This new release is a recording of JAGD- a collective composition by Emil Miszk, Kuba Sokolowski, Hubert Zemler, Jerzy Rogiewicz, and Milosz Pekala. Marcelina Obarska writes: “Four raw, minimalist pieces use the poetics of hunting signals, but introduce a definite distortion into their score. The trumpet, which has a triumphant function in the hunting ritual, acts in dispersion here. The sounds of the trumpet are after-images of the proper signals, they are diluted, distant, stripped of their symbolic role. The ecstasy of the hunter is suspended, it appears to be impossible to accomplish. JAGD is a spell against ecstasy. At the same time, a suppressed hunting triumph is not replaced by another triumph; ecstasy does not turn into another ecstasy. It is left in the distance, to die. One can see in JAGD a gesture of renouncing ecstasy as an ultimate form of strong, firm, and explosive expression. Departing from it means turning to regularity and aesthetic severity, and simultaneously – to the meditative dimension of music.”

Mieczyslaw Karlowicz (1876-1909) was born in Lithuania, and raised by his father Jan, who was a great humanist. He was perfectly educated abroad especially in Berlin, as well as in Warsaw. Closely connected with Warsaw thanks to his place of residence and education, in Zakopane he found a second home. He wrote a bit more than twenty songs, five symphonic poems, one unfinished symphony, and a violin concerto before his life was taken by an avalanche. This release showcases his Violin Concerto in A major, his Lithuanian Rhapsody Op. 11, and The Sorrowful Tale Op. 13. Violinist Bartlomiej Niziol was born in 1974 in Szczecin. Since the start of his artistic career he has been closely connected with the Szczecin Philharmonic, where he had his concert debut at age 12. He graduated with honors from the Music Academy in Poznan where he studied under professor Jadwiga Kaliszewska. He is a laureate of the most prestigious international violin competitions in Poznan, Pretoria, Paris, Brussels, and Adelaide. He has won the Fryderyk Award for his recordings of compositions by Henryk Wieniawski, Grazyna Bacewicz, Eugen Ysay and Karol Lipinski.

Gorecki creates pieces where the flute and the piano can and do speak with one voice. Over time, this narrative also includes soprano and percussion, and the resulting contemplative and elegiac character of the entire programme fits into the 10th anniversary of Gorecki's death and turns the entire album into a kind of a farewell ritual of that outstanding composer. This music is about passing away. In Gorecki's raw sounds, there is a life that slowly fades away with each subsequent step and each subsequent breath. The title goodbye Goodnight touches us with its fragility, but it does not deprive us of hope.

A hot-tempered troublemaker with a violent temperment and an arrogant personality, Louis Marchand was a virtuoso harpsichordist and organist to King Louis XIV. On the present release, Ewa Mrowca presents his Suite en re mineur, Suite en sol mineur, and La Venitienne. Ewa MROWCA was born in Kraków, Poland. She started studying the harpsichord at the age of 12. She graduated with honors from the Music Academy in Kraków, where she studied with Elżbieta Stefańska. She also completed her studies under Nicholas Parle at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, and with Jörg-Andreas Bötticher at the Schola Canto-rum Basiliensis in Basel. She performs as a soloist and with early music ensembles including Altberg Ensemble, Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense, Capella dell’Ospedale della Pietà Venezia, and Il Giardino d’Amore. In addition to Poland, she has performed in France, Germany, Spain, China, Japan and the United States.

The origins of Sanctus Adalbertus Op. 71by Henryk Miko?aj Górecki and the way in which the work was brought to the public are very special. It was written in 1997 to commemorate the millennium of the martyr’s death of Saint Adalbert. It was to have been premiered that year during Pope John Paul II’s pilgrimage to Poland. These plans did not materialize, however, due to the composer’s illness. The autograph score of the oratorio was discovered in the Górecki archives by his son Miko?aj. On November 4, 2015, five years after the composer’s death, Sanctus Adalbertus had its world premiere at the ICE Congress Centre in Kraków, during a gala concert to mark the 70th anniversary of PWM Polish Music Publishers. The composition is often referred to as ‘the big Adalbert’, following ‘the small Adalbert’, the cantata Salve sidus Polonorum Op. 72 (2000), whose material is based on the third movement of Sanctus Adalbertus. In writing Sanctus Adalbertus, Górecki used the Book of Psalms and his own texts, in Polish, Latin and Czech. As the outstanding expert on Górecki Adrian Thomas, observed, the oratorio’s musical material contains “references both to Edward Elgar’s late--Romantic style and to the relic of Polish early music, the medieval chant ‘Bogurodzica’ (Mother of God).” According to Thomas, Sanctus Adalbertus is a natural successor to Beatus vir (1979), Górecki’s psalm for baritone, choir and orchestra. Both are scored for almost identical forces, with a soprano part added to Sanctus Adalbertus. Beatus vir was written in praise of St Stanislaus (Stanis?aw in Polish), the Bishop of Kraków, who died a martyr’s death. The two compositions were part of Górecki’s plan of a cycle of works on Polish saints, which is said to have included also an oratorio devoted to Saint Maksymilian Maria Kolbe, a martyr of Auschwitz.

It will not be an exaggeration to say that what holds the compositions presented on this album together is the fascination with movement. However, the sources of that interest must always be sought in the way the creators perceive the world and in the place where they see music. Moreover, each of the authors of the compositions pays great attention to unique sound, timbre and harmony. Chronologically speaking, the oldest composition is Le Merle noir/The Blackbird by Olivier Messiaen. Fascination with jazz, in turn, is expressed by Daniel Schnyder (b. 1961). This outstanding saxophonist and composer, born in Switzerland and currently living in New York, has composed numerous pieces for various instrumental ensembles. The album you hold in your hands is a record of genuine and pure emotions. It also marks an important event in the history of music industry, as no one has ever recorded the compositions of M. Gorecki and D. Schnyder.

In 1994, Zsolt Szefcsik founded the ERDODY Chamber Orchestra in Budapest to promote the Hungarian musical heritage and present achievements of contemporary composers. For over 25 years, the ensemble, using Hungarian manuscript collections, has presented over one hundred forgotten pieces. Thanks to this fact, it has become the orchestra that currently boasts the most extensive repertoire of Hungarian music. A large group of works by composers operating in the 18th and 19th centuries has become available only thanks to the concerts of the Erdody Chamber Orchestra. This release, already their third album, released by DUX, includes works of Polish and Hungarian composers active in the 20th century.

Ernst Köhler numbers among the representatives of the so-called Wrocław organ school from the first half of the 19th century; this group of composers, whose œuvre combines respect for the contrapuntal refinement of Johann Sebastian Bach’s music with the emotional aspects of the new Romantic trends and also heralds an apogee of synthesis; the most perfect embodiment of which was the organ and cantata-oratorio œuvre of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. A certain stylistic conservatism and established opinion concerning the crisis in organ music during the first half of the 19th century is perhaps responsible for the relatively rare performance of works by such composers as Adolph Hesse, Moritz Brosig and Ernst Köhler, the latter of whom is without doubt the least-known figure among the three names mentioned. Biographical information concerning him is also very scant; however, we may expect that future research will be able to reveal new information and, consequently, a re-evaluation of his music’s significance. The performer of the present release is convinced that Köhler’s works deserve more frequent performance and a permanent place on concert programs. Another extraordinarily characteristic trait of this composer’s organ music (shared with other organists from this region, but in his case particularly evident) is the extraordinary mobility in all of the voices, including that performed on the pedalboard. The composer often appears to take no account of the technical limitations of the instrument, assigning highly mobile, technically uncomfortable passages full of leaps and unusual intervallic structures to the pedal part. His music, at first glance schematic and conventional, nonetheless exceeds technical and compositional competence; upon close acquaintance the performer will admit that it is spectacular and moving.

Guitar Evol.3ution + Orchestra is already our third album meeting with great guitarist Piotr Przedbora, at the same time the first with orchestra, conducted by Krzysztof Penderecki, Maciej Tworek, and Dawid Runtz. The lovers of Krzysztof Penderecki’s work already know the versions of the Concerto per Viola ed Orchestra in arrangements for cello, clarinet, or saxophone. The extraordinary guitar transcription by Piotr Przedbora joins this group, extending the instrumental amplitude and offering a completely new sound quality. In Arioso e furioso by Mikolaj Górecki we are going to hear a completely different aesthetics, based on an unhurriedly developing narrative plenty of dissonances, episodically disturbing the harmony. The Concerto for Guitar, Timpani, and Strings, Op. 115 by Krzysztof Meyer is an example of a neoclassical view on the form of instrumental concerto, brimming with rhythmic expression and numerous virtuoso elements. One of the most interesting and charismatic guitarists in Poland. Three outstanding concertos and composers who do not need to be introduced: K. Penderecki, K. Meyer, M. Górecki. The excellent Jerzy Semkow Polish Orchestra Sinfonia Iuventus, led by superb conductors. Last but not least, a groundbreaking album for the entire community of classical guitar.

Playing the guitar has always been a passion for Piotr Przedbory. A skilled musician, he brilliantly performs guitar repertoire from every era from classicism to the present day. He is the winner of more than twenty international and Polish competitions, including 19 first places and 3 Grand Prix. This new release is Przedbory’s second album, and is a recital composed of mainly the most outstanding transcriptions or guitar studies, and pieces from the classical repertoire. Holding a special place on this album is a transcription of a Bach piece originally written for harpsichord, a transcription of Vivaldi’s violin concerto, and closing the album is the transcription of Seville from the Spanish Suite Albeniz, which is an obvious reference to the musical sources that serve as Przedbory’s inspiration.

Although their first joint appearance on a Polish stage took place 6 years ago, it is in 2020 that their debut album is launched by the DUX record label. Violinist Malgorzata Wasiucionek and pianist Sylwia Michalik present the album Enescu / Prokofiev / Szymanowski to the public. Currently, both artists define their cooperation as an absolute professional priority. Although each of them could endow at least a few outstanding musicians with their achievements, they observe the world through the prism of chamber music, being a tandem of charismatic artists. The duo is characterized by similar artistic views, excellent stage understanding and, above all, a fascination with the repertoire featured on the album.

Zeidler is a classicist. Having formed his sound language in the early stages of this style, he became a creator of a music illuminated by the spring sun of classicism. More than thirty works of the artist have survived to our times. Although they represent only a fraction of his oeuvre, they still testify to the artist's astonishing craft. Sixteen of them have already been heard at the Gostyn festival. These were masses, litanies, Marian antiphons, songs and the requiem. The seventeenth piece in this series is Vespers for solo voices, choir and orchestra, whose musical notation has been preserved in the archives of the Gniezno Cathedral. They were performed on 5 October 2019 as the highlight of the festival programme; the recording was also made during that concert. The MUSICA SACROMONTANA Festival serves the continuation of the intentions of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri, who wanted to evangelise through the broadly understood propagation of culture. It is thanks to their efforts that in the 17th century a great ensemble was created there, and the greatest composers, including Palestrina, came to Gostyn. Many of them wrote pieces on commission of the Congregation, whereas fathers filled the library with copies of works of the greatest masters.

Gra?yna Bacewicz is a Polish twentieth-century composer of the first magnitude, but she escaped lasting fame. Her String Quartets and Violin Concertos are the go-to works; the Cello Concertos are “Bacewicz 201.” The lyrical themes and melodies, rhythmic propulsion and memorable phrases of the neo-romantic 1951 concerto give the Shostakovich concertos a run for their money. The second work (1961) is starker, sparser, with pointillist touches of orchestral color to the cello part, driven by an unrelenting inner pulse. It’s a kind of orchestral cello sonata, discordant and angular, but winning, given time and willingness. The 1943 Overture, with fading hints of Parisian neoclassicism, makes a perfect curtain-raiser.

– Jens F. Laurson, Listen

Adam Bruderek studied violin with Krystyna Jurecka and Anna Wandtke-Wypych at the Stanisław Moniuszko Music Academy in Gdańsk, receiving an honours diploma in 2005. He developed his skills at masterclasses given by prominent violinists such as Zakhar Bron, Pierre Amoyal, Michael Vaiman, Elmira Darvarova, Tomasz Tomaszewski, Edward Gracz, and Krzysztof Jakowicz. He also studied chamber music with Anna Prabucka-Firlej at his alma mater. He is a prizewinner of numerous violin and chamber music competitions, including Fourth Prize and four special awards at the 4th Sergei Taneyev International Chamber Music Competition in Kaluga (Russia) in 2011 (with AKME Piano Quartet), Third Prize at the 6th Johannes Brahms International Chamber Music Competition in Gdańsk (2012) and First Prize at the 13th ‘Don Vincenzo Vitti’ International Competition in Castellana Grotte (Italy) in 2014 (in a duo with the pianist Arkadiusz Godziński). In 2015 the same duo was in the finals of the Ludwig van Beethoven International Chamber Music Competition in Lusławice (Poland). On this release, he presents a program of works by Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, and John Corigliano.

The inspiration for the Infinity project was the permanent breathing technique. The flautist – Natalia Jarzabek – can apply it almost inaudibly and imperceptibly, doing it in a fluid and natural manner. The album was recorded in cooperation with outstanding pianist Emma Wils, a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. The repertoire included on the album is very diverse: It contains pieces for flute, as well as transcriptions of original works for piano, violin or both, performed by Natalia Jarzabek. The presence of newly created compositions written specifically for the Infinity project constitutes a significant value of the album. As part of the project, a special textbook for learning permanent breathing was created.