. He has won numerous awards, including at the Krakow Contemporary Music Contest, and has performed in the Kalisz Jazz Pianist Festival, Wroclaw Jazztopad Festival, and the Lancut Chamber Music Festival.

The church used by members of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri upon their arrival on the Holy Mount in Gostyń most probably contained an organ made in the local workshop of Wojciech Libowicz, who around 1670 is known to have built the instruments in various nearby localities. Regarding the new organ for the basilica of the Oratorian Fathers, historical sources speak of an instrument from the workshop of Jan Bernard Zitner from Głogów. It was installed in the church choir in the years 1766–1768 and remained there until it was replaced in 1855 by an organ made by Konstanty Kamiński from Opalenica. The present -day organ case, with its Classicist prospect, probably dates from that time. In 1958, the Biernacki workshop installed a new instrument inside it, using some of the old pipes. With the passing of time, it ceased to be used and eventually was dismantled in 2016. A new organ was built in 2016–2017 as part of a major project to revitalize the church’s Baroque interior. It has a mechanical action and a timbral aesthetic modelled on the Baroque-Classicist pattern. The historic case has been restored to its former shape and colors. The organ was built by Marek Cepka from Popowo, near Wronki. The works featured in this recording demonstrate the richness of sound of the organ of the Gostyń basilica, while drawing upon the musical tradition of the sanctuary and the two-centuries old musical community at the monastery of St. Philip Neri. These works were written by composers who were known on the Holy Mount from their vocal-instrumental music, as well as by those who participated in the spiritual life of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri.

The history of musical theatre can be written in many ways. One of them is a perspective of duos, which often constitutes nodal moments in the work's drama. A duo brings either a combination of two elements into one harmonious whole or a collision of opposing forces; as we know, the opposites passionately attract one another. Such a story is sung by two great artists: Katarzyna Oles-Blacha and Monika Korybalska. The soprano and mezzosoprano are in a particular relationship that arises between a master, academic teacher and a young student of vocal art. The perfect agreement between the vocalists can be heard in each episode of the musical performance, which fluently switches between dramatic and funny moods.

Messages Quartet has been founded in 2014 and in just a year won the Second Prize, Silver Medal and a Special Award for interpretation of Shostakovich’s Quartet in the Second International Competition of Chamber Music in Plovdiv (Bulgaria, X 2015). The Quartet has also been recognized by the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage and in February 2016 awarded a grant under “Young Poland” Scholarship Programme, thanks to which in 2017, the debut record of the ensemble containing the recording of string quartets by Szymon Laks was released by the record company DUX. The album received excellent reviews in the French, German, British, American and Polish press. This newest release showcases music from Stanislaw Moniuszko, Andrzej Panufnik, and Krzysztof Penderecki.

Pawel Lukaszewski is one of the most interesting contemporary Polish composers. His pieces have gained acclaim from audiences at both Polish and foreign music festivals, and they have been recorded on a number of occasions by renowned record companies. The works have also received numerous awards and honorable mentions at composition competitions. The present release, the second album – Musica Profana – in the series Lukaszewski Collection, which brings Pawel Lukaszewski’s works closer, focuses on piano works selected by Wojciech Swietonski – an outstanding young pianist who has been working with the composer for many years. We hear the piano as a solo instrument accompanied by chamber ensembles, as well as a companion in song arrangements of varied texts drawn from contemporary Polish poetry.

Monumental Symphony in B minor, one of the most outstanding works of Ignacy Jan Paderewski - not only a genius pianist, but also (which not all experts wanted to remember) a high-class composer - after the successes of his first performances on the stages of Boston, London, Paris, Lviv and Warsaw, for many years it was almost completely forgotten. It was only at the end of the 20th century that he slowly began to return to concert halls and appear in catalogs of record companies. This recording, related to the interesting history of Bohdan Boguszewski's cooperation with the Lviv National Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, is one of the very few full recordings - those where the entire instrumental composition provided for in the score was used, with double bass sarusophones and percussion tonitruon. The original sound of the orchestra in the noble acoustics of the Lviv Philharmonic, where the symphony had its Polish premiere, allows the listener to get closer to the emotions of the times and people who created Polish culture in the difficult years of the early 20th century.

The ‘time of breakthroughs’ contained in the title of the album, which is the key for the selection of the repertoire recorded on it, can be interpreted on multiple levels. On the one hand, it refers to the period of rebirth of Poland – to one of the most important turning points in the history of this country, which was ‘witnessed’ by music of the composers presented on the album. On the other hand, it points to the turn of the 20th century – an extremely colorful time in the history of the multicultural and vibrant city of Katowice, whose dynamic development, mainly related to its industrial aspect, also included the cultural sphere. One of the important points on the then cultural map of the city was undoubtedly the Evangelical church built in 1856, within the walls of which the material of this album was recorded.

Roman Maciejewski is one of the most interesting creative personalities of the Polish musical life of the 20th century and possibly the most underrated due to both the composer’s independent character and political reasons. As far as the style is concerned, Maciejewski’s piano pieces show convergence with Neoclassicism, with addition of Romanticism, typical of Polish composers, as well as with elements of impressionist experiments with colors. His perfect compositional technique is visible both in polyphony and in masterful application of variational and development techniques. A fixed part of his works is also deep emotional saturation. Maciejewski’s piano works comprise over 40 mazurkas and 9 miniatures for piano solo, Pianoduo concertante, 12 miniatures and 23 transcriptions for two pianos, as well as Allegro concertante and Lullaby for piano and orchestra. This album contains recordings of eight piano works by Maciejewski, including the first ever recording of Mazur II.

Mea is the title of the piece opening the album with Krzysztof Olczak’s compositions presented here, a Gdansk composer and accordionist, a long-time lecturer at the Stanislaw Moniuszko Academy of Music in both these fields, and a member of the Polish Composers’ Union and the Polish Society for Electroacoustic Music. Mea was intended to be an acronym formed from the first letters of the names of the members of the Trio Sopot, for whom the composition was written. In the context of the whole set presented here, however, this acronym gains a new meaning. Because mea means “my” – my publication, my work, my attitude as an artist. And this work is very diverse in many ways – cast, style, techniques, forms and genres and finally sources of inspiration. The selection of pieces included on this album is a very representative sample of this diversity. These works were created in various periods of the composer’s work – mainly in the eighties and in the last decade, with one exception being Illur lækur from the early 21st century. They are written for a varied cast, but they have one thing in common: the accordion.

The title labyrinth brings to mind many associations: an aura of mystery, surprise – what we are going to find around the next corner, a multitude of solutions in the pursuit of the goal, often repeatability of the chosen paths. These keys can be referred to the content of the album with accordion music by Jerzy Madrawski, which includes solo and chamber works as well as concert forms accompanied by an orchestra. The musical labyrinth opens with pieces for the smallest cast – solo accordion (Online Labyrinth Music) and it is crowned with the three-movement Concerto for accordion, string orchestra and timpani. It is worth delving into the musical labyrinth of Jerzy Madrawski. Aesthetic experiences, variability of musical landscapes and finally an intellectual game of associations – guaranteed!

Joanna Freszel, this project’s initiator and manager, set out with this album to present the potential and creativity of young Polish composers. In addition to work by Polish composers, this album is supplemented with texts either written by Polish poets such as Mariusz Jagiello and Maja Baczynska or a literary canon. Each of these compositions was written for various vocal or instrumental sets, from piano to sextet, to six vocalists. Of this project, Freszel writes, “I particularly wanted to break a stereotypical thinking about contemporary music as hermetic and overwhelmed by incomprehensible elements. I wished to show that music can be dreamlike, intriguing, nostalgic, and also witty.”

“I am glad that together with the following artists: Marcin Halat, Piotr Lato and Marcin Maczynski, we undertook the premiere recording of two piano trios by Karol Rathaus: Trio, op. 53 from 1944 and Trio Serenade, op. 69 from 1953. Metaphorically speaking, reading a manuscript is like touching the reality of the composer himself, his thoughts, emotions and events from a world that surrounded him and that he missed, but still a world we can recreate thanks to interpretations of forgotten works. The main idea behind the whole process of being with Karol Rathauss piano trios, from reading the manuscripts to recording the compositions, is primarily the desire to discover the composers aim and read his intentions. The overriding idea was to show the listener the characteristic language of the artist and to create an individual work of art at the level of a piano trio. An intimate encounter with Karol Rathaus’s top class compositional art allowed us, the performers, to notice him: a brilliant, forgotten artist, an emigrant, whose output combines Polish, European, and American elements.” (Aleksandra Halat)

Arkadiusz Bialic was born in 1976 in Kraków. Although he initially learned to play the piano and violin, at the age of 13, fascinated by the sound of the organ, he began learning to play this instrument. He studied music in Kraków under the guidance of Prof. Józef Serafin. Arkadiusz Bialic is the first Polish winner of the prestigious Grand Prix de Chartres. The cycle La Nativité du Seigneur was composed by Olivier Messiaen in 1935 and is still considered one of his key works. The Birth of the Saviour is a piece in which, on the one hand, we can observe a number of solutions that testify to the fully developed compositional craft of the French artist, on the other, it is one of the most fervent manifestations of Messiaen’s worship of Christ and the Christian religion.

The fine arts, not least music, always played an important role in the Bernadotte family’s life – ever since the French Field Marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte came to Sweden in 1810 and, as Charles XIV John of Sweden (Karl XIV Johan), ascended to the throne and founded the current Swedish royal dynasty. Many members of the Swedish royal family have doubt-less been musically gifted. They have not only exercised their duties as patrons of the country’s musical life but were also playing the piano, singing and writing their own music. The compositions that many family members left behind reveal a talent that often rises above what might be expected of the typical 19th-century amateur musician. This release features music by members of the Royal Dynasty Bernadotte in Sweden.