Waldemar Żarów, Alicja Kieruzalska, Gabriel Chmura - Sinfonia Iuventus: Debussy, Strauss, Françaix (2010)

The idea of the CD collection Sinfonia Iuventus and its soloists appeared during a series of concerts featuring the Orchestra’s musicians as soloists. The splendid sound of the instruments, and the interesting interpretations, encouraged us to record those performances. We hope that after many years they will become the Orchestra’s finest chronicle “preserved in sound”. Each CD will contain, apart from solo works, also one orchestral piece, and all the compositions will be selected by the soloists themselves. This is meant to be a kind of reward for their excellent work in the orchestra and a token of our hope that their talent will always find the right place – now, when they are the Orchestra’s pillars, and later, when they have to leave it – at the age of thirty, in accordance with the Orchestra’s statute. The eminent conductors invited to collaborate will support the young musicians with their experience and abilities, and help them create wonderful albums. Claude Debussy, Richard Strauss and Jean Françaix are the major 20th century composers whose works have been selected for the first CD in the collection Sinfonia Iuventus and its soloists. The element which those three musical individualities share on our CD is the unique sound of the clarinet, in interpretations presented by the young, extremely talented instrumentalist of the Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra – Waldemar Żarów. In one of the compositions, he is accompanied by the Orchestra’s bassoon player – Alicja Kieruzalska. I would like to thank everyone for their work on this CD, and in particular – Maestro Gabriel Chmura for accepting the challenge and bestowing a special, unique character on the first project in our series. -- Maria Karwowska