Andrzej Mozgala Œuvres pour chœur et orchestre Sobas - AP0527 - Contemporain

Andrzej Mozgala’s works, featured on this album, are part of the music genre with national themes and patriotic characters. The dramatic fortunes of our country, its fight for independence fought by our ancestors, became the impulse that led to the creation of a series of musical works. Music, as well as other branches of art, became in the hands of artists weapons in the fight to preserve national identity, and a medium through which Polish values and ideals were passed down from generation to generation. Thanks to music, literature and poetry, Polish culture survived years of thraldom. Nowadays, the national themes are still important for Polish composer, however its role is entirely different. In the age of globalisation it allows to remember historic heroes and events, as well as cultivate the ‘nation’s spirit’ in the Polish society. Each of the three recorded pieces was inspired by a poem. Assault utilizes a poem of the same title by Galczynski, A Funeral Rhapsody in Memory of General Bem was based on an elegy by Norwid, while a poem by a contemporary poet, Pienkowska, was the inspiration and the canvas for Cantata for the Damned Quarters L. In Andrzej Mozgala’s works, the lyrics determine the musical means used; the diverse way of treating the choir, the richness of melodic, harmonic and colouristic measures, the illustrativeness, as well as care for multiplicity of colours and expressiveness of the piece display an in-depth analysis of the Polish poets, and are proof of the composer’s uncanny sensitivity to the lyrics.