First shown in January 1984, Mr Kleks’ Academy, directed by Krzysztof Gradowski, and its sequels have gained the status of cult films for many people who grew up in the gloomy 1980s and immediately after the political transformation. (…)

The idea of enriching the film with songs significantly influenced the decision to create this motion picture. lts authors wove Jan Brzechwa’s famous poems into his novel, creating something like a fairy-tale universe (same of the texts were written by Gradowski). The musical pieces are an integral and key part of the entire trilogy. Their first performers were members of the Boys’ Choir of the ‘Lutnia’ Singing Society in Wieliczka, Piotr Fronczewski, who played the title character, and numerous stars of the Polish stage. Andrzej Korzyński, a composer who already boasted considerable achievements as an author of songs, film music and entertaining electronic music (Arp Life band), was responsible for composing and, as importantly, arranging the songs. (…)

Like books and fairy tales, escape to the world of dreams was made possible by innovative sound experiences. Today they are not as impressive, but the pioneering electronics in Korzyński’s songs is the first association of Michał Ziółkowski, the author of the choral and orchestra! arrangements recorded on this album, with the film.

For the composer, who belongs to the generation of Mr Kleks’ ‘pupils’, the songs recorded on this album and arranged in the form of a suite are a kind of orchestral fantasy, into which well-known melodies sung by a children’s choir and an ‘adult’ mixed choir are only woven. This is true – Ziółkowski uses a large orchestra, treating it as a vast, multicoloured treasury of various sounds. So much trouble to remind children’s songs? The orchestral setting may seem superfluous and while listening it is easy to glide over the melodies of the songs you have heard. But how many details, colourful minutiae, carefully hidden little things that only a curious child can find! lt is as if we were looking at the melodies through all the colourful stained glass windows that decorated the palace in Nieborów being the scenery of the Academy for the film.

The fairy-tale materiał of this album is the result of collaboration between Michał Ziółkowski, the Wrocław choir mistress Małgorzata Podzielny and the choirs she leads. On the album we can hear the Girls’ and Boys’ Choirs of the National Forum of Music and the Rondo Vocal Ensemble (bringing together the graduates of the Grażyna Bacewicz Primary Music School in Wrocław, or mare precisely, graduates of another choir – Con Brio). The decorative orchestral tapestry is the work of the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra. Although Ziółkowski first prepared two of the recorded songs in 2014, the most important part of the materiał was premiered during the ‘Musical Fairy Tales’ concert at the Leo Festival in 2021. The remaining songs were performed on the album for the first time.
Szymon Atys (transl. Anna Marks)