Catalogue

This is the first complete (2CD) recording of all the songs composed by writer and journalist Zygmunt Mycielski (1907–1987), editor in chief of Ruch Muzyczny music journal and an intellectual actively involved in the 1960s social and political work (for which the Polish communist authorities imposed restrictions on him). He was also a composer (a fact we sometimes tend to forget), educated in Cracow and later (at Karol Szymanowski’s instigation) a pupil of Paul Dukas and Nadia Boulanger in Paris (the latter became his long-time friend).

Born in 1907 in Podolia (now Ukraine), educated in Lviv and Warsaw, Roman Palester emigrated from Poland soon after WWII. He died in Paris in 1989. For many years he headed the cultural department of Radio Free Europe’s Polish section.

When asked to attempt a definition of her music, she called it lyrical expressionism. The choice of this term says much about the emotional intensity of Elżbieta Sikora’s music, which may reflect the experience of her two home countries, Poland and France, but is also a consequence of her artistic maturation in an age when two powerful trends – the avant-garde and neo-Classicism – were vying for the palm. Such a label may also result from the artist’s focus on the listener as her target, whom she invariably attempts to surprise, shock, or bewilder.

On the CONNECTIONS album, you will find Szalonek’s selected compositions, from his oldest (his student work – 'Toccata polyphonica' for string orchestra of 1954, as well as the cycle that brought him international recognition – 'Confessions'. 'Triptych' to Words by Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna for speaking voice, mixed choir, and chamber orchestra of 1959) to his last works (such as 'L’Hautbois mon amour' of 1999, the composer’s confession of his love for the oboe, written for a solo performer, here – NOSPR principal oboist Maksymilian Lipień).

Gdańsk, as we have testified for years, is renowned for its carillons, that is, sets of many bells played from a keyboard. The city’s largest carillon is mounted in the tower of St Catherine’s Church, a smaller one – at the Main City Hall. There is also a third mobile carillon that can be moved around, as the name suggests. For the last several years, the City of Gdańsk and Museum of Gdańsk have been commissioning new works for these instruments. Their premieres take place in September. Through the courtesy of PWM Edition, these compositions have also been recorded and released.

Bells have for centuries remained an element of the Polish audiosphere. ‘For the Angelus bells are ringing…’ wrote Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer of these sounds which have been as natural to the landscape as thatched roofs, village graveyards, rivers and woods. Even so, the carillon (a set of at least 23 tower bells activated by means of a special keyboard) still appears to be an exotic instrument and its potential largely remains unrecognised.

A musical drama written for voices, harpsichord, strings, looper and dragon. The piece is a fascinating collision of the sensitivity of one of the most outstanding Polish composers of contemporary music and an exceptional writer, awarded and, above all, read in Poland and around the world.

A musical drama written for voices, harpsichord, strings, looper and dragon. The piece is a fascinating collision of the sensitivity of one of the most outstanding Polish composers of contemporary music and an exceptional writer, awarded and, above all, read in Poland and around the world.