News

This year we are planning four publications of Paweł Łukaszewski's works. The National Philharmonic Choir will record the composer's a cappella works. The Polish Chamber Choir is preparing to record Requiem. The Chamber Orchestra of the Chopin University of Music is planning to release Łukaszewski's Instrumental Concertos. Finally, the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra intends to record the composer's Symphony No. 3 and Symphony No. 6, which will be premiered this year. The latter work was commissioned by the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic. In addition, a CD entitled Benedictus XVI in Honorem by the Warsaw-Praga Cathedral Choir, MUSICA SACRA, conducted by Łukaszewski, has just been released.

Already in January, the work of Elżbieta Sikora, represented by SONORA, will appear on the album Polish Heroines of Music published by PWM Edition as part of the Anaklasis series. Sonosphère V. Wanda Landowska for orchestra and electric guitar will be heard in a splendid performance by the Orchestre Pasdeloup conducted by Marzena Diakun, recorded at the Paris Philharmonic.

Three album premieres are being prepared by Linus Roth, a German violinist and two-time winner of the ECHO Klassik award. Together with Argentinian pianist José Gallardo, he has recorded works that share their virtuosic character and the fact that they are dances. Roth's first release this year will feature works by Bartók, Stravinsky, Piazzolla and Szymanowski. On the next album we will hear Bach's Sonatas and Partitas.

Finally, on the occasion of this autumn's Weinberg Focus at the Wigmore Hall, to complete the discography of violin recordings by the Polish-Jewish composer a new CD will be released. The album will include Mieczyslaw Weinberg's works exclusively, including the first recording of works for violin and piano performed with José Gallardo, the Piano Trio, featuring cellist Danjulo Ishizaka, and the Sonata for Two Violins Op. 69 with Janusz Wawrowski. The release of the Weinberg album is financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland as part of the multi-annual programme NIEPODLEGŁA 2017–2022.

All recordings took place in the Ochsenhausen library room, known for its excellent acoustics, in courtesy of the Schwäbischer Frühling Festival. The publisher is Evil Penguin Classic.

Conductors represented by SONORA will direct the realization of three recordings. Yaroslav Shemet with the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra recorded orchestral works by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, the institution's patron.

This year, two records with Thomas Sanderling, artistic director of the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, will be released. A premiere recording of previously unpublished interludes from Shostakovich's opera The Nose will be released by Deutsche Grammophon. The recording was made during the world premiere of the works, which took place as part of the Gohrisch Shostakovich Days with the participation of Staatskapelle Dresden. Sanderling also recorded Stravinsky's Symphony for Wind Instruments with the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra.

Finally, six new CDs by our soloists will be released in 2021. 300 years after J. S. Bach presented a series of Concertos to the Margrave of Brandenburg, Pentatone will release a recording of the works, in their original orchestration, performed by the outstanding duo - flutist Ana de la Vega and oboist Ramón Ortega Quero - accompanied by violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky. The release of the album will also be accompanied by the premiere of a documentary film featuring Ana de la Vega on ARTE television.

Mihkel Poll recorded Rachmaninoff's Third Concerto and Tubin's Concertino with the Estonian National Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mihhail Gerts. The album will be released in early February by DUX [watch the video]. Following the album with Arthur Lemba's Piano Concerto No. 1 recorded under the baton of Neeme Järvi, the album with Tubin's Concertino is the next production where Mihkel Poll presents works by composers from his native Estonia.

After an enthusiastically received album with Beethoven's Sonatas for Cello and Piano (including BBC Music Magazine's Record of the Month and Editor's Choice in Gramophone), Leonard Elschenbroich once again is recording with pianist Alexei Grynyuk. This time they will work on compositions by Brahms [listen to the live recording of the works by Beethoven and Brahms by both artists, recorded at the Wigmore Hall]. Meanwhile, Bartosz Koziak, the leading Polish cellist represented by SONORA, has a new orchestral recording planned - with the Leoš Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra in Ostrava under Petr Popelka, Koziak is recording Bohuslav Martinů's Cello Concerto No. 2.

We also await with interest this year's album version of Rafał Zapała's Scrolling to Zero, performed by organist Mari Fukumoto.

Photo of Linus Roth: Kaupo Kikkas
Photo of Yaroslaw Shemet: Oleksandr Panasiuk
Photo of Ana de la Vega: Boaz Arad