Polish Radio Choir - Choir Music from Poland & Belgium - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Theatre music in Poland is a peculiar phenomenon. Almost every Polish composer wrote at least one score for the needs of a theatre performance or a radio play. Many creators devoted themselves entirely to this field. This music is often awarded and honored. However, it does not exist in concert, publishing or recording circulation, as opposed to film music. Krzysztof Penderecki (1933-2020), one of the most outstanding Polish composers of the 20th/21st century, also wrote music for theatre performances. The album features the most interesting compositions of this genre created for plays dedicated both to adults and children. The performers are The Beethoven Academy Orchestra, consisting of young Cracow musicians, vocal ensemble Cracow Singers and soloists Annika Mikolajko-Osman - coloratura soprano and Jacek Wróbel - baritone. All the performers here are under the baton of Maestro Maciej Tworek.

Music touching the sphere of the sacred, interpreted as an intimate confession of the composer's faith, can also be the result of the creator's facing the quest for answers to eternal questions about mystery and sense of being, the first cause (or maybe even the First Cause) of existence. Born in 1988, Szymon Godziemba-Trytek can boast of considerable achievements in composing, especially in the field of choral music. The new album of the Polish Radio Choir, led by Lithuanian conductor Vaclovas Augustinas, is dedicated to sacred music, particularly close to Szymon Godziemba-Trytek. The album is an interesting exemplification of many innovative measures that the composer introduces both in terms of integrating and modernizing numerous compositional techniques, as well as the selection of sacred texts, adequate to the message of individual pieces.

The present album from the Polish Chamber Choir can be described as a short guide to Polish choral music created over the past few decades. It's repertoire is conceived in order to pair the works of composers closely related to choral music (including Juliusz Luciuk, Pawel Lukaszewski) with works by other esteemed Polish artists. The album includes both relatively simple works (Lumen by Wojciech Kilar, We Also Shepherds by Krzysztof Penderecki), as well as texturally complex, sonoristic explorations (Meditations for 4 sopranos, 4 altos, 4 tenors, 4 basses, and organ by Augustyn Bloch), prompting the listener to reflect. The 30-year-old Polish Chamber Choir belongs to the elite, narrow group of fully professional chamber choirs in the world. It gives around 80-100 concerts a year, preparing over 50 different programmes. The ensemble's primary aim is to work regularly on the instrumental, InchorchestralInch level, which, apart from many other abilities, demands complete mastery of the vocal apparatus, enabling the realization of all technical and artistic nuances of the compositions.