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Antoni Wit 1958 Witold Rowicki was again appointed artistic director and principal conductor, a post he held until 1977, when Antoni Wit, one of the most highly regarded Polish conductors, studied conducting he was succeeded by Kazimierz Kord, serving until the end of the centenary celebrations in 2001. In 2002 Antoni Wit with Henryk Czyz and composition with Krzysztof Penderecki at the Academy of became general and artistic director of the Warsaw Philharmonic – The National Orchestra and Choir of Poland. The CHOPIN Music in Kraków, subsequently continuing his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. orchestra has toured widely abroad (Europe, both Americas, Japan, Australia), in addition to its busy schedule at He also graduated in law at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Immediately after home of symphony concerts, chamber concerts, educational work and other activities. It now has a complement of completing his studies he was engaged as an assistant at the Warsaw Philharmonic 110 players. Recordings include works by Polish composers, Paderewski, Wieniawski, Karłowicz, Szymanowski, Piano Concerto No. 1 Orchestra by Witold Rowicki and was later appointed conductor of the Poznan´ Penderecki and Kilar, and by foreign composers, with acclaimed interpretations of works by Mahler and Philharmonic, collaborated with the Warsaw Grand Theatre, and from 1974 to 1977 Richard Strauss. Their releases have won many prestigious awards, including six Grammy nominations.

Photo: Krzysztof Niesporek was artistic director of the Pomeranian Philharmonic, before his appointment as Fantasia on Polish Airs director of the Polish Radio and Television Orchestra and Chorus in Kraków, from 1977 to 1983. From 1983 to 2000 he was managing and artistic director of the Krakowiak National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, and from 1987 to 1992 he was the chief conductor and then first guest conductor of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria. In 2002 he became general and artistic director of the Warsaw Eldar Nebolsin, Piano Philharmonic Orchestra. His international career has brought engagements with major orchestras throughout Europe, the Americas and the Near and Far East. He has Warsaw Philharmonic made over 150 records, including an acclaimed release for Naxos of the piano concertos of Prokofiev (8.550565- 566), awarded the Diapason d’Or and Grand Prix du Disque de la Nouvelle Académie du Disque. In January 2002 his Orchestra recording of the Turangalîla Symphony by Olivier Messiaen (8.554478-79) was awarded the Cannes Classical Award at MIDEM Classic 2002. In 2004 he received the Classical Internet Award. He has completed for Naxos a CD series Antoni Wit of Szymanowski’s symphonic and large-scale vocal-instrumental works, each rated among ‘discs of the month’ by Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine). He also received the Record Academy Award 2005 of the Japanese music magazine Record Geijutsu for Penderecki’s Polish Requiem (Naxos), and four Fryderyk Awards of the Polish Phonographic Academy. He has received six Grammy nominations for Penderecki’s St Luke Passion – 2004 (8.557149), A Polish Requiem – 2005 (8.557386-87), Seven Gates of Jerusalem – 2007 (8.557766), Utrenja – 2009 (8.572031) and Karol Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater – 2008 (8.570724) and Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4 – 2009 (8.570722). In 2010 Antoni Wit won the annual award of the Karol Szymanowski Foundation for his promotion of the music of Szymanowski in his Naxos recordings. Antoni Wit is professor at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra • The National Philharmonic of Poland The first performance of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra took place on 5th November 1901 in the newly opened Philharmonic Hall under the artistic director and principal conductor, Emil Młynarski, with the world-renowned First recording to pianist, composer and future statesman Ignacy Jan Paderewski as soloist in a programme that included Paderewski’s use the new Piano Concerto in A minor and works of other Polish composers, Chopin, Moniuszko, Noskowski, Stojowski and C Z˙elen´ski. The orchestra achieved considerable success until the outbreak of war in 1939, with the destruction of the Polish National Philharmonic Hall and the loss of 39 of its 71 players. Resuming activity after the war, the orchestra was conducted Chopin Edition M by Straszyn´ski and Panufnik, and in January 1950 Witold Rowicki was appointed director and principal conductor, organizing a new ensemble under difficult conditions. In 1955 the rebuilt Philharmonic Hall was re-opened, with a large Y hall of over a thousand seats and a 433-seat hall for chamber music, recognised as the National Philharmonic of Poland. Subsequent conductors included Bohdan Wodiczko, Arnold Rezler and Stanisław Skrowaczewski, and in K 5 8.572335 6 8.572335 572335bk Chopin1:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 1/6/10 9:23 PM Page 2

Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849) Chopin himself played it on occasions without the proficiency on the instrument. The second theme chosen Eldar Nebolsin Piano Concerto No. 1 • Fantasia on Polish Airs • Krakowiak assistance of an orchestra. The orchestral exposition has is by Karol Kurpin´ski, principal conductor at the Warsaw Born in Uzbekistan in 1974, Eldar Nebolsin was awarded been considered by some to be too long, while others have Opera and conductor of Chopin’s first public concerts, the Sviatoslav Richter Prize in the 2005 1st edition of the Chopin throughout his life remained a Polish patriot. became lovers and in the winter of 1838-39 travelled found fault with the orchestration, and editors have and is thoroughly Polish in form and inspiration. The International Piano Competition, Moscow. A former Paradoxically he was the son of a French father, who had together to Mallorca, where the climate had a deleterious sometimes seen fit to make changes, to remedy these theme is introduced by the clarinet, leading to a dramatic student of renowned Russian pianist Dmitri Bashkirov, settled in Poland to avoid conscription into the French effect on his health, with further signs of tuberculosis that supposed faults. The idiom of the solo part remains intervention from the soloist, and a slower, gently lyrical he launched his international career with his triumph at the army and had become a respected teacher of French in were alarming not only to the couple but also to the local entirely characteristic of the composer, with the slow version of the theme, which is later taken up by the Eleventh Santander International Piano Competition in Warsaw. To add to the paradox, Chopin spent almost his people, who had already nurtured suspicions of the strange movement “reviving in one’s soul beautiful memories”, orchestra once more, with bravura embellishment from 1992. He has appeared with leading orchestras and entire professional career in Paris, where he moved in couple, accompanied, as they were, by George Sand’s two as Chopin put it, and a final Rondo providing a structure the piano. It is the latter that ushers in the final Kujawiak, distinguished conductors throughout Europe, in the 1831, quickly winning acceptance as a fashionable piano- children. In France again he returned to his life in Paris, into which the composer’s genius fits rather less easily. a theme typical of the Kujawy region, to the north-west of United States and Canada, the Far East and Australia, and teacher and as a performer in the elegant salons of the generally spending the summer months at George Sand’s The Fantasia on Polish Airs, Op. 13, was written in Warsaw, and once again a framework for characteristic has also given recitals in major concert venues there. In French capital. country-house at Nohant. The complications of involve- 1828 and published in Paris in 1834, with a dedication to solo display. addition to his solo piano career, he collaborates with Born in Warsaw in 1810, Chopin had piano lessons ment with George Sand’s now adult children led to their the Mannheim virtuoso pianist Johann Peter Pixis. It came The Grand Rondeau de Concert, the Krakowiak, some of the world’s most renowned chamber musicians. from the age of six with the old Czech musician Adalbert separation in 1847. During the political disturbances of at a time when Chopin, still a pupil of Józef Elsner at the which, like the Concerto No. 1 can be performed without Eldar Nebolsin’s début album of Rachmaninov’s Preludes Z˙ywny and from the age of twelve with Józef Elsner, 1848, when normal life was impossible in Paris, Chopin Warsaw Conservatory, was beginning to experiment more the assistance of an orchestra, an eventuality for which Opp. 23 and 32 (Naxos 8.570327) was described by director of the Warsaw Conservatory, where Chopin was accepted an invitation to Britain, but the climate greatly widely with forms beyond those of any prescribed syllabus the composer provided in an adjusted solo version, opens Classicstoday.com as “close to stunning … Nebolsin’s is enrolled as a pupil in 1826. By the end of the decade he affected his weakened health. He returned to Paris, where and was first performed in Warsaw on 17th March 1830, with an idyllic introductory Andantino, linked to the a truly exceptional excursion into the music of had begun to win a considerable reputation at home and he died in 1849. at a National Theatre concert that included the F minor Rondo itself by a passage of sudden brilliance. The Rachmaninov”, while his second album, featuring Liszt’s a visit to Vienna had allowed him to play his two piano As a pianist Chopin lacked power but commanded a Piano Concerto.The Fantasia opens with an orchestral orchestra announces the rhythm of the Krakowiak, the Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 and Totentanz with the concertos there. It was this success that persuaded him to delicate and varied idiom and technique of his own. The introduction, before the entry of the piano with figuration dance of Krakov, the first F major theme alternating with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily leave Warsaw to seek his fortune abroad. In 1830 he set out greater part of the music he wrote is for solo piano, but at that bears the unmistakable mark of Chopin’s own musical a second theme in D minor, to which it is linked by an Petrenko (Naxos 8.570717) received the following for Vienna, hoping to repeat his earlier success, but on the outset of what seemed likely to be a career as a language, to which the orchestra has little to add. The first extended bravura passage in which Poland is for the accolade from American Record Guide: “There is sheer this second occasion he achieved nothing, and after an virtuoso he wrote works for piano and orchestra, the kind theme, the air Juz˙ Miesia˛c Zaszedi, is announced by the moment briefly forgotten. pyrotechnic display on offer here that rivals the best on my unsatisfacory winter he turned his attention to Paris. At the of music that any performer-composer might have as part soloist and repeated by the orchestra, with elaborate piano shelf… He commands a formidable dynamic range; yet he same time his native Poland was in the turmoil of a of his stock-in-trade. The Polish source of his inspiration embellishment, testimony to Chopin’s own technical Keith Anderson knows when to caress the keys … (he) may well be the political disturbance that led to the firm establishment of remained at the heart of much that he wrote, with new Richter of his generation”. www.eldarnebolsin.com Russian hegemony. By early October 1831 Chopin was in forms freshly minted or created from earlier genres. Photo: Mikhail Vaneev Paris, a city of pianists, where contacts in Polish émigré Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor was actually circles and, above all, with the pianist Kalkbrenner, the second of the two he composed and was written, like brought his concert début there in 1832. its companion, in Warsaw, before he left Poland. The It soon became clear that Chopin’s particular genius concerto was tried out in private and then given its first lay not in competition with the virtuosi of Paris, with more public performance on 11th October 1830, at the com- ostentatious performers such as Liszt, Thalberg or poser’s last Warsaw concert. On 2nd November he left Kalkbrenner, but in more intimate performances and in home for good. Chopin dedicated the work to his friend teaching. He found a congenial position for himself with Tytus Woyciechowski, and while it expresses something of a socially distinguished clientèle and was able, at the same his love for his closest companion, it summarises in its time, to enjoy the society of Polish friends. Through Liszt, slow movement his feelings for the young singer at whose way of life he had previously looked askance, Konstancja Gładkowska. He described the Romanza as Chopin met the blue-stocking writer George Sand (Aurore “like dreaming in beautiful spring-time – by moonlight”. Dudevant), recently separated from her husband. The two The concerto relies heavily on the solo instrument, and 2 8.572335 3 8.572335 4 8.572335 572335bk Chopin1:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 1/6/10 9:23 PM Page 2

Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849) Chopin himself played it on occasions without the proficiency on the instrument. The second theme chosen Eldar Nebolsin Piano Concerto No. 1 • Fantasia on Polish Airs • Krakowiak assistance of an orchestra. The orchestral exposition has is by Karol Kurpin´ski, principal conductor at the Warsaw Born in Uzbekistan in 1974, Eldar Nebolsin was awarded been considered by some to be too long, while others have Opera and conductor of Chopin’s first public concerts, the Sviatoslav Richter Prize in the 2005 1st edition of the Chopin throughout his life remained a Polish patriot. became lovers and in the winter of 1838-39 travelled found fault with the orchestration, and editors have and is thoroughly Polish in form and inspiration. The International Piano Competition, Moscow. A former Paradoxically he was the son of a French father, who had together to Mallorca, where the climate had a deleterious sometimes seen fit to make changes, to remedy these theme is introduced by the clarinet, leading to a dramatic student of renowned Russian pianist Dmitri Bashkirov, settled in Poland to avoid conscription into the French effect on his health, with further signs of tuberculosis that supposed faults. The idiom of the solo part remains intervention from the soloist, and a slower, gently lyrical he launched his international career with his triumph at the army and had become a respected teacher of French in were alarming not only to the couple but also to the local entirely characteristic of the composer, with the slow version of the theme, which is later taken up by the Eleventh Santander International Piano Competition in Warsaw. To add to the paradox, Chopin spent almost his people, who had already nurtured suspicions of the strange movement “reviving in one’s soul beautiful memories”, orchestra once more, with bravura embellishment from 1992. He has appeared with leading orchestras and entire professional career in Paris, where he moved in couple, accompanied, as they were, by George Sand’s two as Chopin put it, and a final Rondo providing a structure the piano. It is the latter that ushers in the final Kujawiak, distinguished conductors throughout Europe, in the 1831, quickly winning acceptance as a fashionable piano- children. In France again he returned to his life in Paris, into which the composer’s genius fits rather less easily. a theme typical of the Kujawy region, to the north-west of United States and Canada, the Far East and Australia, and teacher and as a performer in the elegant salons of the generally spending the summer months at George Sand’s The Fantasia on Polish Airs, Op. 13, was written in Warsaw, and once again a framework for characteristic has also given recitals in major concert venues there. In French capital. country-house at Nohant. The complications of involve- 1828 and published in Paris in 1834, with a dedication to solo display. addition to his solo piano career, he collaborates with Born in Warsaw in 1810, Chopin had piano lessons ment with George Sand’s now adult children led to their the Mannheim virtuoso pianist Johann Peter Pixis. It came The Grand Rondeau de Concert, the Krakowiak, some of the world’s most renowned chamber musicians. from the age of six with the old Czech musician Adalbert separation in 1847. During the political disturbances of at a time when Chopin, still a pupil of Józef Elsner at the which, like the Concerto No. 1 can be performed without Eldar Nebolsin’s début album of Rachmaninov’s Preludes Z˙ywny and from the age of twelve with Józef Elsner, 1848, when normal life was impossible in Paris, Chopin Warsaw Conservatory, was beginning to experiment more the assistance of an orchestra, an eventuality for which Opp. 23 and 32 (Naxos 8.570327) was described by director of the Warsaw Conservatory, where Chopin was accepted an invitation to Britain, but the climate greatly widely with forms beyond those of any prescribed syllabus the composer provided in an adjusted solo version, opens Classicstoday.com as “close to stunning … Nebolsin’s is enrolled as a pupil in 1826. By the end of the decade he affected his weakened health. He returned to Paris, where and was first performed in Warsaw on 17th March 1830, with an idyllic introductory Andantino, linked to the a truly exceptional excursion into the music of had begun to win a considerable reputation at home and he died in 1849. at a National Theatre concert that included the F minor Rondo itself by a passage of sudden brilliance. The Rachmaninov”, while his second album, featuring Liszt’s a visit to Vienna had allowed him to play his two piano As a pianist Chopin lacked power but commanded a Piano Concerto.The Fantasia opens with an orchestral orchestra announces the rhythm of the Krakowiak, the Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 and Totentanz with the concertos there. It was this success that persuaded him to delicate and varied idiom and technique of his own. The introduction, before the entry of the piano with figuration dance of Krakov, the first F major theme alternating with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily leave Warsaw to seek his fortune abroad. In 1830 he set out greater part of the music he wrote is for solo piano, but at that bears the unmistakable mark of Chopin’s own musical a second theme in D minor, to which it is linked by an Petrenko (Naxos 8.570717) received the following for Vienna, hoping to repeat his earlier success, but on the outset of what seemed likely to be a career as a language, to which the orchestra has little to add. The first extended bravura passage in which Poland is for the accolade from American Record Guide: “There is sheer this second occasion he achieved nothing, and after an virtuoso he wrote works for piano and orchestra, the kind theme, the air Juz˙ Miesia˛c Zaszedi, is announced by the moment briefly forgotten. pyrotechnic display on offer here that rivals the best on my unsatisfacory winter he turned his attention to Paris. At the of music that any performer-composer might have as part soloist and repeated by the orchestra, with elaborate piano shelf… He commands a formidable dynamic range; yet he same time his native Poland was in the turmoil of a of his stock-in-trade. The Polish source of his inspiration embellishment, testimony to Chopin’s own technical Keith Anderson knows when to caress the keys … (he) may well be the political disturbance that led to the firm establishment of remained at the heart of much that he wrote, with new Richter of his generation”. www.eldarnebolsin.com Russian hegemony. By early October 1831 Chopin was in forms freshly minted or created from earlier genres. Photo: Mikhail Vaneev Paris, a city of pianists, where contacts in Polish émigré Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor was actually circles and, above all, with the pianist Kalkbrenner, the second of the two he composed and was written, like brought his concert début there in 1832. its companion, in Warsaw, before he left Poland. The It soon became clear that Chopin’s particular genius concerto was tried out in private and then given its first lay not in competition with the virtuosi of Paris, with more public performance on 11th October 1830, at the com- ostentatious performers such as Liszt, Thalberg or poser’s last Warsaw concert. On 2nd November he left Kalkbrenner, but in more intimate performances and in home for good. Chopin dedicated the work to his friend teaching. He found a congenial position for himself with Tytus Woyciechowski, and while it expresses something of a socially distinguished clientèle and was able, at the same his love for his closest companion, it summarises in its time, to enjoy the society of Polish friends. Through Liszt, slow movement his feelings for the young singer at whose way of life he had previously looked askance, Konstancja Gładkowska. He described the Romanza as Chopin met the blue-stocking writer George Sand (Aurore “like dreaming in beautiful spring-time – by moonlight”. Dudevant), recently separated from her husband. The two The concerto relies heavily on the solo instrument, and 2 8.572335 3 8.572335 4 8.572335 572335bk Chopin1:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 1/6/10 9:23 PM Page 2

Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849) Chopin himself played it on occasions without the proficiency on the instrument. The second theme chosen Eldar Nebolsin Piano Concerto No. 1 • Fantasia on Polish Airs • Krakowiak assistance of an orchestra. The orchestral exposition has is by Karol Kurpin´ski, principal conductor at the Warsaw Born in Uzbekistan in 1974, Eldar Nebolsin was awarded been considered by some to be too long, while others have Opera and conductor of Chopin’s first public concerts, the Sviatoslav Richter Prize in the 2005 1st edition of the Chopin throughout his life remained a Polish patriot. became lovers and in the winter of 1838-39 travelled found fault with the orchestration, and editors have and is thoroughly Polish in form and inspiration. The International Piano Competition, Moscow. A former Paradoxically he was the son of a French father, who had together to Mallorca, where the climate had a deleterious sometimes seen fit to make changes, to remedy these theme is introduced by the clarinet, leading to a dramatic student of renowned Russian pianist Dmitri Bashkirov, settled in Poland to avoid conscription into the French effect on his health, with further signs of tuberculosis that supposed faults. The idiom of the solo part remains intervention from the soloist, and a slower, gently lyrical he launched his international career with his triumph at the army and had become a respected teacher of French in were alarming not only to the couple but also to the local entirely characteristic of the composer, with the slow version of the theme, which is later taken up by the Eleventh Santander International Piano Competition in Warsaw. To add to the paradox, Chopin spent almost his people, who had already nurtured suspicions of the strange movement “reviving in one’s soul beautiful memories”, orchestra once more, with bravura embellishment from 1992. He has appeared with leading orchestras and entire professional career in Paris, where he moved in couple, accompanied, as they were, by George Sand’s two as Chopin put it, and a final Rondo providing a structure the piano. It is the latter that ushers in the final Kujawiak, distinguished conductors throughout Europe, in the 1831, quickly winning acceptance as a fashionable piano- children. In France again he returned to his life in Paris, into which the composer’s genius fits rather less easily. a theme typical of the Kujawy region, to the north-west of United States and Canada, the Far East and Australia, and teacher and as a performer in the elegant salons of the generally spending the summer months at George Sand’s The Fantasia on Polish Airs, Op. 13, was written in Warsaw, and once again a framework for characteristic has also given recitals in major concert venues there. In French capital. country-house at Nohant. The complications of involve- 1828 and published in Paris in 1834, with a dedication to solo display. addition to his solo piano career, he collaborates with Born in Warsaw in 1810, Chopin had piano lessons ment with George Sand’s now adult children led to their the Mannheim virtuoso pianist Johann Peter Pixis. It came The Grand Rondeau de Concert, the Krakowiak, some of the world’s most renowned chamber musicians. from the age of six with the old Czech musician Adalbert separation in 1847. During the political disturbances of at a time when Chopin, still a pupil of Józef Elsner at the which, like the Concerto No. 1 can be performed without Eldar Nebolsin’s début album of Rachmaninov’s Preludes Z˙ywny and from the age of twelve with Józef Elsner, 1848, when normal life was impossible in Paris, Chopin Warsaw Conservatory, was beginning to experiment more the assistance of an orchestra, an eventuality for which Opp. 23 and 32 (Naxos 8.570327) was described by director of the Warsaw Conservatory, where Chopin was accepted an invitation to Britain, but the climate greatly widely with forms beyond those of any prescribed syllabus the composer provided in an adjusted solo version, opens Classicstoday.com as “close to stunning … Nebolsin’s is enrolled as a pupil in 1826. By the end of the decade he affected his weakened health. He returned to Paris, where and was first performed in Warsaw on 17th March 1830, with an idyllic introductory Andantino, linked to the a truly exceptional excursion into the music of had begun to win a considerable reputation at home and he died in 1849. at a National Theatre concert that included the F minor Rondo itself by a passage of sudden brilliance. The Rachmaninov”, while his second album, featuring Liszt’s a visit to Vienna had allowed him to play his two piano As a pianist Chopin lacked power but commanded a Piano Concerto.The Fantasia opens with an orchestral orchestra announces the rhythm of the Krakowiak, the Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 and Totentanz with the concertos there. It was this success that persuaded him to delicate and varied idiom and technique of his own. The introduction, before the entry of the piano with figuration dance of Krakov, the first F major theme alternating with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily leave Warsaw to seek his fortune abroad. In 1830 he set out greater part of the music he wrote is for solo piano, but at that bears the unmistakable mark of Chopin’s own musical a second theme in D minor, to which it is linked by an Petrenko (Naxos 8.570717) received the following for Vienna, hoping to repeat his earlier success, but on the outset of what seemed likely to be a career as a language, to which the orchestra has little to add. The first extended bravura passage in which Poland is for the accolade from American Record Guide: “There is sheer this second occasion he achieved nothing, and after an virtuoso he wrote works for piano and orchestra, the kind theme, the air Juz˙ Miesia˛c Zaszedi, is announced by the moment briefly forgotten. pyrotechnic display on offer here that rivals the best on my unsatisfacory winter he turned his attention to Paris. At the of music that any performer-composer might have as part soloist and repeated by the orchestra, with elaborate piano shelf… He commands a formidable dynamic range; yet he same time his native Poland was in the turmoil of a of his stock-in-trade. The Polish source of his inspiration embellishment, testimony to Chopin’s own technical Keith Anderson knows when to caress the keys … (he) may well be the political disturbance that led to the firm establishment of remained at the heart of much that he wrote, with new Richter of his generation”. www.eldarnebolsin.com Russian hegemony. By early October 1831 Chopin was in forms freshly minted or created from earlier genres. Photo: Mikhail Vaneev Paris, a city of pianists, where contacts in Polish émigré Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor was actually circles and, above all, with the pianist Kalkbrenner, the second of the two he composed and was written, like brought his concert début there in 1832. its companion, in Warsaw, before he left Poland. The It soon became clear that Chopin’s particular genius concerto was tried out in private and then given its first lay not in competition with the virtuosi of Paris, with more public performance on 11th October 1830, at the com- ostentatious performers such as Liszt, Thalberg or poser’s last Warsaw concert. On 2nd November he left Kalkbrenner, but in more intimate performances and in home for good. Chopin dedicated the work to his friend teaching. He found a congenial position for himself with Tytus Woyciechowski, and while it expresses something of a socially distinguished clientèle and was able, at the same his love for his closest companion, it summarises in its time, to enjoy the society of Polish friends. Through Liszt, slow movement his feelings for the young singer at whose way of life he had previously looked askance, Konstancja Gładkowska. He described the Romanza as Chopin met the blue-stocking writer George Sand (Aurore “like dreaming in beautiful spring-time – by moonlight”. Dudevant), recently separated from her husband. The two The concerto relies heavily on the solo instrument, and 2 8.572335 3 8.572335 4 8.572335 572335bk Chopin1:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 1/6/10 9:23 PM Page 1

Antoni Wit 1958 Witold Rowicki was again appointed artistic director and principal conductor, a post he held until 1977, when Antoni Wit, one of the most highly regarded Polish conductors, studied conducting he was succeeded by Kazimierz Kord, serving until the end of the centenary celebrations in 2001. In 2002 Antoni Wit with Henryk Czyz and composition with Krzysztof Penderecki at the Academy of became general and artistic director of the Warsaw Philharmonic – The National Orchestra and Choir of Poland. The CHOPIN Music in Kraków, subsequently continuing his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. orchestra has toured widely abroad (Europe, both Americas, Japan, Australia), in addition to its busy schedule at He also graduated in law at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Immediately after home of symphony concerts, chamber concerts, educational work and other activities. It now has a complement of completing his studies he was engaged as an assistant at the Warsaw Philharmonic 110 players. Recordings include works by Polish composers, Paderewski, Wieniawski, Karłowicz, Szymanowski, Piano Concerto No. 1 Orchestra by Witold Rowicki and was later appointed conductor of the Poznan´ Penderecki and Kilar, and by foreign composers, with acclaimed interpretations of works by Mahler and Philharmonic, collaborated with the Warsaw Grand Theatre, and from 1974 to 1977 Richard Strauss. Their releases have won many prestigious awards, including six Grammy nominations.

Photo: Krzysztof Niesporek was artistic director of the Pomeranian Philharmonic, before his appointment as Fantasia on Polish Airs director of the Polish Radio and Television Orchestra and Chorus in Kraków, from 1977 to 1983. From 1983 to 2000 he was managing and artistic director of the Krakowiak National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, and from 1987 to 1992 he was the chief conductor and then first guest conductor of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria. In 2002 he became general and artistic director of the Warsaw Eldar Nebolsin, Piano Philharmonic Orchestra. His international career has brought engagements with major orchestras throughout Europe, the Americas and the Near and Far East. He has Warsaw Philharmonic made over 150 records, including an acclaimed release for Naxos of the piano concertos of Prokofiev (8.550565- 566), awarded the Diapason d’Or and Grand Prix du Disque de la Nouvelle Académie du Disque. In January 2002 his Orchestra recording of the Turangalîla Symphony by Olivier Messiaen (8.554478-79) was awarded the Cannes Classical Award at MIDEM Classic 2002. In 2004 he received the Classical Internet Award. He has completed for Naxos a CD series Antoni Wit of Szymanowski’s symphonic and large-scale vocal-instrumental works, each rated among ‘discs of the month’ by Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine). He also received the Record Academy Award 2005 of the Japanese music magazine Record Geijutsu for Penderecki’s Polish Requiem (Naxos), and four Fryderyk Awards of the Polish Phonographic Academy. He has received six Grammy nominations for Penderecki’s St Luke Passion – 2004 (8.557149), A Polish Requiem – 2005 (8.557386-87), Seven Gates of Jerusalem – 2007 (8.557766), Utrenja – 2009 (8.572031) and Karol Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater – 2008 (8.570724) and Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4 – 2009 (8.570722). In 2010 Antoni Wit won the annual award of the Karol Szymanowski Foundation for his promotion of the music of Szymanowski in his Naxos recordings. Antoni Wit is professor at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra • The National Philharmonic of Poland The first performance of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra took place on 5th November 1901 in the newly opened Philharmonic Hall under the artistic director and principal conductor, Emil Młynarski, with the world-renowned First recording to pianist, composer and future statesman Ignacy Jan Paderewski as soloist in a programme that included Paderewski’s use the new Piano Concerto in A minor and works of other Polish composers, Chopin, Moniuszko, Noskowski, Stojowski and C Z˙elen´ski. The orchestra achieved considerable success until the outbreak of war in 1939, with the destruction of the Polish National Philharmonic Hall and the loss of 39 of its 71 players. Resuming activity after the war, the orchestra was conducted Chopin Edition M by Straszyn´ski and Panufnik, and in January 1950 Witold Rowicki was appointed director and principal conductor, organizing a new ensemble under difficult conditions. In 1955 the rebuilt Philharmonic Hall was re-opened, with a large Y hall of over a thousand seats and a 433-seat hall for chamber music, recognised as the National Philharmonic of Poland. Subsequent conductors included Bohdan Wodiczko, Arnold Rezler and Stanisław Skrowaczewski, and in K 5 8.572335 6 8.572335 572335bk Chopin1:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 1/6/10 9:23 PM Page 1

Antoni Wit 1958 Witold Rowicki was again appointed artistic director and principal conductor, a post he held until 1977, when Antoni Wit, one of the most highly regarded Polish conductors, studied conducting he was succeeded by Kazimierz Kord, serving until the end of the centenary celebrations in 2001. In 2002 Antoni Wit with Henryk Czyz and composition with Krzysztof Penderecki at the Academy of became general and artistic director of the Warsaw Philharmonic – The National Orchestra and Choir of Poland. The CHOPIN Music in Kraków, subsequently continuing his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. orchestra has toured widely abroad (Europe, both Americas, Japan, Australia), in addition to its busy schedule at He also graduated in law at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Immediately after home of symphony concerts, chamber concerts, educational work and other activities. It now has a complement of completing his studies he was engaged as an assistant at the Warsaw Philharmonic 110 players. Recordings include works by Polish composers, Paderewski, Wieniawski, Karłowicz, Szymanowski, Piano Concerto No. 1 Orchestra by Witold Rowicki and was later appointed conductor of the Poznan´ Penderecki and Kilar, and by foreign composers, with acclaimed interpretations of works by Mahler and Philharmonic, collaborated with the Warsaw Grand Theatre, and from 1974 to 1977 Richard Strauss. Their releases have won many prestigious awards, including six Grammy nominations.

Photo: Krzysztof Niesporek was artistic director of the Pomeranian Philharmonic, before his appointment as Fantasia on Polish Airs director of the Polish Radio and Television Orchestra and Chorus in Kraków, from 1977 to 1983. From 1983 to 2000 he was managing and artistic director of the Krakowiak National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, and from 1987 to 1992 he was the chief conductor and then first guest conductor of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria. In 2002 he became general and artistic director of the Warsaw Eldar Nebolsin, Piano Philharmonic Orchestra. His international career has brought engagements with major orchestras throughout Europe, the Americas and the Near and Far East. He has Warsaw Philharmonic made over 150 records, including an acclaimed release for Naxos of the piano concertos of Prokofiev (8.550565- 566), awarded the Diapason d’Or and Grand Prix du Disque de la Nouvelle Académie du Disque. In January 2002 his Orchestra recording of the Turangalîla Symphony by Olivier Messiaen (8.554478-79) was awarded the Cannes Classical Award at MIDEM Classic 2002. In 2004 he received the Classical Internet Award. He has completed for Naxos a CD series Antoni Wit of Szymanowski’s symphonic and large-scale vocal-instrumental works, each rated among ‘discs of the month’ by Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine). He also received the Record Academy Award 2005 of the Japanese music magazine Record Geijutsu for Penderecki’s Polish Requiem (Naxos), and four Fryderyk Awards of the Polish Phonographic Academy. He has received six Grammy nominations for Penderecki’s St Luke Passion – 2004 (8.557149), A Polish Requiem – 2005 (8.557386-87), Seven Gates of Jerusalem – 2007 (8.557766), Utrenja – 2009 (8.572031) and Karol Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater – 2008 (8.570724) and Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4 – 2009 (8.570722). In 2010 Antoni Wit won the annual award of the Karol Szymanowski Foundation for his promotion of the music of Szymanowski in his Naxos recordings. Antoni Wit is professor at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra • The National Philharmonic of Poland The first performance of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra took place on 5th November 1901 in the newly opened Philharmonic Hall under the artistic director and principal conductor, Emil Młynarski, with the world-renowned First recording to pianist, composer and future statesman Ignacy Jan Paderewski as soloist in a programme that included Paderewski’s use the new Piano Concerto in A minor and works of other Polish composers, Chopin, Moniuszko, Noskowski, Stojowski and C Z˙elen´ski. The orchestra achieved considerable success until the outbreak of war in 1939, with the destruction of the Polish National Philharmonic Hall and the loss of 39 of its 71 players. Resuming activity after the war, the orchestra was conducted Chopin Edition M by Straszyn´ski and Panufnik, and in January 1950 Witold Rowicki was appointed director and principal conductor, organizing a new ensemble under difficult conditions. In 1955 the rebuilt Philharmonic Hall was re-opened, with a large Y hall of over a thousand seats and a 433-seat hall for chamber music, recognised as the National Philharmonic of Poland. Subsequent conductors included Bohdan Wodiczko, Arnold Rezler and Stanisław Skrowaczewski, and in K 5 8.572335 6 8.572335 NAXOS NAXOS Chopin’s youthful Piano Concerto No. 1 is dominated by the brilliant piano part that the teenage performer-composer wrote to showcase his extraordinary virtuosity. Its ravishing Romanza (‘reviving in one’s soul beautiful memories’, as the composer described it) is framed by an opening movement rich in dramatic lyricism and a 8.572335 vivacious Rondo. The Fantasia on Polish Airs, Op. 13 and Krakowiak are similarly CHOPIN: CHOPIN: vehicles for Romantic reverie and bravura which pay tribute to the music of Chopin’s DDD homeland. Eldar Nebolsin’s recording of Liszt’s piano concertos (8.570517) was ranked ‘among the finest’ by Gramophone. Playing Time 67:42 Fryderyk Piano Concerto No.Piano Concerto 1 Piano Concerto No.Piano Concerto 1 CHOPIN (1810–1849) Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 39:22 1 Allegro maestoso 19:59 2 Romanza: Larghetto 9:10 3 Rondo: Vivace 10:09 Printed & Assembled in USA Disc Made in Canada Booklet notes in English Ltd. Naxos Rights International Fantasia on Polish Airs, Op. 13 13:32 www.naxos.com ൿ 4 & Introduction: Largo non troppo 3:44 Ꭿ

5 Air: Juz˙ Miesia˛c Zaszedł: Andantino 2:36 2010 6 Thème de Charles Kurpin´ski: Allegretto 4:07 7 Kujawiak: Vivace 3:05 8 Krakowiak – Grand Rondeau de Concert, Op. 14 14:29

Eldar Nebolsin, Piano C Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra • Antoni Wit M 8.572335 Recorded at the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, Warsaw, Poland, 1–5 September 2009 8.572335 Producers, Engineers & Editors: Andrzej Sasin, Aleksandra Nagórko (CD Accord) Y Publisher: The Foundation for the National Edition of the Works of Fryderyk Chopin Booklet notes: Keith Anderson • Cover: Sculpture of Chopin by Wacław Szymanowski in K Royal Łazienki park, Warsaw (photo © Rangpl / Dreamstime.com)