Warsaw Philharmonic Choir, Bartosz Michalowski

The Adoration is the latest release by the Warsaw Philharmonic, performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir conducted by Bartosz Michalowski. This album is devoted entirely to the music of Pawel Lukaszewski – one of the most outstanding contemporary Polish composers – and comprises selected works of sacred music for a cappella choir written between 2006 and 2018. Pawel Lukaszewski’s oeuvre is associated primarily with choral music, and his sacred works are recognised and highly regarded around the world. Selected for this album was a sample representative of his compositional style, which eludes unequivocal classification. The recorded works display a remarkably broad palette of sounds and moods, produced from the most natural of all the instruments – the human voice. The composer himself emphasises the exceptional qualities of the voice, not just with regard to its sound: ‘It is the instrument closest to us, which each of us has. […] We produce sound, thanks to which it can be most easily understood by someone else’. The album includes compositions recorded for the first time ever – Terra nova et caelum novum (2006) and Veni Sancte Spiritus (2015) – and also two cyclical works: Missa Sancti Papae Ioannis Pauli Secundi Magni (2020) and Corpus Christi Responsoria (2018). Together they form a pillar of Lukaszewski’s sacred output, in which the personal, contemplative and mystical dimension is particularly moving.

Pawel Lukaszewski (b. 1968)

• Terra nova et caelum novum; Missa Sancti Papae Ioannis Pauli secundi magni; Veni Sancte Spiritus; Corpus Christi Responsoria