Chamber Avenue, another album in Marcin Wadolowski’s discography released under the umbrella of the DUX record label, is a combination of chamber sound with the freedom of jazz improvisation. For Marcin Wadolowski, the album is a tribute to great artists whose lives were strongly associated with music and who gave him so many emotions and the most beautiful sounds. It is also a bow to the classical guitar, whose sound he loves and hears on a daily basis. This album is an original combination of purely classical and strictly jazz inspirations. The album contains both arrangements of known and highly regarded pieces (including by Fryderyk Chopin) and ingenious works dedicated to distinguished guitarists and composers.

The repertoire of Marek Mizera’s Chopin album can be considered both comprehensive and cross-sectional. Each of the works recorded on the album requires from the pianist a completely autonomous approach to such issues as formal structure, building drama, melody, or the use of tempo rubato. Marek MIZERA was born in Bielsko-Biała where he finished a music school in the piano class of Maria Kubica-Skarbowska. He went on to graduate from the Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw, where he studied with Professor Kazimierz Gierżod. He has worked closely with renowned teachers at home and abroad, including Józef Stompel, Jerzy Godziszewski, Lazar Berman, and Peter Feuchtwanger. Upon graduation, he has developed a concert career, appearing in his own country as well as abroad. Foreign tours have taken him to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Austria, Russia, Ukraine, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, China, Canada, Angola, and Cuba. He has released a number of recordings for the DUX recording label. He has also pursued a teaching career for many years, currently as a Professor at the Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce

This new release from Dux features one of the most successful Polish young orchestras, The Santander Orchestra. The Santander Orchestra is the first ever edition of an educational project for young musicians in Poland- students and graduates of music educational centers. Sixty-four musicians forming the orchestra were chosen in a competition for which nearly 150 people applied. By taking part in the project, young artists from each and every corner of Poland have an opportunity to develop their technique under the eye of outstanding conductors and tutors. The ensemble presents on this new release Fryderyk Chopin’s Piano Concerto in E minor, Op. 11 with Krzysztof Ksiazek as featured soloist, and Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8 in G minor, Op. 88. The ensemble is under the direction of Jose Maria Florencio.

COMPLETE SOLO PIANO WORKS

Jakub Jarosz, Polish classical saxophonist, chamber musician and teacher who knows how to make the most of the saxophone. He received his saxophone education at the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles and Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel. Until recently, the saxophone output of Belgian composers has not enjoyed great popularity in our country. The creator of this album, perfectly acquainted with the aforementioned works thanks to his Brussels studies, decided to introduce the Polish audience to a number of fascinating compositions. This album includes pieces both derived from the Classical tradition and completely contemporary ones, representing a variety of captivating compositional trends.

“Performing musical pieces belonging to modern music in a broad sense is an inseparable part of the musical path of every “classically” educated accordionist. The reason is the short history of the instrument and its dedicated literature, which originated not sooner than in the first part of 20th century. It has to be emphasized that the most important works were created in the second part of the century and the number of them has been still increasing. The most important instrument development has taken place due to them and they are the basis of the repertoire of the majority of modern performers… The album Between Paths is the outcome of several years of my research regarding Polish solo literature which originated in recent years. The motivation of my research was my doctoral studies at the Music Academy in Cracow. The knowledge I have gathered as well as my cooperation with composers have enabled me to gain valuable material in the form of seven compositions for the accordion solo or accompanied by electronic media, showing new and fresh aspects of the accordion, which is mostly unknown.” (Wieslaw Ochwat)

In 2018, the musicians of the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio, together with the founder of the ensemble, Agnieszka Duczmal, celebrated the golden 50th anniversary of its artistic activity. For many years, the ensemble has been a recognizable showcase promoting musical culture in Poland and across the world. The new album, including three orchestral transcripts performed by Agnieszka Duczmal and Jacek Kowalewski, prompts us to take a closer look at numerous achievements of this outstanding ensemble together with its artistic director. It is worth underlining that the Amadeus Orchestra owes its undisputed world position in the chamber ensemble rankings due to numerous recordings and public performances of this kind of arrangements.

In 1971, Les Disques Pierre Cardin released the now legendary gramophone record Roger Bourdin se divertit en compagnie d’Antonio Vivaldi. 50 years later, the last and at the same time the youngest student of the Music Conservatory of Versailles, Ivane Béatrice Bellocq, a flautist and renowned composer (winner of 6 international awards), commemorates the upcoming100th anniversary of her master’s birth with the album Béatrice Bellocq se divertit en compagnie de Roger Bourdin. The recording from 1971 stands out through its excellent coherence and creative imagination of Roger Bourdin’s intention, who successfully combined worlds that are generally alien to each other: baroque, entertainment music, and jazz. Béatrice Bellocq, on the other hand, musters up a bold gesture of connecting Roger Bourdin’s worlds on her own terms: as a flautist, undertaking to find a way to perform her master’s music (and thereby abandoning numerous and indelible memories, which – as Bourdin’s students unanimously testify – is an extremely difficult task), and also as a composer.

The Goldberg Variations, composed for harpsichord, have a potential that allows various instrumentalists to discover completely new sound and expressive values in them. They are most often played on the piano, but there are arrangements for organ, harp, guitar, orchestra, jazz trio... the list goes on and on. Each of the arrangements is met with scepticism at first, only to gain a group of enthusiasts over time. The genius of The Goldberg Variations is based on the fact that the work operates in its own universe, and each of the new interpretations or arrangements reveals something different here. The version for a string trio was developed in 1984 by a well-known Russian violinist Dmitry Sitkovetsky, working, as he admitted, under a strong influence of Glenn Gould’s famous interpretation. This album presents the first Polish recording in this arrangement, made by excellent chamber musicians in the sensational acoustics of the concert hall of the Academy of Music in Lódz.

Liliana Stawarz presents a program of Bach’s French Suites. Liliana graduated in 1988 from the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw (the harpsichord class of Władysław Kłosiewicz). Two years later she gained a diploma from the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Rue-il-Malmaison, where she studied with Huguette Dreyfus. In 2012–2016 she served as Deputy Dean of the Department of Instrumental Studies and Musical Education and as a coordinator of the Concert Bureau at the Białystok branch of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. She is currently a Professor at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music and Head of its Interdepartmental Faculty of Early Music. For twenty years she was a member of the Il Tempo Early Music Ensemble which focused on instrumental and vocal-instrumental music from early Baroque to the Classical period. She made numerous recordings for radio, recorded five albums and participated in prestigious early music festivals with Il Tempo, in Poland and abroad (Bruges, Brussels, Utrecht, Moscow, New York, New Brunswick, Rome, Berlin). In 2018 she received the Fryderyk Award of the Polish recording industry in the category ‘CD of the Year – Early Music’ for a live recording of Antonio Caldara’s oratorioMaddalena ai piedi di Cristo, released by Polish Radio.

REVIEW:

From the outset, you can hear Lilianna Stawarz seeking out the poetic in this fine recording of Bach’s French Suites. Tempi are judged nicely but tend towards measured consideration rather than helter-skelter drama, and slower movements such as the opening Allemande and that gorgeous Sarabande in the Suite No 1 are given plenty of expressive touches. Rubato flexibility is a feature of the playing here, but while it may take a moment to acclimatise in terms of style Stawarz’s sensitivity and skill is what makes this, to my ears at least, a recording to which one warms.

The recording itself is nicely balanced, the instrument placed in an ideal acoustic and with plenty of brightness and detail, but by no means in a sound that is fatiguing to the ear. Christopher Hogwood’s Decca recording is rightly held up as something of a classic in harpsichord versions of this music, but his instrument is more needle-bright and has been recorded in a relatively small, dry acoustic. If you prefer something a bit more lush and luxurious, then Lilianna Stawarz’s very personal accounts may do you very well indeed.

– MusicWeb International

‘It is not very common to come across a composer whose genius is being praised, but whose music is more often discussed than performed at the same time. This is the paradoxical situation we are dealing with in the case of Grazyna Bacewicz and her compositional oeuvre. The creator herself was an outstanding figure, extremely versatile, belying the still popular in her time view that women, by their very nature, cannot act as creatively as men. Grazyna Bacewicz would successfully defy that deeply conditioned social belief that “female” music is inferior...’ ‘this album, entirely devoted to Grazyna Bacewicz’s piano output. In addition to the known, repeatedly performed and recorded work, i.e. the Sonata No. 2 (1953), the album also includes pieces that have been recorded only several times – the Sonata No. 1 (1949) and 2 Etudes (1952) as well as items that are world phonographic premieres – the Sonata (1930) and the Etude (1949).’

This is a special release, inspired by crossing boundaries, looking for the universal music language, and referring to the notion of pure beauty. In each of these spectacular tracks the clarinet plays the leading role. This recording is dedicated to the memory of Benny Goodman, a legend of the American jazz and the ‘King of Swing’, who elevated the clarinet playing to the rank of art. Similar to Elvis Presley, Goodman significantly contributed to the popularization of ‘black’ music among the white audience in the times of race segregation proving that the art and beauty are able to cross the boundaries between people dictated by disdain and prejudices.

The Icelandic chamber music recorded on the album by Agnieszka Panasiuk (piano) together with Anna Wandtke (violin) and Pawel Panasiuk (cello) is characterized by varied expression, high emotional load and lyricism. The rich sound color comes to the fore, with a well-thought-out and coherent dialogue of instrumental voices. The piano is the central sound axis, shaping the character of the compositions presented on the album. Agnieszka Panasiuk is at ease with the use of a variety of expressive and virtuoso means, differentiating stylistically between compositions representing a number of trends present in the Icelandic music of the 20th century. The variety of colors, charisma and precision of the string instruments give the recipient a wide sonoristic image and complement the interesting whole. The album takes the listener into the world of the raw beauty of faraway Iceland and also encourages to reflect on the originality and uniqueness of the Icelandic musical language.

The present album by Olga Leonkiewicz and Kinga Firlej-Kubica encompasses one of the best showcases of flute music created in the United States. The Sonata for flute and piano by Muczynski was composed in 1961. The piece is a typical nod to neoclassical aesthetics and is largely characterized by a humorous and idyllic element. The work of Griffes, represented here by the piece Poem, initially strongly referred to the German neoromantic tradition. In the middle period, the artist leaned more towards impressionist aesthetics, to find absolute stylistic autonomy in the last period of his work. Burton’s artistic output is not significantly extensive, but his Sonatina for flute and piano quite quickly became popular and found its permanent place in the canonical flute repertoire. Liebermann is considered one of the most outstanding living American artists.

This second release of the series A Polish Kaleidoscope characterizes well the main stream of interests of the pianists forming the Ravel Piano Duo, a fantastic ensemble, recognized both in Poland and across the world. The pieces for two pianos collected on this album constitute a particular panorama of the Polish school of composers. Having been composed over a period of more than seventy years, they show a variety of artistic movements and tendencies, a richness of these creative personalities, and a kaleidoscope of unusual talents. However, one can also observe a number of features connecting this music; the quest for a concise expression, stemming from the neoclassical spirit, concern for the form, often use of folklore, domination of the rhythmic element and fascination with the percussive character of the modern piano. The Ravel Piano Duo has received awards at numerous competitions, including the International Piano Competition in Marcopoulo, the 11th International Franz Schubert Competition in Jesenik, the Czech Republic, and the Valentino Bucchi International Competition of 20th and 21st‑Cen­tury Music in Rome. The duo has developed a fine concert career, appearing across Poland and in most European countries. It has a vast repertoire, which includes compositions both for four hands and for two pianos, from the Baroque period to the present.