This interesting disc from Dux surveys early Polish string quartets by two major figures in Polish music who were contemporaries of Chopin, Ignacy Feliks Dobrzynski, and Stanislaw Moniuszko. Moniuszko is best known through his operas and large sacred choral works; outside of the two string quartets played here by the Camerata Quartet, he produced almost nothing in terms of chamber music. Dobrzynski wrote four operas, of which Monbar, or the Freebooters (1838) was the work the composer considered his most important. However, in posterity it is through instrumental music that Dobrzynski is known – his two symphonies, various pieces in concertante format, and numerous chamber and solo piano works have kept his name alive.

Renowned in his native Poland, and increasingly recognised internationally as an opera composer of significance, Stanisław Moniuszko (1819–1872) could always be relied on for superb music drama. Despite this reputation, his final opera Paria long remained his least frequently staged. Now, however, its touching story of love, exclusion and the power of social rules can be relished in this concert version that was awarded First Prize in the Rediscovered Work category at the 2021 International Opera Awards. Conducted by internationally acclaimed Jacek Kaspszyk, and with a star cast in an all-Polish production from the superb Poznań State Moniuszko Opera Orchestra and Chorus, this is an opportunity to savour a rarely recorded work.

With Farewells, Warsaw-born countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński, partnered by pianist Michał Biel, offers a panorama of Polish song. Often nostalgic in spirit, the programme of the album spans 150 frequently turbulent years. “Michał and I started exploring the Polish art song repertoire when we were at the Juilliard School in New York,” explains Orliński, whose recordings until now have focused on the baroque era. “As a Polish duo we love to present Polish music to our public. I know that no language can present a barrier when it’s set to music. I believe that music builds bridges and I am sure that those songs will get under the listener’s skin.”

Moniuszko is always bracketed with Smetana and Erkel, as the originator of a national style for Polish opera as they were for opera in Czech and Hungarian lands (the Glinka comparison, for Russia, has less validity). Halka, his most successful opera, makes a very occasional appearance in Western theatres: though it was written in the 1840s, it did not reach the Polish stage until 1854, and its British premiere came in 1961. Moniuszko's other operas are almost never to be found outside Poland. The overtures here selected do not include that to his other most successful opera, The haunted manor, which only has an Intrada, and, as can be seen above, choice differs only in CPO's inclusion of Jawnuta and Olympia's of two shorter pieces.

Keine vor 1858 geschriebene polnische Oper wurde so erfolgreich wie Stanislaw Moniuszkos Halka. Capella Cracoviensis präsentiert die erste, zweiaktige Fassung von Halka, die 1848 in Wilna uraufgeführt wurde. Die Wilnaer Fassung ist die erste Orchesterfassung dieser Oper, deren Partitur unsere Zeit nicht überdauert hat. In dieser dramaturgisch sehr dynamischen Komposition werden einzelne musikalische Episoden als Teil der Szenen gestaltet; Rezitative, Arien und Chöre werden kombiniert.