Catalogue

Bloody crime, family tragedy, the force of destiny… The timeless works of ancient playwrights continue to move audiences also today as well as inspiring present-day artists. Aeschylus’ "Oresteia" has thus become the basis for Agata Zubel’s dramopera to a libretto by Maja Kleczewska.

Emotions related to the Chopin Competition immediately fire the enthusiasm even of those music lovers who in other circumstances would seldom reach for the music of Poland’s most eminent composer. The temperature of the debate naturally reaches its height directly before the jury’s verdict is announced, but it later goes down only very slowly, and the process can take months if not years – luckily so, since these are matters worth arguing about… In the meantime, here comes our 3CD box FRYDERYK CHOPIN – PIANO CONCERTOS / ÉTUDES / CHAMBER WORKS from ANAKLASIS, aiming to reconcile all the parties.

A creative clash of such individualities is always a high-risk venture that might only seem fit for a one-time success. Contrary to expectations, collaboration between one of Poland’s most eminent 21st-century composers and one of the best contemporary writers continues to develop, producing ever more surprising results. The two artists chose the opera as the field for their joint experimentation. They approach this genre in all seriousness but without humility… Which brings us to the title of Nowak and Twardoch’s third work, “Pokora” (‘humility’ in Polish).

A creative clash of such individualities is always a high-risk venture that might only seem fit for a one-time success. Contrary to expectations, collaboration between one of Poland’s most eminent 21st-century composers and one of the best contemporary writers continues to develop, producing ever more surprising results. The two artists chose the opera as the field for their joint experimentation. They approach this genre in all seriousness but without humility… Which brings us to the title of Nowak and Twardoch’s third work, “Pokora” (‘humility’ in Polish).

Does music need parity? Probably not, it defends itself. But it is worth noting and emphasising the artistic advantages of outstanding contemporary composers and their unforgettable predecessors - women in Polish music are a voice as separate as it is expressive. The album is the result of cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, and more specifically the Polskie Heroiny Dźwięku (Polish Heroines of Sound) program conducted by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the wider Polska Music campaign.

Andrzej Krzanowski, a Silesian accordionist and composer, pupil of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, died prematurely aged less than forty. He left behind many symphonic, chamber and vocal-instrumental music works. One of those latter is the meta-opera Programme V, whose world premiere only took place in September 2018 at the ‘Warsaw Autumn’.

The Stalowa Wola composers, also known as Generation ’51, hold a separate place in Polish contemporary music, one that justly deserves to be remembered. What Aleksander Lasoń, Andrzej Krzanowski, and Eugeniusz Knapik have in common is that they first came to public attention at the 1970s’ ‘Young Musicians for the Young City’ festival in Stalowa Wola, but also that they presented an ambivalent attitude to the avant-garde, drawing on its achievements but avoiding a rigid doctrinaire approach, and they let their music sound at least a note of romanticism.

Drach’s element was the earth. With their next joint project, Aleksander Nowak and Szczepan Twardoch pay homage to water, though the true object of their artistic contemplation is the journey as a longing for change and a quest for meaning in life.