Antoni Wit
Veteran conductor Antoni Wit has been a major champion of Polish contemporary music but also has a wide repertory of music from many countries. He was conductor of the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Katowice, and then the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra for many years.
Wit (pronounced Vit) was born in Kraków, Poland, on February 7, 1944. He attended the Kraków Academy of Music (then the State Higher Academy of Music), studying conducting with Henryk Czyż and composition with Krzysztof Penderecki. After graduating in 1967, he went on to serve as assistant to Witold Rowicki at the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra while earning a law degree at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków in 1969. He benefited from relatively liberal Polish travel policies and was able to study conducting in Paris with Pierre Dervaux at the Ecole Normale de Musique and composition privately with the famed teacher Nadia Boulanger. Wit went on to attend conducting classes at the Tanglewood Music Center in the U.S. with Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and Seiji Ozawa in 1973. He then became the conductor and artistic director of the Pomeranian Philharmonic Orchestra in Poland from 1974 to 1977, moving on from 1977 to 1983 to the Polish Radio and Television Orchestra and Chorus. During this period, he began a long track record of conducting new Polish music, leading the premiere of Penderecki's Lacrimosa in 1980.
Wit became the conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Katowice, in 1983, remaining in that position until 2000. With that group, he made his recording debut in 1988 on the Titanic Records label, backing violinist Roman Totenberg in concertos by Brahms and Karol Lipiński. In 1993, he led the orchestra in a cycle of Tchaikovsky symphonies for the Naxos label, and he has remained associated mostly with that label over his long and prolific recording career. Wit became the conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic in 2002, remaining there until 2013. He was also the principal guest conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra in Spain from 2010 to 2017, and he made numerous appearances as a guest conductor around Western Europe with such major groups as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Italy, and several top British orchestras.
He has remained active as a guest conductor and recording artist, releasing albums with many of the orchestras with which he has been associated. In 2022, Wit moved to the Capriccio label, leading the Rheinland-Pfalz Staatsphilharmonie in a recording of works by early 20th century composer Zygmunt Stojowski; he followed that up in 2023 with an album of works by 19th century composer Zygmunt Noskowski. By that time, his recording catalog comprised some 300 items, seven of which were nominated for Grammy Awards. Wit taught conducting for many years at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3
Bernd Glemser, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Antoni Wit
Classical - Released by Naxos on 7/08/1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
MAHLER: Symphonies Nos. 3 and 10
Classical - Released by Naxos on 28/07/1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
RACHMANINOV / SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Concertos
Bernd Glemser, Michael Houstoun, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Antoni Wit, Christopher Lyndon-Gee
Classical - Released by Naxos on 11/08/2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
MAHLER: Symphony No. 2, 'Resurrection'
Jadwiga Rappe, Hanna Lisowska, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Cracow Radio and Television Choir, Antoni Wit
Classical - Released by Naxos on 15/02/1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Symphonies
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Ryszard Minkiewicz, Antoni Wit, Warsaw Philharmonic Choir
Classical - Released by Naxos on 25/03/2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Symphonie "Résurrection"
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Antoni Wit
Classical - Released by Naxos on 24/03/2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel - Falla : Concertos pour piano / Nuits dans les jardins d'Espagne
François-Joel Thiollier, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Antoni Wit
Keyboard Concertos - Released by Naxos on 5/09/1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 4 / Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Idil Biret, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Antoni Wit
Classical - Released by Naxos on 10/10/2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cello Concertos Nos. 1 and 2
Maria Kliegel, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Antoni Wit
Concertos - Released by Naxos on 5/07/1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
MAHLER: Symphony No. 4
Antoni Wit, Lynda Russell, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Naxos on 28/05/1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Harnasie - Mandragora
Wieslaw Ochman, Alexander Pinderak, Ewa Marciniec, Warsaw Philharmonic Choir, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Antoni Wit
Classical - Released by Naxos on 12/02/2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2
Ilya Kaler, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Antoni Wit
Violin Concertos - Released by Naxos on 19/04/1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: 2 Violin Concertos
Karin Adam, Antoni Wit, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Camerata Tokyo on 19/08/2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
MAHLER: Symphony No. 6, ' Tragic '
Antoni Wit, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Naxos on 12/11/1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
BRAHMS: Piano Concerto No. 1 / SCHUMANN: Introduction and Concerto-Allegro
Idil Biret, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Antoni Wit
Classical - Released by Naxos on 13/10/2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
September Symphony - Lament (Wojciech Kilar)
Classical - Released by CD Accord on 1/01/2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Gyorgy Pauk, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Antoni Wit
Classical - Released by Naxos on 28/09/1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
LUTOSLAWSKI (THE BEST OF)
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Andrzej Bauer, Krzysztof Bakowski, Piotr Paleczny, Antoni Wit
Symphonic Music - Released by Naxos on 2/07/2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No. 2 / Concert Fantasy, Op. 56
Bernd Glemser, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Antoni Wit
Keyboard Concertos - Released by Naxos on 13/12/1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fantasias after Shakespeare
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Adrian Leaper, Antoni Wit
Classical - Released by Naxos on 28/06/1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
BRAHMS / MENDELSSOHN: Piano Concertos
Jenő Jandó, Benjamin Frith, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Antoni Wit, Robert Stankovsky
Classical - Released by Naxos on 28/09/1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo