While recording this magnificent music we felt a bit like the musicians of Haydn’s orchestra 250 years ago. We are also a young ensemble wishing to demonstrate its abilities, and the work on the symphonies gave us genuine pleasure.
The second, more song-like theme is intoned by the woodwinds, after which the triumphant Maestoso returns, and the whole is rounded up by daring orchestral effects performed at a dizzying pace.
I would like to thank everyone for their work on this CD, and in particular – Maestro Gabriel Chmura for accepting the challenge and bestowing a special, unique character on the first project in our series.
Many performances of Lutosławski's music suffer from this deficiency. This recording is free of it.
The three symphonies on this recording were written over a period of 35 years and the careers of the three Czech composers were, to differing extents, related to Vienna.
"In my travels across the world I often meet groups of young Polish artists who left their country in the hope of finding their places in the musical firmament. "
Those who are familiar with Kilars music will recognize the characteristic consonances, ostinato repetitions and stationary chords with their seductive harmonies and the tonic underlined with the bass beats of the piano.
With the work that marks the beginning of his symphonic career (predicted earlier by his cantata Das klagende Lied and song-cycle Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen) Mahler joins the ranks of late-Romantic symphony composers.
Listening to the recordings from this CD you may think of the sources of inspiration, tradition and roots.
For his part, Copland sought to represent broad aspects of disappearing folk cultures in America: the mountain culture of Appalachia and the open environment of the American West, as well as the lively, colorful musical cultures of neighboring Mexico, Cuba and Latin America.