Marek Jakubowski Trio are: Marek Jakubowski (drums) - born in 1980. In 1988 he began playing the drums in the PSM in Kolo, Poland, his further education is the ZSM in Bydgoszcz and Academy of Music in Poznan (where he is lecturer now). Trained as a classical percussionist, but jazz music followed him from the beginning. It is not surprising therefore that the artistic work has always been stylistically diverse - Opera and Poznan Philharmonic, Theatre of A. Fredro in Gniezno, Bogdan Holownia Trio, Kattorna Quinted, Malta Band Festival 2010, Rysiek Bazarnik musical projects and much, much more. Adam Bieranowski (piano) - pianist, composer, arranger, born in 1993. From early years of his musical way he was interested in jazz: 'Improvised music was always important for me. It doesn't make sense for me duplicating many versions of the same interpretation. ' After 9 years of learning to play the piano at the Faculty of classical music he started to learn in the class of renowned master jazz keyboard Peter Kaluzny in Accademy of Music in Poznan. Jazz become his passion and he began to create his own music. Piotr Max Wisniewski (bass) - graduate of the Academy of Music in Poznan, session musician, collaborated with Hanna Banaszak, Anna Szarmach, Iwona Loranc, Kabareciarnia Zenona Laskowika, New Theatre in Poznan and the Polish Theatre in Szczecin. He has recorded number of CD's and television programs and participated in many jazz festiwals (e.g. Poznan Jazz Fair, Jazz Jamboree).

RecArt presents another Musicarius string quartet album. Incompleta presents works for string quartet, which for some reason were never completed. Each of these works is completely different, reveals a very different life situations composers, different contexts and causes of unfinished compositions. Mikolaj Zgólka (violin) says about the idea of the release: "Incompleteness brings to mind usually bad connotations. A breach of finis coronat opus principle often causes lack of symmetry of work, interferes with the expectancy and logic of a design, and finally builds a sense of its limitations. We can multiply examples of buildings that have never lived to see their final architectural shape, or the ones, which combine different styles compiled over the centuries; and that does not always produce indisputably successful result. Studying of biographies of prominent composers stirs speculations: what else and how would Mozart, Pergolesi, Schubertwrite if the Great Director did not remove them from the stage of life so early? How would their style develop, what measures would they apply and how many works - probably remarkable ones -would have been created if they could reach their venerable years? The Incompleta album presents the works for a string quartet, which were, for some reason, never finished. Each of these works is completely different and reveals quite varied life situations of composers, different contexts and causes of the unfinished pieces."

RecArt presents a new album with chamber music for violin and piano of a distinguished Polish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg - 20th century creator compared by musicologists to Dimitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev. Artist whose tragic fate intertwined with the history of the Second World War and Jewish persecution. In recording participated Ewelina Nowicka - violin and Milena Antoniewicz - piano Media patronage: TVP Kultura, Radio Merkury, Twoja Muza magazine and Culture. Pl Discovering Weinberg by Ewelina Nowicka. Weinberg's music is about magnitude - large and original phrases with evocative dynamics. We leave the music halls for the open space of freedom. Nowadays Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-1996) is considered one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. During his lifetime Weinberg was perceived as a talented and much appreciated composer in the former USSR. He was a close friend and follower of Dmitri Shostakovich. Music lovers would even sometimes name Weinberg but really mean Shostakovich. A thorough analysis of Weinberg's compositions resulted in a clear conclusion that, although stylistically similar to Shostakovich, Weinberg's compositions are unique. Polish audience is particularly interested in raising Weinberg's profile on the European scale of contemporary classical composers. Weinberg was of Polish-Jewish origin (born in Warsaw), spoke Polish all his life, was largely influenced by the Polish culture and based his works on the Polish poets Adam Mickiewicz, Julian Tuwim and Leopold Staff. Globally, Weinberg is classified as a Russian composer of Polish-Jewish descent, known under the Russian name of Moisey Weinberg. On every day basis, however, Weinberg went by his Polish name, to which he then officially reverted in the early 1980's under the order of the court. Weinberg was born in Poland and became a promising talented piano student of J�zef Turczynski at the Warsaw Conservatory, giving his first recital at the age of 10. Weinberg attracted attention of J�zef Hofmann who wanted him to pursue further piano studies in the United States. The outbreak of World War II brought these plans to an end. In 1939, Weinberg escaped to the East. He came to Minsk where he studied composition under Vasily Zolotarev, the student of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. German invasion of the Soviet Union forced Weinberg to escape further into the inland of USSR. He worked in Tashkent as a pianist at the local opera. In 1942 Weinberg wrote his first Symphony and, intuitively, sent it to Dmitri Shostakovich, who appreciated Weinberg's work and invited him to Moscow. This was the beginning of not only long friendship between the two composers but the start of creative collaboration between two equals sharing similar values and styles. Weinberg never belonged to the Communist Party and tried to distance himself from the political reality. However, he officially had to accept and support the political system. Although Weinberg was not criticised as much as Shostakovich, he was nevertheless imprisoned in 1953. Had Stalin not passed away, Weinberg would have most certainly been executed by NKVD, or deported to the Siberian gulag. What is more, within the context of these times, Weinberg had the misfortune of being the son-in-law of the great Russian-Jewish actor, Solomon Mikhoels, the chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. Mikhoels would travel to the United States collecting necessary finance from the American Jewish community in the fight against the Nazi Germany. The foundation of the modern State of Israel prompted hopes among Russian Jews for a formation of an autonomous Jewish Republic within the USSR. Mikhoels was in the meantime assassinated in January 1949, with his death reported as a car accident in Minsk, followed then by the official funeral in Moscow. The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was then dissolved, with it's founders either executed or detained in gulags. Weinberg survived the persecution of January 1948, but he was captured by Stalin's secret service in 1953. In that year, Stalin focused on a set-up story of the Kremlin doctors who were to be held responsible for planing to poison USSR leaders. And, unfortunate for Weinberg, Mikhoel's brother, prof. Miron Vovsi, was one of the Kremlin doctors. In 1953, a few hours after the concert performance of Weinberg's Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes opus 47/2 (for violin and orchestra) by David Oistrakh and Natan Rakhlin, Weinberg was arrested and detained at the Lubyanka under the charges of antagonising Crimea against the USSR. Shostakovich reacted to Weinberg's arrest in two ways: first, he wrote a letter to Lavrentiy Beria requesting Weinberg's release, and, at the same time, applied and won temporary custody over Weinberg's young daughter to protect her from orphanage. Shostakovich's letter made no impact. With Stalin's death in March 1953, Weinberg was released and the Kremlin doctors' story cleared. As a composer in the Soviet Union Weinberg was clearly respected and his music was often performed by the renowned instrumentalists such as Leonid Kogan, David Oistrakh and Mstislav Rostropovich. Few vinyl discs, published by the record label Melodia, were, however, distributed in the West. And, although, nowadays it is considered that the 20th century Russia had three significan composers: Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Weinberg, this was actually not the perception at that time. Globally, Weinberg, as opposed to Shostakovich, was virtually unknown as an composer. He was only recognised for his musical score to the Russian blockbuster The Cranes Are Flying; the film winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Festival. At the end of his life, Weinberg was seriously ill with mental depression because of the inability to continue his work. Most of all, he felt underrated as a global classical composer. Weinberg's output is impressive and includes over 150 opuses: 26 symphonies, 6 concertos, 17 string quartets, 4 cantatas and 7 operas (i.e. one of them based on the novel by Zofia Posmysz - The Passenger). The time has now come for Weinberg. Record labels such as Olympia, CPO, Naxos and Chandos have released several recordings of Weinberg's works. The conductor, Gabriel Chmura, plays a vital role in raising Weinberg's global profile. Chmura has recorded to date three CDs by Weinberg for the record label Chandos, predominantly for distribution in the United Kingdom, Europe. The discs are currently unavailable on the Polish music market. David Fanning, a British musicologist, is the only one who has written a biography about Weinberg In Search of Freedom, published in English and German by Wolke Verlag. Over the last three years, there has been a significant increase in events and articles on the composer in Poland: a Weinberg Conference was organized in 2007 by prof. Michal Bristiger who then commented further in magazines such as de Musica or Zeszyty Literackie; other articles were written by Jacek Hawryluk in Gazeta Wyborcza, by Dorota Szwarcman in Midrasz and on internet; and, finally another article was published in Ruch Muzyczny. Despite all of this, the audience is yet to discover some of Weinberg's masterpieces, such as his Concertino opus 42, Sonatina opus 46 (for violin and piano), or the Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes opus 47 no. 1/3. The three-part Concertino opus 42 was written in 1948 during Stalinist attack on classical music. The background of the composition is unclear as the original manuscript is lost. The work exists in two versions: for violin and string orchestra, and for violin and piano. It's harmony and melodies take us back into Weinberg's Jewish town; with quiet cries contrasting dynamic rhythms in the later parts of this masterpiece. The Sonatina opus 46, dedicated to the Russian composer Boris Tchaikovsky, was written in 1949 and performed for the first time in 1955 by Leonid Kogan and the pianist Andrei Mitnik in Moscow. It consists of three parts: first - a lyrical one, second - mysterious, and third - focused on violin virtuosity. Finally, the Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes opus 47 was written in three versions: for orchestra, for violin and orchestra, and for violin and piano. The first performance of Version 1 took place in 1949, and soon after the relevant manuscript was published. The manuscript of Version 2 is lost, but it's first performance did take place in 1953 at the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and was delivered personally by Weinberg and David Oistrakh. The inspiration for the Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes came directly from Weinberg's family. Moldavia, previously known as Bessarabia, was the native country of Weinberg's mother. The composer celebrated his childhood memories of the Moldavian-Jewish traditional folk tunes throughout this masterpiece. The time for Weinberg in Poland is yet to come, as one may think. The concert performances will provide full music satisfaction and prompt to discover more of Weinberg's compositions. Weinberg, without a doubt, is now a classic of the 20th century. His music by-passes trivial formal avangarde, and touches hearts and minds instead.

Flauto Brillante is a record filled with flute music of Romantic composers (Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Anton Reicha, Friedrich Kuhlau, Carl Maria von Weber) performed in a breathtaking manner by Magdalena Pilch (Romantic traverso flute), Marek Pilch (square piano) and Bartosz Kokosza (cello) – artists who specialize in performing early music. The title of the record emphasizes the role of the flute in the repertoire, while at the same time makes references to the brillante style, which developed in piano music in the first half of the 19th century. Its distinguishable features can be found in the works presented on this record, which are full of masterly figurations and passages. The album was recorded on the replicas of historical instruments: a transverse flute (Wilhelm Liebel, Dresden c. 1830), a cello (Antonio Stradivari, Cremona 1701) and a square piano, renovated for the needs of this recording (Pehr Rosenwall, Stockholm c. 1840).

Our album Psalms is a creative arrangement of fourteen biblical David's Psalms in a poetic translation by Jan Kochanowski with music by Mikolaj Gomólka (Melodies for Polish Psalter) from 1580. We have recomposed Renaissance four-voice a cappella songs in an innovative minimalist/avant-garde idiom for bass-baritone (Maciej Straburzynski) and prepared piano (Barbara Drazkov). We took inspiration from minimalistic recomposition by Max Richter, Kwadrofonik's Folk Requiem, as well as the avant-garde sounds of John Cage. Our goal was to combine traditional, tonal melodies with the unusual, often murky and atonal sound of a prepared piano. Reaching for the pearl of Polish Renaissance music, we wanted to expose vocal expression far from the simplicity typical for sixteenth-century singing. We also decided that Kochanowski's texts would resound most honestly in the widest possible range of vocal, piano and, incidentally, wind instruments (duduk, cornet), often with undefined tonality. Some arrangements were based on meanings and symbols present in poetry, others came out from playing with 'sound effects', and others were born by chance. We tried to make our Psalms moving, beautiful and interesting, because - as the father of recomposition, Igor Stravinsky, noted - although every music is about another music, it is primarily an art of expression, and the emotions contained in Psalms - fear, gratitude, anger and love - remain universal, regardless of the musical aesthetics in which they are conveyed.

The autograph of Bernardo Pasquini's collection Sonate per uno o due Cembali con il basso cifrato is held at the British Library of London (Ms. Add. 31501, I). It consists of three small compositions written in intavolatura notation (Tastata, Corrente, Aria), as well as Sonatas and Bassi written in figured bass notation, so-called partimenti. The pieces are marked with dates from 6 May 1703 to 3 December 1704, suggesting the time when the work was created, or possibly copied. The Sonatas and Bassi form a substantial collection of 28 pieces, 14 of each type. The Sonatas are for two keyboard instruments, while the Bassi are for one. The recordings of the Sonatas presented on this album are fully written-out pieces, not a sound recording of improvisations. The partimento notation became a pretext for Joanna Solecka to develop different varieties of polyphonic texture, in accordance with the rules of counterpoint characteristic of the composer's period. In the presented realisations there is thus room for canon, fugue and free imitative polyphony, as well as for contrastive polyphony and nota contra notam texture. The realization of the Sonatas in counterpoint style is a truly fascinating study of elaborate polyphony and composition, requiring insight beyond the ephemeral nature of improvisation. Hopefully the presented interpretations of Bernardo Pasquini's Sonate per due Cembali con il basso cifrato will take listeners not only on a journey through the world of Baroque contrapuntal techniques, but above all will touch their souls with their variety and depth of affect.

For over half a century, the Polish royal court chapel of the Vasa dynasty was one of the best ensembles in Europe. Known for his cultural tastes, King Zygmunt III - thanks to (for that time) enormous funds allotted to music ensemble activity - was able to hire the best musicians from all over Europe (chiefly Italians). The superb financial conditions he offered meant that numerous instrumentalists, singers and composers decided to travel to the 'cold country in the far North'; thus, the Vasa court was a center of activity for the most distinguished Italian artists of the late 16th and early 17th centuries - for example, Luca Marenzio. Unfortunately, little of their indubitably prolific compositional �uvre has survived to our day. The Vasa chapel composers' �uvre for solo violin still remains in the sphere of unanswered questions. Aside from surviving and well-known works for large ensemble, the violinists mentioned multiple times in sources must also no doubt have performed works for smaller ensemble, including solo sonatas; however, no evidence concerning the type or quantity of repertoire has survived. The works presented on this album represent an attempt to reconstruct the possible state of violin music at the Vasa court in the first half of the 17th century, and were written by composers in various ways associated with the Polish court. The composers make broad use of highly-developed chromaticism and bold harmonic combinations; they often utilize distant tonalities, going far outside the meantone temperament system in effect at the time. To showcase this music in a sound most closely approximating the original, it seems natural to record it in a church interior, utilizing the only instrument surviving and restored Vasa-period instrument in Poland: an organ built in 1633 by Hans Hummel and Jerzy Nitrowski at the Basilica of St. Andrew the Apostle in Olkusz, the renovation of which was completed in 2018.

Music is and has always been a powerful means of expression and communication that goes beyond national borders. It is no different in the case of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann. Both composers drew inspiration not only from their native, German style but - like many of their contemporaries - also from other musical centres of 18th-century Europe, such as Italy and France. Their works were an important part of the music scene of that time and are still considered the quintessence of European Baroque music to this day. The pieces we have chosen have accompanied us since the beginning of our musical path and are a summary of our activities so far. They combine the orderly German structure of Bach's trio sonatas with the French elegance and splendor of Telemann's Paris Quartets. We hope you will enjoy the timeless beauty of these compositions and let us take you on an unforgettable musical journey. Très Animé is an early music ensemble founded in 2016 by four friends from Poznan. As soloists and chamber musicians they gained their skills at renowned european Academies of Music (including Germany, Switzerland, Estonia, Austria, Great Britain) and took part in many masterclasses under the guidance of eminent specialists in the performance of early music. From the beginning of their activity they obtained high marks at international competitions: Biagio Marini Competition Neuburg an der Donau (Germany, 2016), Göttingen Händel Competition (Germany, 2017) and International Van Wassenaer Competition in Utrecht (the Netherlands, 2018), where they received a finalist award. Très Animé enjoys collaborating with other instrumentalists, vocalists and dancers. They were brought together by Poznan - the city where they started their adventure with early music.

Fantasias are created intuitively - that is why they are expressed, in large measure, in a free manner (ex tempore) and for that reason they are performed, or composed correspondingly to the ideas appearing on the spur of the moment, regardless of the limitations connected with a type of measure [and meter]. That is how Johann Gottfried Walther described the genre of instrumental fantasia (Musikalisches Lexicon, Leipzig 1732). The opinion was not an isolated one. Most music theorists of the 1st half of the 18th century considered fantasias to be a kind of improvised music, or quasi-improvised one, characterized by almost complete freedom both in terms of their formal structure and musical expression. This point of view was also shared by Telemann’s friend, Johann Mattheson, who stated in his opus magnum (Der vollkommene Capellmeister, Hamburg 1739) that (…) pieces of that kind sound best if they are improvised, though they can be written down on paper. [As far as formal structure is concerned] they have so few limitations and so little order that it is hard to define them otherwise than just products of invention [of a performer, or composer]. For that reason they are marked with, first and foremost, (general) fancifulness. On the other hand, however, in the works of numerous composers from the 17th century (not only, though) one can find examples of fantasias which have almost nothing in common with the idea of free improvisation (ex tempore), just to mention a contrapuntal texture of the 17th-century English Fancies written for viola da gamba ensembles in mind. In reality, the name ‘fantasia’ frequently covered various types of a formal structure and musical expression.

We usually say that an ancient event “occurred” or “took place”. How should we, therefore, refer to a musical piece? It “existed”, but, more importantly, it still “exists”. The past creates the present. No matter how thoroughly we seem to know it, early music always remains a mystery. It prevents us from unveiling it completely, creating extensive areas of indefinition. Thus, a great and important adventure begins – filling the vague spots, affected by the reader’s imagination, curiosity and care for encompassing the truth. By engaging in a dialogue with the music of the past, we take a clear stand towards it. Creative conversation leads to new content. The album includes 12 pieces arranged in pairs: a composition by Waclaw z Szamotul opposite to a contemporary piece inspired by it. Independent, nearly unrestricted composing decisions representing today’s reference to the music from five centuries back. The decisions result in a clash of new harmonics with raw Renaissance sounds and in the introduction of disturbing mood in lieu of certainty and hope, playing with imitation and recurrence of themes and intensive metric variability; they result in the use of Latin instead of original Polish and in the surprising resignation from the recognized title. The contemporary composers boost the narration or, on the contrary, slow it down, allowing us to almost hear and touch the light sparkling in vibrating intervals and warm chords. At the same time, the album presents an innovative interpretation of the work of Waclaw z Szamotul presented by its performers. On the one hand, the interpretation pays respect to historically informed performances and, on the other, expresses the awareness that the present has its own rights, therefore the interpretation presented today becomes more “contemporary” than “Renaissance”.

The album "Violin miniatures" contains 17 musical pictures being a result of a long-time cooperation between Marcin Ostrowski and the pianist Katarzyna Kaczorowska. The subject of instrumental miniatures, interpretation of which is at the heart of the violinist's artistic interests, is the common ground for the two albums. The stylistic diversity of the first half of the twentieth century, which is the subject of the artist's PhD dissertation, was the criterion for choosing the repertoire for album 1. Amongst eleven presented works, one can find a wide range of compositions, from the world hits from the borderline of classical and popular music to an avant-garde experiments with form and sound. Album 2 contains the previous recordings made by Marcin Ostrowski, which present a musical journey through the era of violin virtuoso works.

"Vienna. Guitar Recital" is a release featuring guitar music very popular in the Viennese bourgeois salons in the mid-nineteenth century and composed later but inspired by what has happened musically in the era of romanticism in Vienna. On the album you can listen to music of guitar virtuoso MauroGiuliani ("Gran Sonata Eroica") and Johann Kaspar Mertz (on the album's "Fantaisie Hongroise"). The twentieth century brings unusual guitar neo-romantic four-part "Sonata Romantica", by Manuel Maria Ponce. As a foretaste of the next, already planned release of Michal Stanikowski with modern music there is the composition on the guitar of Manuel deFalla 'Homenaje'.

RecArt presents an album entitled Suite: The Road with the composition by Piotr Scholz. A thirteen-person jazz orchestra meticulously combines notation with the exuberant improvisation of excellent instrumentalists. This is a five-part journey around the world of sounds and harmonies, full of sudden plot twists as well as nostalgic moments of tranquility. Piotr Scholz about the Suite: "The album "Suite: The Road" is a five-part journey around the world of sounds and harmonies. The eponymous Road yields a number of interpretations, both literal and metaphorical. In the end, every one of us follows in the set direction, along the path determined by fate... I invited a number of wonderful artists to participate in my project - my friends, colleagues, even teachers and lecturers, who kindly agreed to enrich my music with their virtuoso performances. My debut album was made possible mainly because of the Mloda Polska 2016 Scholarship, which I was granted to realize my artistic endeavor and, at the same time, my great dream."

The idea for this project was born many years ago in a high school. First, the project grew alone in the mind of Liliana Kostrzewa, leader and pianist (MA in classical composition, graduate of jazz composition from Katowice); then live in a group of three musicians. LeMeet Trio, Liliana s ensemble, has performed in various cities across Poland, including their home city of Stettin, Posen, Warsaw, Katowice, and Danzig, as well as abroad. The group was awarded in prestigious jazz competitions in Krakov, where they placed highly among 47 bands. In June 2013, the group gathered to record their first album, and shockingly recorded 20 pieces in one day. Lili is joined by bassist Pawel Grzesiuk and drummer Radek Wosko. This first album from the group showcases eight pieces, including new compositions by Lili.

TrombQuartet is a trombone quartet, comprising of the following musicians: Piotr Banys, Wojciech Jelinski, Marek Kaczor and Tomasz Kaczor. All the artists are graduates of I. J. Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan, and Hochschule fur Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. They cooperate with prestigious institutions in their everyday professional lives, such as Orchester Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker, T. Szeligowski Philharmonic Orchestra in Poznan, S. Moniuszko Grand Theatre, as well as I. J. Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan. What is worth highlighting is the fact that TrombQuarter, which is among the precious few such bands in Poland, was founded in 2012. Ever since then the band has been giving concerts and developing their skills, mastering the unique sound of a trombone quartet, constantly working on their repertoire. During concerts, the artists present not only classical compositions from various periods, but they can also intrigue their audience with their original interpretations of jazz standards, film music, and even pop songs. They also like to employ the works of contemporary artists from the USA, England, Italy and Poland into their repertoire, who write dedicated pieces for the talented quartet. The band cooperates with the eminent composer of the young generation, Ewa Fabianska-Jelinska, who composes new pieces and arrangements for them.