Despite their different musical languages, all works by the Polish composers Karol Szymanowski and Krzysztof Penderecki presented on this album have in common the inherent character of a lament: Szymanowski’s Stabat mater, which was completed in 1926 and is based on a Polish translation of the Latin medieval poem, is considered as one of the most important compositions of the 20th century. Penderecki’s three-part oratorio Dies Irae was commissioned for a commemoration day in remembrance of the murder victims at the former concentration camp in Auschwitz, and hence carries the epithet “Auschwitz Oratorium”. The album closes with a Threnos for 52 string instruments dedicated to the Victims of Hiroshima. The final haunting bars of this composition present a tutti cluster, starting in a triple forte and fading out to quadruple piano.

This is the new recording we have been waiting for. Three years after Brahms (ALPHA792), the Belcea Quartet returns in a new formation: Suyeon Kang, their new second violin, joined the quartet in 2023. Today the Belcea Quartet presents a new recording of the Debussy Quartet - which they had previously recorded on their very first album 25 years ago - and two quartets by Karol Szymanowski, a composer they are particularly fond of and who possesses a unique and immediately identifiable musical language. The first quartet was composed in 1917 but the Russian Revolution intervened; it's premiere finally took place in 1924. Szymanowski - then a world-renowned composer and a leading figure in the reconstruction of musical life in the young Polish Republic - wrote his second quartet ten years after the first in 1927; it was premiered in Warsaw two years later.

After the premiere recording of Reynaldo Hahn's concerto (released by RH-022), this is another premiere recording by Szeryng: Benjamin Lees's violin concerto. This 2CD set also includes: Brahms violin concerto with Wolfgang Sawallisch, Bach and Szymanowski violin concerto with Ernest Ansermet, Bartok violin concerto with Ernest Ansermet: all never before published recordings.

Violinist Eva Zavaro pays heartfelt tribute to her two homelands, France and Poland, in a programme of works by Gabriel Faure and Karol Szymanowski. It's guiding thread is night, a source of inspiration to both composers, depicted in pieces that are sometimes virtuosic and impetuous, sometimes lyrical and dreamy under Eva's intense bow. She is accompanied by her longstanding musical partner, the pianist Clement Lefebvre, in this nocturnal journey which marks her first recording for La Dolce Volta.

SOMM Recordings is delighted to announce the new solo piano album War Poems by phenomenal Ukrainian pianist Maria Narodytska. With this, her debut album on SOMM Recordings, she makes a bold and impassioned, yet inclusive artistic statement, using solo piano works of various historical periods, written in the midst of conflict (our own included), to ask listeners to reflect on the ravages of war and safeguard the flickering flame of hope in peace. As the vastly talented composer of a work on this recital, Narodytska writes as a Ukrainian, but performs her programme as a member of the artistic community and a world citizen. Her recital unites her own composition and that of another contemporary Ukrainian composer, Artem Liakhovych, with the war-time work of past masters: Poland's Szymanowski, who was born in the centre of modern-day Ukraine and sheltered there as he wrote his Masques near the end of World War I; his compatriot Chopin, who wrote his Opus 40 Polonaises from a new home in Paris after the Revolutions of 1830; and Shostakovich, whose Second Piano Sonata he began during a family evacuation amid the Siege of his native Leningrad (St Petersburg) in World War II. Maria Narodytska plays six of Artem Liakhovych's 24 Postludes for solo piano, his "War Notebook", composed in the wake of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. In Liakhovych's words: "This cycle is my reaction to the war in Ukraine, written during the evacuation in Uman. It covers all tonalities, but in a contrary motion [to the circle-of-fifths key sequence in Chopin's 24 Preludes, for example]. This is due to the importance of the postlude as an epilogue, an afterword, encoding a certain ending of time, even a reversal of it." Of Narodytska's own composition, After, she says: "I wrote this piece shortly before the recording, and for me it is a direct reflection of the war in Ukraine. While writing it, I was imagining what happens after one gets a call that no one would want to get or reads the news that no one would like to read. It's the kind of 'after' as in: 'life got divided into before and after'." A prize winner of the Takamatsu, Santa Cecilia and WorldVision International Music Competitions, Maria Narodytska has also achieved wins in many more major competitions while continuing to give concerts worldwide and serving as a much sought-after teacher and jury member.

After a first Brahms recital that made a great impression (Alpha 851) and Mozart concertos (Alpha 1039) praised by the press for their naturalness (Gramophone) and fluidity (Le Monde), Jonathan Fournel, winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition at the age of 27 and now an important figure on the international stage, has decided to record a programme that he has already performed extensively in concert: "I like Chopin's 3rd Sonata because the melodic lines don't need any embellishments, they're already beautiful - in the same way that the Mona Lisa doesn't need any make-up. The same is true for Szymanowski's more virtuoso pieces. Szymanowski is a bit like a Scriabin who developed at full speed and who at times approached the Viennese style. I like that because there's research to be done inside, but it's not virtuosity à la Rachmaninov. What I like about these composers is that every element counts and expresses something."

Viviane Goergen has not only made a name for herself with her recordings of Ernst Toch's piano works, among others, through far-sighted repertoire enrichment, but also with an interpretation concept that offered new approaches for interpreters as early as the 1980s through the use of meditation, autogenic and mental training, among other things, which also benefits her Schumann recording from 1988.

Leif Ove Andsnes is a leading pianist of his time, known for his exceptional musicianship and subtil touch, his considerable technical flair being unfailingly put at the service of his interpretations. He was a pioneer for being the first home-trained superstar pianist to have emerged from Norway. This box is the story of a 20-year partnership that has yielded a rich seam of recorded treasures, first for Virgin and then for EMI. Running through this cornucopia of 34 albums (36 CDs), we find recurring themes: Grieg (Andsnes even recorded some Lyric Pieces on the composer's own piano at Troldhaugen), Nordic music in general, Schumann, Rachmaninov, Schubert.

The cycle of Nine Preludes, Op. 1 gained recognition already two years before its official release. In 1904, Arthur Rubinstein – fascinated by the first contact with the Preludes, as well as with several other compositions of his later friend – used the following words to describe them: ‘This music indeed touched my deepest emotions; I have not experienced anything similar since the discovery of Chopin. Who is that man? Where does he live? Where is he now? I need to meet him!’ Undoubtedly, op. 1 can be considered the first great showcase of Karol Szymanowski’s talent. In each of the miniatures, a smooth synthesis of Romantic influences and harmonic and textural procedures typical of many of the composer’s works occurs. These works are beautifully performed by flutist Agata Igras and pianist Mariusz Rukowski.

Lush, impressionistic, exotic, erotically charged even, Karol Szymanowski’s music appears as a world in its own right, a refuge from the harshest aspects of reality, but also a place in which, paradoxically, the dreamer can find the strength and solace needed to cope with the real world and is drawn into an alternative, heightened state of consciousness. Sueye Park and Roland Pöntinen take us on a journey through the Polish composer’s works for violin and piano.

While the early Violin Sonata in D minor already shows Szymanowski’s precocious talent in writing for violin, the Romance in D major and the Nocturne et Tarantelle indicate the emergence of a feverish and exotic atmosphere as well as the musical expression of physical intoxication, a characteristic of the composer’s mature works. Mythes (1915) represents Szymanowski at the zenith of his artistry, creating ‘a new mode of expression for the violin’ and through this an other-worldly musical language. La Berceuse d’Aïtacho Enia concludes this disc in a dreamy yet troubled mood, as if the pains of the real world had ultimately found a way to reach us.

A young violinist, paired with one of the most renowned Lisztians of our day, make an illuminating and harmonious partnership in an exquisite body of modern classics for the duo. Very few 20th-century pieces have entered the canon of literature for violin and piano as universally as the Mythes of Karol Szymanowski. Alongside the sonatas of Janacek and Prokofiev, for example, the cycle embodies the style of it's composer at his most characteristic. In Szymanowski's case, the Mythes draw on a sensuous language of impressionism but also a Russian school of violin playing, and a fragrance in the melodies that is unique to him. Italian critics have been extravagant in their praise of Francesca Bonaita. Her repertoire already includes modern classics such as the concertos by Barber, Zimmermann and Schnittke, indicating the kind of affinity with modernist idioms which makes this Szymanowski disc so striking as a demonstration of her musicianship. Having graduated from the conservatoire in Milan as a student of Sergei Krylov, she furthered her studies in Lugano while attracting notice for her performances in many international violin competitions. The pianist Saskia Giorgini is well known as a Lisztian, with several outstanding albums to her credit, and as a sympathetic recital partner to outstanding musicians of our day such as Ian Bostridge and Vilde Frang. The duo have written a note for this new album of Szymanowski which both explains the background to each of the major works - the Mythes, the early Sonata and the composer's late transcriptions of three Paganini caprices - while underlining their intellectual grasp of this music as it falls under their fingers. As they note, Szymanowski was initially inspired by the examples of Franck and Brahms in writing his own, opulent Violin Sonata in 1909. Gradually he found his voice, helped along the way in particular by his friendship with the violinist Pavel Kochanski. It was Kochanski who gave both technical advice and inspiration to Szymanowski as he composed the two violin concertos and the trio of Mythes which are his culminating work in the field of chamber music: 'a mystical synthesis of the sensual and the divine', as they encapsulate it's elusive sequence of moods. Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) was one of Poland's most important and original composers. Szymanowski's style is eclectic, standing in the long romantic tradition. He imbued his works with exoticisms, impressionistic flourishes and a general sense of freedom and imagination. The works for violin and piano were composed for the famous Polish violinist Paul Kochanski. The most important works are the substantial Second Violin Sonata and the cycle Myths, both appearing regularly on concert programs nowadays. Played by rising star Francesca Bonaita with pianist Saskia Giorgini, whose Piano Classics and Pentatone recordings have won many awards (Critic's Choice) and 5 star reviews.

This is the third album featuring the piano works of Karol Szymanowski, performed by the outstanding interpreter of his music, Joanna Domanska. The Sonata is the first major work in the young composer's output, an exceptional piece full of contrasts. The dark, dramatic mood of the outer movements collides with the more cheerful middle sections, particularly the charming pastiche of the minuet. Preludium and Fugue are early works that already astonish with their seriousness, depth of expression, and a sophisticated use of texture and harmony. The Variations, considered one of the most difficult works in the piano repertoire, are based on a wistful theme drawn from the music of the Podhale region. This album features the first-ever recording in which the monumental, virtuosic finale is presented in it's entirety, without the shortened version suggested by the composer himself. The works on the album showcase a spectrum of emotions: lyricism, flickering mystery, subtlety, mournful gravity, triumph, and bravura. While all the pieces demonstrate a typically 19th-century virtuosic pianism, the most prominent quality is the depth of musical expression.