The Polish Review

Polish National RSO, Adrian Leaper - Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1, "Winter Daydreams"; Hamlet Overture (1992)

Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1, "Winter Daydreams"; Hamlet Overture (1992)
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Adrian Leaper

EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 260 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 154 Mb | Scans included
Genre: Classical | Label: Naxos | # 8.550517 | Time: 01:01:04

This recording, made in 1991, contains two fine performances. Indeed the performance of Hamlet is better than fine, it is positively thrilling. The Polish orchestra are well able to deliver on this and Leaper shows considerable empathy for the music. The recording is good, if a little lacking in absolute clarity at the bottom end which tends to be just a touch inclined to 'muddiness' at moments of greatest demand. This should not be over-emphasised in view of the excellence of the music making and the general acceptance of the recording. Indeed, the weighty sound-stage and quite close balance suits the heavier approach of Leaper when compared to Karajan on DGG for example, and to a lesser extent, Jansons on Chandos.
Ensemble Giardino di Delizie & Ewa Anna Augustynowicz - Gems of the Polish Baroque (2020)

Ensemble Giardino di Delizie & Ewa Anna Augustynowicz - Gems of the Polish Baroque (2020)
WEB FLAC (Tracks) 524 MB | Cover | 01:37:29 | MP3 CBR 320 kbps | 230 MB
Classical | Label: Brilliant Classics

Italy was a reference point for the cultural élite of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which looked to Venice for its republican system, and to Rome for its Christian heritage. Seventeenth-century Polish singers, players and composers soon adopted Italian manners, both at home and abroad, and many courts established Polish-Italian ensembles, to which the all-female Ensemble Giardino di Delizie is a unique modern counterpart.

The Bennie Maupin Quartet - Early Reflections (2008)  Music

Posted by Designol at Oct. 18, 2023
The Bennie Maupin Quartet - Early Reflections (2008)

The Bennie Maupin Quartet - Early Reflections (2008)
EAC | FLAC | Tracks (Cue&Log) ~ 382 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 184 Mb | Scans included | 01:15:49
Post-Bop, Modal Music, Contemporary Jazz | Label: Cryptogramophone | # CG137

Bennie Maupin's Cryptogramophone label follow-up CD to Penumbra both parallels and provides a departure from that excellent effort. What is similar is the softer tone Maupin is displaying in his far post-Headhunters days, refined by experience and cured though wisdom. The music Maupin plays on this beautiful effort is even more subdued, as he collaborates with an ensemble of relatively unknown musicians from Poland. If you've been hearing recent efforts from Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko and his ECM recordings with the teenage pianist Marcin Wasilewski and his trio, you hear stark similarities. But further, the recently reissued Maupin epic Jewel in the Lotus, which was also on ECM, is quite different than this ECM sounding project. Old may in fact be new again in some respects, but in this case, new is really new. Maupin offers so much appealing music within the undercurrent, starting with the delicate but paced "Black Ice" and the waltzing title track with Maupin on soprano sax. Separate flute and piano lines are woven into a more somber waltz "Tears," or the sparse, spacy, long "Spirits of the Tatras" with dynamics patiently rendered up and down with lots of piano from Michal Tokaj, who rivals the crystalline musings of Wasilewski on the entire album.
Inhuman Land: Searching for the Truth in Soviet Russia, 1941-1942 (New York Review Books Classics)

Inhuman Land: Searching for the Truth in Soviet Russia, 1941-1942 (New York Review Books Classics) by Jozef Czapski
English | December 18th, 2018 | ISBN: 1681372568 | 480 pages | EPUB | 13.15 MB

A classic work of reportage about the Katyń Massacre during World War II by a soldier who narrowly escaped the atrocity himself.
Adam Palma, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio & Agnieszka Duczmal - Adam Palma: Second Life (2022)

Adam Palma, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio & Agnieszka Duczmal - Adam Palma: Second Life (2022)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 296 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 140 Mb | Digital booklet | 00:59:14
Classical | Label: DUX

Second Life' is the first-ever album featuring both acoustic guitar and string orchestra on each track. Acoustic guitarist Adam Palma is accompanied by one of the greatest European orchestras, The Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio AMADEUS, led by famous conductor, Agnieszka Duczmal. This album is a very personal record, an intimate look at music and life from the perspective of a man who "regained" his life after waking from a long coma. Recovering gave Adam time to reflect, to review his own musical roots, and to view his life deeply from a new perspective. We hear the songs that the soloist grew up listening to: folk melodies, a scout song, a song belonging to the patriotic trend of music, known film themes, Chopin's compositions (never before performed on the guitar), and Adam's own compositions that show what he himself describes as his Polish soul. All the arrangements have been written by Adam Palma and orchestrated by the outstanding Polish film score composer Krzesimir Debski. On this album, classical music and jazz are intertwined. All this against a background of the characteristic harmony of Polish songs, combining the sound of acoustic guitar and string orchestra!
Music From And Inspired By 'The Pianist' A Roman Polanski Film (2002) [Re-Up]

Music From And Inspired By 'The Pianist' A Roman Polanski Film (2002)
Janusz Olejniczak, piano; Wladyslaw Szpilman, piano; Hanna Wolczedska, clarinet
The Warsaw Philharmonic National Orchestra Of Poland; Tadeusz Strugala, conductor

EAC | FLAC (Image) + cue.+log ~ 213 Mb | Mp3, CBR320 kbps ~ 152 Mb | Scans included
Soundtrack, Score, Classical | Label: Sony Music | # SK 87739 | Time: 00:58:28

Director Roman Polanski's film The Pianist is based on the memoirs of Polish classical pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman about his harrowing experiences under the Nazi occupation of Warsaw during World War II. The soundtrack album consists almost entirely of Chopin piano pieces, most of them played by Janusz Olejniczak. Most of those, in turn, are solo performances, although Olejniczak is joined by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Tadeusz Strugala, for Grand Polonaise for Piano and Orchestra. The sole non-Chopin track is the excerpt from Wojciech Kilar's score, "Moving to the Ghetto October 31, 1940," a klezmer-like piece running only 1:45 in which Hanna Wolczedska plays clarinet, accompanied by the Warsaw Philharmonic. Appropriately, the album ends with an actual recording by Szpilman of the Mazurka in A Minor, Op. 17, No. 4.
Adam Palma, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio & Agnieszka Duczmal - Adam Palma: Second Life (2022) [24/96]

Adam Palma, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio & Agnieszka Duczmal - Adam Palma: Second Life (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Front Cover & Digital Booklet | Time - 59:14 minutes | 963 MB
Classical | Label: DUX, Official Digital Download

Second Life' is the first-ever album featuring both acoustic guitar and string orchestra on each track. Acoustic guitarist Adam Palma is accompanied by one of the greatest European orchestras, The Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio AMADEUS, led by famous conductor, Agnieszka Duczmal. This album is a very personal record, an intimate look at music and life from the perspective of a man who "regained" his life after waking from a long coma.

Unfinished Utopia: Nowa Huta, Stalinism, and Polish Society, 1949–56  eBooks & eLearning

Posted by insetes at Oct. 23, 2023
Unfinished Utopia: Nowa Huta, Stalinism, and Polish Society, 1949–56

Unfinished Utopia: Nowa Huta, Stalinism, and Polish Society, 1949–56 By Katherine A. Lebow
2016 | 256 Pages | ISBN: 1501704389 | PDF | 89 MB

Polish National Cinema  eBooks & eLearning

Posted by AlenMiler at Nov. 13, 2018
Polish National Cinema

Polish National Cinema by Marek Haltof
English | 1 Apr. 2002 | ISBN: 157181275X, 1571812768 | 320 Pages | AZW3 | 2.7 MB
Greco-Roman Cities at the Crossroads of Cultures: The 20th Anniversary of Polish-Egyptian Conservation Mission Marina el

Grażyna Bąkowska-Czerner, "Greco-Roman Cities at the Crossroads of Cultures: The 20th Anniversary of Polish-Egyptian Conservation Mission Marina el"
English | ISBN: 1789691486 | 2019 | 312 pages | PDF | 32 MB