“Youthful energy and virtuosity, beautiful concert programme, noble sounds.”

Today we would call them institutions operating in the art market. It was in salons that new works were commented upon, artists – judged, and leading trends in music were established.

Michał Szymanowski - one of the most promising Polish pianists of the young generation, Michał Karol Szyma­nowski was born in 1988 in Bydgoszcz into a musical family.

The compositions selected for this CD by the outstanding pianist Magdalena Lisak, rranged chronologically, illustrate the development and changes in the style of a composer who never aimed to discover new worlds in music, but still left a lasting musical legacy worthy of his own extraordinary personality.

The father of the pianoforte– says the inscription on Muzio Clementi’s tombstone in Westminster Abbey.

The selection of compositions on this CD, and the order in which they appear, form a clear progression: from works inspired by Chopin to the source of their inspiration.

In an interview of 2005, conducted by the recently departed first lady of Polish journalism, Teresa Torańska, Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń modestly suggested that “the world can very well do without my playing.”

This was one of the sensations of the 16th International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.