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Witold Szalonek: A Double Portrait of the Silesian Master. In Search of the Musical Soul of Voices and Instruments
2024-11-08
The 4CD album featuring songs and instrumental works by the Silesian master goes on sale as of 8 November. Released by the ANAKLASIS music label, it will be premiered on 3 December during a special PWM Edition concert held as part of the 12th International Days of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki at the Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice.
‘Art, and within its space also music to a significant extent, is a key ingredient of social bonding and human communication. Without art, humans become stunted. This is the knowledge, unsystematised though it still may be, that I have derived from my work with choirs,’ commented Witold Szalonek. ‘It was from those people that I learned to love music.’ Szalonek conducted amateur choirs: ‘Hejnał’ at Łagiewniki Coalmine and ‘Echo’ at the Śląsk Coalmine in Chropaczów. His academic colleagues thought it was a loss of time, but this was his way of exploring the first and most original of all instruments – the human voice and singing, viewed both as a language and nearly a primal need.
The album SONGS OF SILESIA (ANA 034) comprises a collection of the Silesian master’s vocal pieces, which perfectly reflect his broad horizons. Szalonek was a visionary and an innovator, but also an artist inspired by local folklore (On Johnnie’s Cathy, Katowice Ballad, From Opole Region, Silesian Folk Ballad for solo soprano and mixed choir) and by religious subjects (Litany of Loreto – to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Miserere). His music could be charmingly simple or extraordinarily complex. On this album, it is performed by Camerata Silesia Katowice City Singers’ Ensemble under Anna Szostak.
Witold Szalonek claimed that his art was a search for the instrument’s musical soul. His music, to put it briefly, was a search. His discoveries spanned different territories and involved the application of various tools. Nevertheless, the half century of his work as a composer was filled with experimentation using traditional ingredients, the construction of his individual language based on classical foundations, with a study of Bach and Chopin, and attentive listening to his immediate surroundings, including folk music.
On the CONNECTIONS (ANA 034) 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). The other performers on the album are bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny, flutist Ania Karpowicz, alto singer Urszula Kryger, narrator Joanna Freszel, the Camerata Silesia Katowice City Singers’ Ensemble, and AUKSO – Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy.
The premiere of the latest ANAKLASIS release will take place on December 3 at 7 p.m. during a special concert organized by the Polish Music Publishing House as part of the XII International Days of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki. On the stage of the Concert Hall of the Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice will appear the artists who participated in the recording of the album PIEŚNI O ŚLĄSKU: the ensemble of singers of the City of Katowice Camerata Silesia conducted by Anna Szostak and Daniel Strządała (organ).
The album adds another title to our blue PORTRAITS series from ANAKLASIS, in which each album is dedicated to the works of one selected contemporary (20th- and 21st-century) Polish composer. The CD version can be purchased at the PWM bookshop, the best music stores, and the empik.com online shop.
Media patrons: TVP Kultura, Polish Radio Program 2, Culture.pl
Partner: Ruch Muzyczny
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The 4CD album featuring songs and instrumental works by the Silesian master goes on sale as of 8 November. Released by the ANAKLASIS music label, it will be premiered on 3 December during a special PWM Edition concert held as part of the 12th International Days of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki at the Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice.
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