Wolven Marcin Przybylowicz

The first-time teaming of Poland’s dynamic Marcin Wasilewski Trio and big-toned US tenorist Joe Lovano brings forth special music of concentrated, deep feeling, in which lyricism and strength seem ideally balanced. The alliance plays four new tunes by Marcin and one by Joe, as well as Carla Bley’s classic “Vashkar” (in two variations), plus collective improvisations with strong input from all four players; Slawomir Kurkiewicz’s bass skills are particularly well-deployed in the spontaneous piece “Arco”. Joe will be joining the Polish trio for a number of selected concerts in the autumn. Arctic Riff was recorded at France’s Studio La Buissonne in August 2019, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Johann Forkel, the biographer of J.S. Bach, numbered Müthel among the most remarkable of Bach’s pupils. Another of the great chroniclers of 18th century music, Charles Burney, described Müthel's works as 'so full of novelty, taste, grace, and contrivance, that I should not hesitate to rank them among the greatest productions of the present age.’ In Müthel's five concertos for keyboard and strings we nevertheless meet a distinctly individual composer, displaying sophisticated rhythms and harmonic playfulness. Presenting them on this set of two CDs, the young Polish harpsichordist Marcin Świątkiewicz makes his début on BIS. He is supported by his compatriots in the acclaimed period band Arte dei Suonatori, who clearly relish the often intricate and always eventful orchestral parts.

Born on 12 July 1996. He is a student of Stefan Wojtas at Bydgoszcz Music Academy, having previously studied with Ewa Pobłocka and Paweł Wakarecy. He has won many prizes in international piano competitions, including first prize in the ‘La Palma d’Oro’ in Italy (2019) and first prize in the Rzeszów International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition (2014). In 2018 he won a competition at Indiana University for performances of works with orchestra. He has performed in concerts and festivals in Europe and the United States, at the Auer Hall of Indiana University in Bloomington, Ganz Hall of Roosevelt University in Chicago, NOSPR Hall in Katowice, and the philharmonic halls of Warsaw, Łódź and Pomerania.

“There’s a galaxy of piano trios in today’s jazz universe,” the BBC Music Magazine has noted, “but few shine as bright as Marcin Wasilewski’s”. On its seventh ECM album the multifaceted Polish group illuminates a characteristically wide span of music. On En attendant, collectively created pieces are juxtaposed with Wasilewski’s malleable “Glimmer of Hope”, Carla Bley’s timeless “Vashkar”, The Doors’ hypnotic “Riders On The Storm” and a selection from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Fluidity is the hallmark , allied to the deep listening made possible by more than a quarter-century of collaborative music-making by pianist Wasilewski, bassist Kurkiewicz and drummer Miskiewicz. En attendant was recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France in August 2019, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Marcin Swiatkiewicz, one of today’s leading harpsichordists, invites us to join him in the multifaceted and wondrous world of chromaticism on his latest release. He performs repertoire from the seventeenth century on an Italian harpsichord by Detmar Hungerberg with fourteen keys per octave (split upper keys for d sharp and e flat and for g sharp and a flat) and in mean-tone temperament. The repertoire from the eighteenth century is heard on a two-manual copy after Johannes Ruckers by Christian Fuchs. The chromatic style is a special musical phenomenon. Already highly valued by the Greeks during antiquity, it was discovered for the modern world by Humanist scholars of antiquity during the Italian renaissance.

This album contains three works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, two of which can be considered among the most popular in the history of music. The version of the Sinfonia concertante in E-flat Major KV 364/320d with the participation of the cello, presented on the album as the first item, sheds new light on this outstanding showcase of the Classical era, which makes it possible to look at the numerous melodic and contrapuntal relationships of the soloists from a new, refreshed perspective. The Duo in G Major for violin and viola KV 423, in which the parts of both instrumentalists can be considered almost equal, is entirely characterized by considerable rhythmic freedom, influencing expression and rhythm in the outer parts and the fluency of narration in the middle one.

Following their critically acclaimed recording of Johann Gottfried Müthel’s keyboard concertos (BIS-2179), Polish ensemble Arte dei Suonatori and Marcin Świątkiewicz, who conducts from his instrument, perform the six Hamburg symphonies by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach interspersed with solo fantasias for keyboard. The music of C.P.E. Bach has always been a source of fascination for the listener with its great variety of atmospheres, captivating melodic ideas, irresistible contrasts, surprising interweaving of voices, eccentric harmonies, and extreme dynamic transitions.

“January” is a strong musical statement from a still-young band with a long history already behind it, and an album with an exceptionally wide-ranging programme - all of it played with assurance, purpose and focus. The disc reconfirms that the trio of Marcin Wasilewski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz and Michal Miskiewicz is one of the most outstanding contemporary jazz groups.