Moniuszko: Songs

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Cat No: NIFCCD135

Release Date: 10 February 2023

Label: NIFCCD

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 5906395034833

Genres: Classical Vocal

Description
This new CD from The Fryderyk Chopin Institute (NIFC) presents the songs of Stanislaw Moniuszko, performed here by Marius Godlewski (baritone) and Radoslaw Kurek (piano). The album has been recorded on Moniszko's own piano, preserved at Warsaw's 'Teatr Wielki' Polish National Opera.

For their third joint album, baritone Mariusz Godlewski and pianist Radoslaw Kurek have curated a selection of songs which represents the full diversity of themes found within Moniuzsko's oeuvre.

In aid of the preservation of Polish national identity, The Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning (TPN) published Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz's Historical Songs (1816): thirty-two poems about Polish kings, knights, and commanders, complete with drawings, set for voice and piano by about a dozen different musicians.

With twenty successive editions, this collection became the bible of the Polish youth, and the songs were sung in homes throughout Poland, including the Moniuszko family's household in Ubiel (Minsk Region, now Ubel in Belarus). Moniuszko spent his childhood evenings singing those songs with his mother Elbieta; he apparently learned them by heart. Moniuszko went on to become known as the 'Polish Schubert'.

In his Studies on Romantic Song, Mieczyslaw Tomaszewski lists the main thematic areas of Schubert's Lieder: namely, historical and love songs, pieces dedicated to social life, concerning the fatherland and nature, as well as philosophical and religious ones. Similar themes can be found in the songs of Stanislaw Moniuszko, the Polish Schubert.
Tracklisting