The artists, who were invited by prof. Helga Storck to participate in this year’s edition of the International Harp Festival in Katowice, will bring their recordings for distribution. Here we present some of the CDs with short descriptions sent to us by the artists themselves.
 

“I wanted to have in this CD a mix of very famous French pieces and less known ones, as well as a mix of composers very well known from the general public and much less or unknown ones and I also wanted to play in this CD the pieces I liked most! So, after making my choice, I tried to look for a common thread to all of them, and here it was: they were all composed in the 1st half of the 20th century and (except for the Grandjany’s Children’s hour) all composed in Paris, City of Lights! And as one can see, our harpists-composers can very well take the comparison with our most famous ones!”

„Fantasias for the harp”, my first compact disc, is a special kind of „glissando” through the harp literature. I have chosen fantasia as the dominant theme of my album because it was fascinating  to analyze the extend to which this music form has inspired composers for the past 300 years.

The idea of this recording was to show the changes that are occurring in the musical styles and in the way we perceive the harp. From the classical „Aria” of Marcel Grandjany to the grasping and unusual concerto for the Celtic harp by Piotr Moss. On this CD there are also Claude Debussy’s „Dances” – one of the most significant pieces in the harp repertoire and Witold Lutosławski’s Concerto for oboe and harp – an outstanding piece in the Polish harp literature. Additional merit of this recording is the fact of presence of the magnificent chamber orchestra “Amadeus” under the baton of Agnieszka Duczmal and the distinguished oboe player – Mariusz Pędziałek.

This recording was nominated to the disk  award “Fryderyki”.

Sarah O’Brien likes to show in her choice of repertoire that the harp is no longer confined to a narrow romantic framework but has a voice of its own, from baroque to contemporary literature.

Thus the choice for her first solo CD.

Her second solo CD (to appear in July 2009), will again include works from baroque to contemporary and yes, also with a romantic piece!

 Eva-Christina Schönweiß, skrzypce i Kirsten Ecke, harfa – „Poésie”

We chose French music for our debut. Why? Perhaps because this "sound-language" expresses the essence of both instruments in all their variety with unique and heartfelt sincerity. Perhaps because this repertoire offers the greatest spectrum of possibilities for assembling a unified program. Perhaps because one piece is especially important: the Fantasie of Camille Saint-Saëns - our declaration of love for music.

My idea of choosing this recording with sonatas by Paul Hindemith* was to bring attention to some other pieces by this great classic of modernism and in this way to help young harpists in their search of the most adequate and most ideal interpretation of “Sonata for Harp” which –without any doubt - is one of the most important pieces in the harp literature. 

*This CD won in 1999 Cannes Classical Award

This delicious CD, featuring Cristina Braga (harp and voice- Brazil) and Eugene Friesen (cello and voice - USA) is a tribute to great Brazilian songs written in the second half of the 20th century. Those beautiful pieces  could have been written by classical composers, but came out of the pen of popular Brazilian icons. To record this moment, where samba, jazz and classical  merged into each other with such ease and poetry is now the task of two performers that live, love, and understand these worlds.

Listening to “Paisagem” in 2008, when bossa-nova celebrates its 50th anniversary, makes us easy to understand why this musical genre coming out off Brazil gained the world, and conquered the harts of listeners everywhere.

The idea of this recording was to show the changes that are occurring in the musical styles and in the way we perceive the harp. From the classical „Aria” of Marcel Grandjany to the grasping and unusual concerto for the Celtic harp by Piotr Moss. On this CD there are also Claude Debussy’s „Dances” – one of the most significant pieces in the harp repertoire and Witold Lutosławski’s Concerto for oboe and harp – an outstanding piece in the Polish harp literature. Additional merit of this recording is the fact of presence of the magnificent chamber orchestra “Amadeus” under the baton of Agnieszka Duczmal and the distinguished oboe player – Mariusz Pędziałek.

This recording was nominated to the disk  award “Fryderyki”.