WARSAW PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Antoni WIT - conductor
Jan Krzysztof BROJA - piano

NAXOS 8.570722, 2009

As previous issues in this series have shown, when Antoni Wit and his forces are in top form in the music of Szymanowski, they're pretty much unbeatable. At last, we have a complete symphony cycle in performances that will serve as the reference for all newcomers.

WARSAW PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Antoni WIT - conductor

First off, the performances are uniformly excellent. Antoni Wit has proven himself, in a rather humble and non-spotlight seeking manner, to be one of the finest and most consistent conductors in the world (his recent Alpine Symphony is one of the best).

WARSAW PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Antoni WIT - conductor

NAXOS 8.570452, 2008

Mieczyslaw Karlowicz's six symphonic poems feature gobs of Straussian sonority in loosely organized forms, and while Antoni Wit's performances are actually a touch slower than the competition on Chandos, the playing of the Warsaw Philharmonic is so much more atmospheric, richly textured, and knowing than that of the BBC Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda that the music is transformed.

WARSAW PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA AND CHOIR
Antoni WIT - conductor

Wiesław OCHMAN - tenor
Alexander PINDERAK - tenor
Ewa MARCINIEC - mezzosoprano
Henryk WOJNAROWSKI - choirmaster

NAXOS 8.570723, 2009

In terms of subject matter Szymanowski's magnificent choral ballet Harnasie is sort of the Polish equivalent of Stravinsky's Les Noces (The Wedding), although the idiom is squarely Szymanowski's own brand of luxurious late Romanticism--here spiked liberally with the punchy rhythms, earthy sonority, and ageless tunefulness of folk music. It's a work that deserves to be enormously popular.

WARSAW PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA AND CHOIR
Antoni WIT - conductor 
Henryk WOJNAROWSKI - choirmaster

WARSAW BOYS' CHOIR
Krzysztof KUSIEL-MOROZ - choirmaster

Iwona HOSSA - soprano
Agnieszka REHLIS - mezzosoprano
Piotr KUSIEWICZ - tenor
Piotr NOWACKI - bass
Gennady BEZZUBENKOV - basso profondo

Antoni Wit and his Polish forces are incomparable in this repertoire, and this performance of Utrenja goes straight to the top of the heap. Scored for chorus, soloists, strings, and percussion, and heavily influenced by the (then) avant-garde sounds of electronic instruments, the piece stands with the composer's St. Luke Passion, Polish Requiem, and The Devils of Loudon as an example of his early, radical phase. But that doesn't mean that it's all that difficult by today's standards. In fact, the music is both approachable and, more to the point, entirely apt.