Monologue: Polish Solo Cello Works

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This album features pieces for solo cello, displaying the extraordinary technical and tone colour possibilities of this instrument. The album is also a musical journey through a century of Polish chamber music composed for this instrument by outstanding artists.

The title "Monologue" opens with the Sonata for Cello Solo by Jerzy Fitelberg (1903–1951), an unbelievably beautiful composition in the Neoclassical style, referring to the golden era of the sonata form, but in a fresh, interesting version. The next piece is the Polish Caprice, composed by Grażyna Bacewicz (1909–1969). It is a graceful miniature with clear references to Polish folk music, written with the composer’s trademark vigour and precision.

Witold Lutosławski (1913–1994), whose Sacher Variation is included on the album, is a world-famous composer. This time he dedicated his piece to the memory of Swiss conductor Paul Sacher, basing his composition on a series of notes corresponding to his name (Es-A-C-H-Re). The next piece is the Récit for solo cello by Piotr Moss (born 1949), one of the most interesting artists of the post-war generation in Poland. His cello composition is a kind of elaborate, dramatic narrative in which both the expressive and the technically demanding aspects of the piece remain in perfect balance.

The Impromptu for solo cello by well-known conductor and composer Jan Krenz (1926–2020) refers to the title form in a distant way; it is the unconstrained flow of sounds and a typical Neo-Romantic style that are emphasized. The next composition is the Divertimento for Solo Cello by Krzysztof Penderecki (1933–2020), an unusually stylistically rich composition in which the tone colour and references to early music come to the fore. The closing Monologue for Solo Cello by Krzysztof Meyer (born 1943) is, as the title suggests, a kind of a tale, characterized by expression and the great role of tone colour.

The pieces are performed by Tomasz Daroch (b. 1989), an outstanding cellist with extremely rich achievements. He has performed with numerous orchestras from Poland and Europe, cooperating with the most renowned conductors, and his musical activity has been recognized with many awards and distinctions. © DUX Records