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THAT’S THE LANDSCAPE. Songs by Zygmunt Konieczny in Cezary Duchnowski’s arrangements. A new ANAKLASIS album is out now!
2025-05-22
Iconic songs by Zygmunt Konieczny that audiences of Ewa Demarczyk loved decades ago in a new arrangement by Cezary Duchnowski. The latest ANAKLASIS album with Agata Zubel, Andrzej Bauer, Bartek Wąsik and the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Humala is now available for purchase.
What should one start with when writing about Zygmunt Konieczny (b. 1937)? His outstanding achievements in the fields of songwriting and film music? His mastery of linking the music to the lyrics in his small-scale pieces? His timeless song standards that appeal to so many generations (which in popular music is a token of the utmost success)? His ‘Grande valse brillante’? ‘Sweet Peas and Roses’? ‘The Carousel with Madonnas’? Or ‘That Lass’s Eyes’? One could go on indefinitely with this list.
Composer and new media expert Cezary Duchnowski had already taken up Polish popular songs before. This time, he comes up with new arrangements of the classics, exploring the spaces between the past and the present. While listening to Konieczny’s songs as interpreted by Agata Zubel, Bartek Wąsik, Andrzej Bauer, and NOSPR orchestra, we never lose touch with the originals. They are constantly present and vibrant, and they make themselves felt. Paradoxically, though, we do not hesitate even for a moment whether we should follow Duchnowski’s vision. He is an artist to be trusted. Fortunately, too, Zubel makes no attempts to become another Ewa Demarczyk but instead remains true to herself.
‘A song is a cure for everything’, once wrote a Polish classic of the genre, and he was obviously right. Another songwriter’s statement one can hardly argue with is ‘a true song must have lyrics’. Still, in Konieczny’s songs there are no ‘musts’ since they have all that is necessary for a song (‘necessary’ is incidentally also the meaning of that composer’s surname in Polish).
The album THAT’S THE LANDSCAPE (ANA037) is available at the PWM bookstore, at top music stores and on streaming services.www.facebook.com/anaklasisrecords
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Iconic songs by Zygmunt Konieczny that audiences of Ewa Demarczyk loved decades ago in a new arrangement by Cezary Duchnowski. The latest ANAKLASIS album with Agata Zubel, Andrzej Bauer, Bartek Wąsik and the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Humala is now available for purchase.
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The theme of Krzysztof Knittel’s work is refuge and the uncertainty and anxiety about the unknown associated with it, as well as the other side of this topic, i.e. the need to provide help and shelter. The text of the oratorio is based on a poem by Tadeusz Sławek. The piece features singing, recitations, choral parts and improvisations based on the traditions of the Middle East. The album was premiered on 15 March during the 11th Festival of Premieres in Katowice.
Musicologists commonly call it “Kras 52” – after the former reference number it was given in the Krasiński Library. It is the most valuable Polish source of medieval polyphonic music, which shaped the soundscape of the court of the first Jagiellons and Kraków at that time. The manuscript is gaining new life now, thanks to a performance edition by Agnieszka Budzińska-Bennett and Marc Lewon. “Krasiński Codex” has just been published by PWM Edition with the support of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Frequent guest of the world’s most famous music venues (New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London’s Royal Albert Hall and BBC Proms, Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus), in February 2021 Bomsori signed an exclusive contract with the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label. As of this year, she also bears the honourable title of ambassador of Grażyna Bacewicz’s music, which she performs worldwide, promoting the legacy of Poland’s most important woman composer.
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The esteemed American-Canadian jazz musician Michael Bates, his Acrobat Ensemble and the Lutosławski Quartet will perform three concerts in Poland in November. The repertoire will include material recorded by the musicians on the album METAMORPHOSES: VARIATIONS ON LUTOSŁAWSKI, released by ANAKLASIS in the REVISIONS series.
The artists have already successfully presented it at Lincoln Center and Barbès Jazz Club in New York. In autumn 2024 we will have the opportunity to hear them live for the first time in Poland: 14.11 - Krakow, 15.11 - Lublin, 17.11 - Wroclaw.
The Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw invites to the inaugural session of the biennial International Digital Musicology Conference, which will be held 23–25 October 2024, at the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, Poland. The conference focuses on the integration of digital technologies into musicological research, with a special emphasis on introducing digital tools and methods to the Polish academic community, where digital musicology has not yet been widely adopted.
Although Ludomir Różycki - one of the most important representatives of Young Poland - enjoyed spectacular success as a composer during his lifetime, his works are rarely included in concert programmes today. It is therefore worth remembering his exceptional art.
Aleksander Nowak continues his original cycle of compositions that enter into a dialogue with most recent Polish literary works. The album premiere of his opera based on Marcin Wicha’s Nike-awarded book Things I Didn’t Throw Out will take place during the AUKSODRONE festival in Tychy.