5906395034383

Moniuszko: Widma (Apparitions)

Europa Galante, Fabio Biondi, Natalia Rubis, Pawel Konik, Krzysztof Baczyk, Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Choir

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Format: CD

Cat No: NIFCCD092

Release Date:  12 April 2024

Label:  NIFCCD

Packaging Type:  Jewel Case

No of Units:  1

Barcode:  5906395034383

Genres:  Classical  Opera  

  • Description

    Widma ('Phantoms'), a masterful musical theatre based on Mickiewicz's Dziady. This group of leading Polish singers, the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Choir, the Europa Galante orchestra, and a number of Polish theatre stars, complete the group of masterpieces that were enthusiastically received by international critics with this recording: Halka, Flis, Hrabina, and finally Verbum nobile. This recording of Widma is a world premiere - the first to be presented on period instruments.

    This is another release in the concert and phonographic plan of The Fryderyk Chopin Institute, which has been in progress since 2018 and includes the performance and release of all Moniuszko's surviving operas as well as his other most valuable works (cantatas, songs, piano miniatures). It is also another title whose interpretation was presented by Fabio Biondi, an excellent Italian conductor, enchanted with the works of the father of Polish national opera. Biondi presents unusual knowledge, taste, and great musical imagination, showing the value of Moniuszko's works in full splendour, emphasised by the sound of historical instruments, and deservedly placing them among the works of the Italian bel canto's masters.

    One of Stanislaw Moniuszko's most magnificent works, not often performed but delighting in its wealth of musical and theatrical textures and colours, has been recorded for the first time on period instruments by the Europa Galante orchestra.

    This world premiere recording on period instruments is released as part of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute's "Concerts Frozen in Time" series (Muzyka zatrzymana w czasie), and was recorded during the 18th International Music Festival 'Chopin and his Europe' in the 'Teatr Wielki' Polish National Opera in Warsaw, Moniuszko Auditorium 12--14 August 2022.

    The National Fryderyk Chopin Institute label are grateful to the National Forum of Music in Wroclaw and its director, Andrzej Kosendiak, for making Maciej Prohaska's reconstruction of Stanislaw Moniuszko's original score available.

  • Tracklisting

      Disc 1

      Side 1

      • 1. Stanislaw Moniuszko: Widma (Apparitions): Introduction: 'Dziady'
      • 2. Intrada
      • 3. All is darkness, all is quiet
      • 4. Close the chapel doors now, tight
      • 5. All is darkness, all is quiet
      • 6. Pour some incense in my hands
      • 7. First, I call you lighter souls
      • 8. Look, ah, look up in the air
      • 9. O, little soul--what do you need
      • 10. Little angel, little soul
      • 11. Now the dreadful hour's at hand
      • 12. Away, she-eagles! Ravens! Owls!
      • 13. Aria: Children, ho! Don't you know me, children?
      • 14. What then is needed, for your soul
      • 15. In vain he begs, in vain he prays
      • 16. You're hungry? Oh -- a thousand pardons!
      • 17. Hunger makes you grieve?
      • 18. No help, although I need it badly!
      • 19. If we may not allay your pain
      • 20. Now take the wreath down from the pole
      • 21. Mother of God! This image!
      • 22. Duettino: She wears a wreath upon her brow
      • 23. Zosia's song: Oh, once among the springtime dew
      • 24. Yes, I was Zosia, born and raised
      • 25. What needs your soul, so sorely driven
      • 26. In vain you rush--these are but shades
      • 27. Now each and every soul I call
      • 28. That's all, time's up. Open the door
      • 29. This defies all human reason!