Renata Johnson-Wojtowicz is a soprano who, from the beginning of her career, has been associated with the Silesian Opera; she is also a teacher and participant of many music festivals. Renata Johnson-Wojtowicz’s debut album Ah! Mia vita! proves the singer’s preference for a diverse repertoire. The artist presents a unique set of vocal hits from opera, operetta, and musical. The recording is crowned with two excellent duets: “Sull’ aria” from the opera The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (performed with Magdalena Dobrowolska) and the famous Flower Duet “Viens, Mallika, les lianes en fleurs ... Dôme épais, le jasmin” from the opera Lakmé by Léo Delibes (together with Aleksandra Kalicka).

Marcin Stanczyk was born 16 November 1977. He holds a law degree from University of L�dz (LL.M.) as well as D.M.A and Habilitation degrees in music theory and composition from Music Academy of L�dz and the title of Full Professor. He completed a three year post-graduate degree at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and CURSUS 1 and 2 at Paris IRCAM. He supplemented his education within the residences at Royaumont (Voix Nouvelles), IMD Darmstadt, Aldeburgh Centre of Music, Cit� des Arts. The present release features his compositions for the Borys Lankosz film Dark, Almost Night.

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 debut of the past years, and album with Bacewicz and Tansman Piano Concertos was nominated for the Polish Music Industry Prize “Fryderyk” in the “Album of the Year – Concerto Music” category.

MESSAGES QUARTET (Małgorzata Wasiucionek-Potera & Oriana Masternak – violin, Maria Shetty – viola, Beata Urbanek-Kalinowska – cello) was founded in 2014 and only a year later won the 2nd prize, Silver Medal, and a special award for the interpretation of Dmitri Shostakovich’s quartet in the 2nd International Chamber Music Competition in Plovdiv (Bulgaria, 2015). The Messages Quartet performs both in Poland and abroad, e.g. in Vienna, London, São Paulo, or Moscow. On a number of occasions, the ensemble has presented a comprehensive and innovative repertoire as part of a series of chamber music concerts at the premises of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice.

Review:

Both Bacewicz and Tansman are well represented on disc but competing versions of works are valuable not merely in offering a choice – a choice of couplings, for example - but also for interpretative decision-making. On their new Dux recording the Messages Quartet and pianist Julia Kociuban have opted to include Tansman’s Musica a cinque, for piano quintet.

Tansman’s piano quintet was written in 1955. It’s cast in five movements and opens with a smoky Praeludium, continues with the syncopated bravura of a Toccata, adds the compelling stillness of a complex Elegia, and a firefly Divertimento, and then unleashes a fugal finale. In every way it’s a more approachable, less intimidating work than Bacewicz’s Second Quintet though whether it’s greater openheartedness is a match for her more questing technique is another matter. It’s certainly finely played here and makes for a fine programmatic contrast. The booklet is attractive and colourful.

Jonathan Woolf

Lukasz Borowicz, conductor, writes: "There are neither performers nor audiences, both at home and abroad, who are familiar with the works of Stefan Boleslaw Poradowski. Excellent composer, educator, conductor, cultural life promoter... his ser-vices to the province of Wielkopolska can hardly be overestimated. For this reason, it was with great pleasure that Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra, it's illustrious soloists, and I began work on an album intended to bring his music back from oblivion, as it undoubtedly deserves to be present on the concert circuit and the phonographic market." The works on this album are world premiere recordings.

Born in 1974 in Cieszyn (Poland), Alina Blonska studied composition with Grazyna Pstrokonska-Nawratil at the Karol Lipinski Academy of Music in the southwestern Polish city of Wroclaw, graduating with honors in 2002. She developed her skills at summer courses with Crist�bal Halffter, Toshio Hosokawa, Thierry P�cou, Beat Furrer and Marta Ptaszynska, among many others. Her creative output includes instrumental, vocal, orchestral and electro-acoustic compositions. One of her main sources of inspiration is early music. Due to her dual status as a composer and Hispanist (with a degree from the University of Wroclaw), she is particularly attracted to the Spanish culture, an interest reflected in her music. It is there, in Spain, where she wrote and recorded the four compositions on this album.

In 2013 a group of Krakow-based instrumentalists shared the stage as part of the European Workshop for Contemporary Music, conducted by maestro Rudiger Bohn. Having then played together at Darmstadt's Internationale Ferienkurse fur Nee Musik, the musicians established an independent body. A couple of events held in a community center by one of the town's exit roads and in a then neglected theater marked the beginnings of Spoldzielnia Muzyczna contemporary ensemble, a group who specializes in performing new music. This is the ensemble's first entirely self-curated and self-produced album. It includes compositions which shaped the group's identity.

Poniatowski’s music became lost in the mists of history. It is good, therefore, that nowadays it has become the subject of research by the musicologists Irena Poniatowska and Ryszard Daniel Golianek as well as an object of interest for performers. It is good that artists take it up in their interpretations and bring it back to the listeners. Words of gratitude are due both to the Polish Music Association for presenting Poniatowski’s works during the Festival of Polish Music in Krakow and to the organizers of the English premiere of Mass in F Major at Westminster in London in 2015 led by Dr. Marek Stella-Sawicki. Prince Poniatowski was born in Rome in 1816 and in 2016 we celebrated the 200th anniversary of his birth. “On the eve” of this symbolic occasion, his Mass in F Major received, thanks to Maciej Jablonski and Sebastian Perlowski, a new symphonic life.

"Why do we sing and listen to songs? I have one of many potential answers: because we want to experience the full nature of man. In a drop of lyrics...As in watercolors painted with water-based paint.” -Malgorzata Janicka-Slysz

Here we have a complete set of songs by Grażyna Bacewicz and a selection of songs by Ludomir Rózycki. All of them were written for texts of outstanding Polish poets, including Wyspianski, Mickiewicz, and Galczynski. Songs were recorded by award-winning musicians: young soprano Joanna Freszel and respected pianist Bartlomiej Kominek, two friends who were united by passion for beautiful songs. After three years of intense cooperation, they created Akwarelle. It is worth mentioning that this album presents the first recording of complete songs by Grazyna Bacewicz. Album was released by the DUX publishing house thanks to the support of the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as part of the “Musical trace” program implemented by the National Institute of Music and Dance.

Two symphonies by Pawel Lukaszewski (b. 1968) are released for the first time on a DUX record label album. These compositions are a continuation of the interests of Pawel Lukaszewski (b. 1968), composer, conductor and teacher, in religious music, of his passion deepened by the study of apocryphal literature and profound reflection on the nature of transcendence. In the Symphony No. 3 ‘Symphony of Angels’ from 2010 presented on the album, we will hear echoes referring to the tradition of early religious music, with its rich choral texture and a solo soprano part in Latin, enriched with the spectrum of the orchestra, exploring subtle, pastel tone color. The Book of Enoch, the Apocrypha of the Old Testament, inspired the first movement of the composition, while the second is directly related to the reflection on angels, mysterious God’s messengers, present in many world religions. The Symphony No. 4 ‘Song of Eternity’ from 2020 refers to the concept of time understood from the point of view of transcendence. The three movements of the composition depict different dimensions of time – chronos, with its linear course, accompanying ordinary human activities, and the sacred dimension – Kairos – revealed, divine time, with its source in eternity. Kairos occupies the middle, central place in the three-movement structure of the piece, at the same time being its musical climax. Both pieces are performed by the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra under the baton of Miroslaw Jacek Blaszczyk, while the soprano part was performed by Anna Mikolajczyk-Niewiedzial.

Michał Malec’s talent and enormous potential were noticed already at an early stage of his career, which resulted in him winning the 3rd prize in the International Composers’ Competition ‘Musica Sacra’ in Częstochowa in 2012. Since then, the artist’s oeuvre has been increasingly popular as evidenced by subsequent prestigious awards, e.g. the first prize in the International Composers’ Competition ‘In modo di Lutosławski’ in Warsaw for the piece Dispute for symphony orchestra (2013), third prize in the 12th International Composers’ Competition ‘Musica Sacra Nova’ in Cambridge in the organ category for the piece Meditation sur la Croix (2016), second prize in the JP2 Composers’ Competition under the theme ‘John Paul II – Son of Polish Land’ for the piece Prayer to Our Lady of the Divine Love for a cappella choir (2018), first prize in the 15th Inter-national Composers’ Competition ‘Musica Sacra Nova’ in Cologne in the category a cappella choir for the piece O vos omnes, and second prize in the 5th International Composers’ Competition ‘Fide et Amore’ for the piece Oorzchis Ecclesia for trumpet, choir, and organ (2020). The compositions featured on the present album were inspired by both biblical and sacred texts and secular literature.

The present release is a brilliant recital of works by Penderecki, Ryu, and Shostakovich. Arto NORAS is one of the most outstanding cellists in the world today. He studied under the tuition of Yrjö Selin at the Sibelius Academy and later with Paul Tortelier at the Conservatoire National Supérior de Musique in Paris. He came to prominence internationally after the success in the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1966.He has performed for over five decades with major orchestras and conductors all over the world, and his repertoire encompasses a large part of the cello literature. He has also appeared as a distinguished chamber musician with many of the most acclaimed musicians of our time. He has a fairly extensive list of recordings to his name, comprising several pieces written especially for him. His recordings include all of Krzysztof Penderecki’s cello works under the composer’s baton and Jeajoon Ryu’s Cello Concerto and Sonata for cello. Ralf GOTHÓNI is an internationally-renowned Finnish-German pianist. A highly versatile musician, he has also developed a long career as a conductor, chamber musician, composer, author, and teacher. Born in 1946, he began studying the violin at the age of three and the piano at the age of five. At 15, he made his debut as an orchestral soloist. He has been invited, both as a soloist and conductor, by the most prestigious festivals, including Salzburg, Berlin, Prague, Prades, Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, BBC Proms, La Roque-d’Anthéron, Ravinia, and Tangle-wood. As a soloist, he has appeared with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Detroit, and Toronto, the Berlin and Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestras, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Japan Philharmonic, and the English Chamber Orchestra.

The piano trio began to be embraced by Estonian composers around the turn of the 20th century. Composers of that era, many of whom were educated in St. Petersburg, were greatly influenced by the then Russian capital’s rich musical life. Estonia’s own national musical awakening was later spearheaded by these very composers. The piano trio POLL-VAREMA-POLL was founded in 2013 by Mihkel Poll (piano), Mari Poll (violin) and Henry-David Varema (cello), and since then has performed in Europe as well as in Russia and China, at venues such as the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia and the Estonia Concert Hall. All three artists have prominent recital, orchestral, teaching careers and are recognized for their distinctive creative perspectives. They are enthusiastic champions of the piano trio genre, per-forming the widest possible range of repertoire from Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms to con-temporary composers. Works by Estonian com-posers including national classics Artur Lemba and Heino Eller, and modern-day composers such as Erkki-Sven Tüür, Arvo Pärt and Riho Esko Maimets have an important place in their concert programs.

The history of world music knows many examples of revival from non-existence and of rediscovery of both compositional legacy and names of composers themselves. Such phenomena also include the output and figure of Giedymin Prosper Rodkiewicz.   Until recently, Rodkiewicz was not widely known to musicologists or music lovers, and yet he was an outstanding composer, and his oeuvre survived thanks to a fortunate coincidence. The composer’s oeuvre, comprising around 75 pieces, is devoted entirely to piano and is particularly rich in miniatures. This output, as evidenced by the   dedications on the pages of Rodkiewicz’s works, reflects, like in a mirror, the world of the wealthy landed gentry who filled artistic salons, so popular in the 19th century. Likewise, the genres favored by the   composer reflect the existence of the upper echelons of the society of his era. All the pieces presented on the album are discographic premieres. Their arrangement can be considered symbolic: the gallery of the composer’s opuses opens with Waltz No. 2 in D flat major, Op. 24 and ends with Waltz No. 3 in A flat major, Op. 33. Undoubtedly, Giedymin Rodkiewicz could not fail to pay due tribute to this genre, which so definitely established its position in the 19th century Europe.

Artistic salons had begun thriving in Paris at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Their history started in the early seventeenth century with Madame de Rambouillet’s Chambre bleue, which offered its regulars a lively exchange of views on current events in politics, the arts and science, while also serving as a venue for conversations on “love, friendship, a sense of duty, reputation, virtue and taste.” Music was an inseparable element of salon life. It was performed by both high-caliber artists and amateurs, and was the subject of heated debates, controversies and polemics. A gradual return of life to Paris, and the fresh breath of freedom that characterized the final years of the reign of Louis XIV and the ensuing period of regency in particular had created an environment, in which French composers opened themselves up to the music of various nations. The present release features chamber works by Jean-Fery Rebel, Antoine Forqueray, Louis-Antoine Dornel, and Francois Couperin, performed by the {oh!} trio.

Krzysztof Meyer, one of the most recognizable Polish composers in the world, extends his oeuvre with a recording of the Symphony No. 9 Fidei speique Sinfonia (Symphony of Faith and Hope) for choir and orchestra to Psalms of David, Op. 126. The latest, monumental vocal and instrumental symphony is a piece with a clear message. At the beginning of the work on the score in 2015, the composer reached for the ancient Psalms of David to express his concern about the current situation in Poland and in the world, where 'lying language' is spreading, people 'are rushing to war' and more and more clearly 'hate peace.' From the today's perspective, it does not seem that his concerns have lost their relevance. Meyer reached for a large symphony orchestra and a mixed choir, representing the voice of the community. The four-part ensemble frequently sings in a six-part texture. The instruments used differ in individual movements, radically changing the ensemble's tone color. The full cast is employed only just in the finale. The diverse and at times moving expression of the Symphony results from a harmony shaped in a way specific to its composer's music. The Symphony No. 9 presented on this album was recorded during its world premiere in the Concert Hall of the Poznan Philharmonic in 2016 by the Cracow Karol Szymanowski Philharmonic Choir and by the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Jakub Chrenowicz.