This new release from DUX presents recordings of works by Polish contemporary composer Joanna Brudowicz, and features selected works which were inspired by pieces of art and literature. The works are performed here by pianist Piotr Kowal, and cellist Pawe Czarakciew.
Romantic Ballad is a piano transcription of music for the film Le jupon rouge [The Red Skirt]. The film was produced in 1987, based on the memories of a Polish lady (Alida Valli) from a concentration camp, and a love intrigue between three women. Romantic Ballad uses traditional functional harmonics and, through motivic repetition, refers to the style of minimalist music.
Song of Hope and Love (1997), a four-movement sonata for cello and piano, was dedicated to the memory of Polish Jews, victims of the Holocaust. The work's inspiration is a poem entitled Flight by the Polish Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz. The sonata's dramatic character does not exclusively illustrate the tragedy of the Second World War. The piece provides a musical perspective on the theme and expresses a desire to seek the 'hope and love' evoked in the title.
Sixteen Pictures from Salvador Dal?'s Exhibition (2004) is a cycle of works commissioned by the city of Figueres to mark the centenary of the birth of the Catalan painter born there. Each of the miniatures in the cycle refers to a different painting by Salvador Dal?. These miniatures offer sonic interpretations, or a complementary commentary, to be understood alongside the contemplation of the title painting - a source of profound artistic experiences.
Joanna Bruzdowicz was born on 17 May 1943 in Warsaw and died on 3 November 2021 in Taillet. She was an ?migr? composer, spending most of her life in Belgium and France. Her rich and varied oeuvre has been recognised in Western Europe, but it seems that she is still unknown to a wider audience in Poland. The scope of her creative activity covered the spheres of scenic, chamber, electroacoustic, symphonic and film music.
