The Past of the Future was the guiding motto for Princess Izabela Czartoryska when she created a museum of national memorabilia at the end of the 18th century when Poland lost it's independence. Among the thousands of exhibits is a collection of carefully copied, framed and preserved harp music. It shows that, following the example of the Parisian salons, the harp was also a highly popular instrument in Poland. Two Poles contributed to the development of the harp: Prince Michal Kazimierz Oginski (1728-1800) - hetman, poet, composer and harpist, and his friend Karol Groll (1770-1852) - engraver, constructor, entrepreneur and distinguished scholar of Warsaw. They constructed the world's first harp with a double-action pedal system. Karol Groll patented this invention in London in 1807 and immediately following this he sold it to the French piano and harp builder, Sebastian Erard, who is still considered to be the father of the modern harp. The Czartoryski Library includes works for the pre-Erard harp and for the harp invented in the 19th century. This treasure, a collection of almost 200 titles hidden for over 100 years in Cracow, is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for concerts. The artists have chosen several works arranged in order from the simplest, anonymous composers to works by virtuoso harpists, such as J. B. Cardon, F. Pollini and John Thomas. The mazurka, entitled "L'Esperance" for solo harp, which John Thomas dedicated to Princess Anna Czartoryska in Paris, is a beautiful work related to Poland. It has shades of Chopin in it and the title "Hope" is an expression of the composer's sympathy for Polish efforts to regain independence.

A noteworthy album of outstanding Polish artists of NeoQuartet: (Karolina Pi?tkowska-Nowicka – 1st Violin, Pawe? Kapica – 2nd Violin, Micha? Markiewicz – Viola, Krzysztof Paw?owski – Cello) is consisting of music for string quartet by Hari Kanakis, Dimitris Kostopoulos, Spiros Mazis, Giorgos Papamitrou, Elena Papari, Charalambos Platanou and Dimitris Tsimpanos. The album GREEK MUSIC FOR STRING QUARTET includes 7 compositions by 7 contemporary Greek composers, which are recorded for the first time (world premiere recordings). The recording was made in the wonderful acoustics of the Music Academy in Gdansk (Poland).

The album MEM includes 15 compositions by 13 contemporary composers, which are here recorded for the first time. The album contains a range of new works for flute solo, alto saxophone solo, and duos for flute and saxophone.

This album offers a broad range of musical experiences through works of the 21st century. The musicians' performances are unique, and all the pieces without exception fascinate and deserve to be listened and performed again in the future.

Includes:

 

Scott Brickman

Epic Suite for flute and alto saxophone

 

Sonatina for solo alto saxophone

 

George N. Gianopoulos

Three Scherzi for solo flute

 

Lars Fetzek

Duo for flute/bass flute/alto flute and alto saxophone

Brian Field

two, four by four for alto flute and alto saxophone

Jane O’Leary

Echoing Voices for solo alto flute

Richard Pressley

Rémiges for alto flute and alto saxophone

Grigoris Polyzos

East for solo flute

William Price

Sans Titre II for solo alto saxophone

Gabriele Spampinato

Argentum for solo flute

José Jesus de Azevedo Souza

Cyllarus and Hylonome for alto flute and alto saxophone

Timeframes for solo flute and bass flute

 

Greg A. Steinke

Episodes for solo alto saxophone

 

Robert Voisey

Foolish Fantasias for solo flute

Man-Ching Donald Yu

Spiral for solo flute

Award-winning recording artist, Iwona Glinka's new album GIMEL, consists of ten compositions, written by ten contemporary composers: Aaron Alter, Greg Bartholomew (USA), Louis Sauter (France), Christos Sp. Anastassiou, Spiros Mazis, Yiola Voutsina-Papagiannidi, Elena Papari, Dimitris Tsimpanos, Yiorgos Vassilandonakis and Gerassimos Voutsinas (Greece). In each case, they are world premieres, recorded by soloists specializing in the performance of contemporary music: Iwona Glinka (flute), Leszek Lorent (vibraphone) and Adam Eljasinski (clarinet). Six of the pieces were composed for flute and vibraphone, while the remaining ones are for solo flute, alto flute, bass flute and piccolo, and for flute and clarinet.

The album was recorded in September 2017 in Warsaw, and is the culmination of work on compositions, often dedicated to the Polish flutist Iwona Glinka, who devoted the subject of contemporary flute music in her two doctoral dissertations.

The DALETH album is another achievement of the outstanding Polish flutist. Dr. Glinka performs contemporary works on the flute , perfectly reflecting the atmosphere of today in society, in the intellectual as well as in the artistic sense. DALETH is the continuation of the ALEPH (Sarton), BETH (Sarton) and GIMEL (Phasma Music) albums and is a harbinger of the artist's subsequent albums following the order of the Phoenician alphabet.

The outstanding album FÊTES EN AUVERGNE is first album in a series dedicated to the French composer Guy Miaille. The popular dances of Auvergne are plentiful and remarkably diverse. They are mainly performed outdoors using portable musical instruments, such as cabrettes, bagpipes, violins, accordions, flutes, banjos... and voice. Since the 19th century, it can be observed that many dances, especially the Bourrées, are sung in the Auvergnat dialect. In such cases, the texts are mainly used as memory-aids for the performers. The Auvergnats love village festivals, and, while the Bourrée is the most typical of their dances, they do not hesitate to borrow from more universal forms such as the Waltz, the Scottish, the Polka or the Mazurka ... The Fêtes en Auvergne are a personal testimony that, through the piano, evoke my parents, my friends, a wonderful region, and above all the delights of my youth. The charm of dances from Auvergne is to be found everywhere: in the fields, in village squares, as well as in concert halls.

The album NEW MUSIC FOR SOLO PIANO contains 17 world premiere recordings of works by 10 living composers, collected and performed by Tamara Licheli.

Award-winning recording artist and renowned pianist Tamara Licheli presents a recital composed of pieces whose creativity is rooted in various popular trends in the 21st century. These pearls were created somewhat off the beaten track of the artistic activity of their creators, commonly associated with other forms and different instruments.

The composers of the album include: Scott Brickman, Eleazar Garzon, Robert Herschbach, David Hirshleifer, Eriko Yamaki, Manos Panayiotakis, Neil Stipp, Alan Terricciano, Betty R. Wishart and Donald Man-Ching Yu.

2014 Grammy Award winner, the Kalisz Philharmonic Orchestra under Pawel Kotla, presents the new album CALISIA 1. The outstanding album includes 9 world premiere recordings by 9 contemporary composers. This album will make all those who distrust contemporary classical music re-evaluate their stance. Performed superbly by the strings of the Kalisz Philharmonic Orchestra, the 2014 Grammy winners, led by the outstanding Maestro Pawel Kotla, the featured works represent the more mainstream approach to musical styles, techniques, forms, and their various expressive outcomes. The well-known, widely accepted and universally admired points of reference - Bart�k, Copland, Elgar, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Vaughan Williams and the like - are here for all to hear. From the very simple yet effective diatonicism of "Crescendo No 2" by Giovanni Albini to the ultra-expressive "Hataori" by Satoru Ikeda, the most "modern" and powerful work on this recording, the listener is taken on an exhilarating journey through a kaleidoscope of textures and moods, which will leave no one indifferent. Love it or hate it, this recording rocks. In Foivos Papadopoulos's "Skies (Shadows)" the principal of the orchestra, Dominik Kossakowski, gives a master class on how to play an extended violin solo within a larger structural context. The other works are "Sinfonia Brevis" by Scott Brickman, "Four By Four" by Brian Field, "Fume Giallo" by Alessandro Giannotti, "Millie's Math House" by David Hirshleifer, "The Vast and Flat Plain" by Juan Pablo Medina, and "Contentamento" by Allen Molineux - all of them worthy outgrowths of the great Western tradition, still alive and, as this album proves, still lively. The music is very well recorded, and the artwork leaves nothing to be desired. Recommended. (� Piotr Grella-Mozejko)

CONTEMPORARY GREEK MUSIC FOR SOLO PIANO presents a selection of solo piano works by 13 Greek composers of different generations, attempting to offer a stylistically diverse listening experience. The composers’ birth year ranges from 1904 to 1993 and the works’ creation year from 1939 to 2020. Within this broad chronological framework, two groups emerge: works from the older generation of Greek composers (N. Skalkottas, Y. Papaioannou, A. Kounadis, K. Nikitas), written between 1939 and 1966, and works from the newer generation (Ch. Samaras, C. Tsougras, V. Kitsos, G. Sakallieros, D. Maronidis, D. Economou, S. Dalampira, G. Koutoula, O. Papaioannou), written during the last 16 years (2005-2020). The second group of composers is centered around two of Thessaloniki’s important musical institutions, the School of Music Studies of the Aristotle University and the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki, as its members are connected through teacher/student/colleague relationships, tending towards the creation of a “Thessaloniki school” of composition.

The works are stylistically heterogenous, encompassing many of the trends, aesthetic stances and artistic currents of the 20th and 21st centuries: impressionism, folk song processing, neoclassicism/ neotonality, neoromanticism and mainstream 21st-century modernism, thus encompassing most contemporary music genres and also demonstrating the multitude of ways with which Greek composers reflected international influences while keeping their individuality and uniqueness.

The album is dedicated to the memory of my teacher George Hadjinikos, whose inspired teaching, love for music and painstaking efforts to promote the works of Greek composers (mainly Nikos Skalkottas’s) throughout the world has been inspirational and exemplary.

The seven works included in MONOGRAMS album collection comprise a musical portrait of the Greek composer Costas Tsougras (b. 1966). The program features diverse solo or ensemble instrumental combinations (solo bayan accordion, string quartet, clarinet-piano duo, octet, solo piano, solo bassoon) and the dominant element of it's design is the common pitch center (C) of the five last pieces (tracks 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). Although the works have been composed independently, as most of them were either friendly commissions by their performers or professional commissions by contemporary music institutions, they can be auditioned and experienced as a tripartite symmetrical multi-movement work, with Cantus Firmus and String Quartet nr. 1 functioning as the introductory movement (centered around E, with Cantus Firmus "modulating" from E to A and String Quartet returning to E), the Four Pieces-Octet-Six miniatures as the central/main movement (centered around C) and with String Quartet nr. 2 and Partita (also centered around C) as the concluding movement. All pieces share motivic, harmonic and structural elements, while certain melodic fragments are common to some of them. The most characteristic shared element is a hexachordal monogram produced by the correlation of selected letters from the composer's name to musical pitches and is used as the harmonic source of core tracks 3, 4 and 5. The pieces also share a tendency towards cyclic forms, with numeric proportions frequently determining the duration of pitches and/or sections of the morphological design, and with dramatic juxtapositions between sections with mechanical rhythmic activity and sections with lyrical melodies or between extreme violent climaxes and meditative drones. Nevertheless, the seven works differ substantially in their character and expressive content and retain their individuality.

The Symphonic Orchestra of the National Philharmonic "SERGHEI LUNCHEVICI" of the Republic of Moldova presents the new album CHISINAU 1. The outstanding album includes 3 world premiere recordings by 3 contemporary composers: Brian Field, Neil Stipp and Jean-Pierre Vial. Arctic Variations for orchestra, by Brian Field, is a work influenced by the photographic series "Find a way or make one" by Anastasia Mityukova whose images are inspired by Robert Peary's expedition to the North Pole in 1909. Her series contains a variety of photographs of ice, auroras and various snow-filled scenes. Symphony Capriccio for orchestra, by Neil Stipp, is a neo-classical five-movement work that is formal in structure, but it's themes are more free-flowing and capricious in style. Jean-Pierre Vial composed this Piano Concerto in G minor between 2007 and 2011. The concerto consists of four movements, with two lively movements surrounding a slower movement and a brief scherzo.

The album KAPH contains a range of world premiere recordings of new works for flute, cello and piano and works for flute and string quartet. The works are performed by world-class soloists who specialize in contemporary music. The works have an excellent range of styles and moods and are a fine compilation that will prove attractive and essential to all contemporary music enthusiasts and all lovers of flute music. The album features 19 world premiere recordings by 15 living composers.

The CD HE includes 15 compositions by 12 contemporary composers, which are recorded for the first time (world premiere recordings). Eleven of these compositions are for solo flute and the other four for flute and piano. The works are performed by two world-class soloists who specialise in contemporary music. This is their second recording, following on from the award-winning release ALEPH.

The CD was recorded in November 2018. The compositions and its creators came into contact with a music-loving audience and this recording concludes the whole project, which presents aspects of contemporary music for solo flute and for flute and piano. In HE, the composers who have written music for solo flute are: Daniel Adams, Scott Brickman, David Drexler, Frederic Glesser, Hari Kanakis, Travis Rigby, José Jesus de Azevedo Souza, Jason Taurins, Filip Sande. The works for flute and piano are composed by: Ricky Chaggar, Louis Sauter, Betty R. Wishart.

The Symphonic Orchestra of the National Philharmonic „SERGHEI LUNCHEVICI” of the Republic of Moldova presents the new album CHISINAU 2. The outstanding album includes 8 world premiere recordings by 8 contemporary composers: Gregg Birrel, Lars Michael Fetzek, Brian Field, Scott Brickman, Satoru Ikeda, Daniele Ciminiello, Giorgos Papamitrou and Louis Sauter.

Noah, by Gregg Birrell, is a piece that carries significant meaning for the composer, who wrote it for the newborn son of two very close friends. Scored for a large orchestra, it draws on folk traditions and classic romanticism to create an exciting and joyous blend of rhythm and melody. Symphonic Movement on a Variously Fragmented Theme, by Lars Michael Fetzek states a theme in fragmented form, then delivers several strict canons of increasing complexity upon differently fragmented forms of the theme inverted in pitch and/or time. In Kaleidoscope, Brian Field features a constantly changing and evolving musical landscape that is heavily pattern based, shifting across instrumental families, meters and dynamics. In Psaume, Satoru Ikeda analizes a picture taken by a gigantic astronomical telescope, a phenomenon can be recognized: The faraway light is the past light. The further it is past, the more it darkens. Symphony #3 (Baltic Poem), by Scott Brickman, was inspired by my travels to Latvia and Lithuania, and in anticipation of their celebration of the centennial Independences of 1918. Fantasia #1, by Daniele Ciminiello, is an important milestone in a personal research of a synthesis between all composer's musical experiences. Giorgos Papamitru was inspired by a small village in the desert of Iran called abarkooh. And in last work of the album, Louis Sauter describes his visit in Saint-Pétersbourg.

The exceptional album LISHORT includes premiere recordings of works by the distinguished Greek composer and guitarist MICHALIS SOURVINOS. Sourvinos does not play just guitar, he lives for the guitar. His beautiful and warm sound delights the most demanding listener.

This is a second instalment of the "Calisia" series recorded by the Kalisz Philharmonic Orchestra, or, more precisely, the orchestra's string section conducted impeccably by their artistic director, Maestro Pawel Kotla. Based in Poland's oldest city, Kalisz, whose origins go back to Roman times, the orchestra won the Grammy Award in 2014 and has established itself as one of the country's most sought-after ensembles of this sort. What sets both the orchestra and Maestro Kotla apart from the dozens, if not hundreds, of similar groups around the world, is their ongoing commitment to the music of our time, which they perform on a regular basis -an exemplary approach indeed. Add to it the sheer class of the musicians, their obvious enthusiasm for and understanding of even the most demanding modern works, always combined with and inspired by Maestro Kotla's high caliber conducting -and you have a recipe for success! This particular album features ten works by nine contemporary composers. Three of these compositions stand out naturally due to their scoring for organ and strings. These are the lovely, virtuosic, neoclassical "Suite for Organ and Strings" by Neil Stipp, as well as two somber, brief compositions by the organ soloist himself, Krzysztof Niegowski, "Melancholia" and "Temptation". If in performing his own works Niegowski demonstrates serious lyrical sensitivity, he really shows his mettle in the Stipp; the playing being effortlessly assured yet sensitive. The rest of the collection is varied in weight and length with the beautiful "Languere" by Paolo Geminiani being the most challenging piece. All these works merit attention, most of them written in familiar idioms, which even the most conservative listener may enjoy without reservation. The recording is top notch, has transparency and depth, and the somewhat minimalistic design is quite attractive. All in all, it is a commendable effort by Phasma Music. (� Piotr Grella-Mozejko)