Though none of the pieces on this disc counts among his major works, it adds up to an attractive portrait of the composer...[the Sinfoniettas] inhabit a sound-world suggesting Shostakovich, but without its bleak pessimism. Conductor Antoni Wit sculpts the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra's playing, and two wind soloists shape every line with purpose.

there's plenty of fervent intensity in the way Antoni Wit and the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra put the music across

The performances here are really fine throughout: Antoni Wit is an exceptional conductor who has made some outstanding recordings (not just of Polish music) with this admirable orchestra, and the recording quality is first-rate.

This collection of works for string orchestra swings effortlessly from courtly baroque pastiche to radical avant garde...Here was a leading enfant terrible producing stately minuets, played with elegant warmth by the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra in the latest of Antoni Wit's excellent Penderecki series for Naxos...All elements combine in the closing, elegiac Sinfonietta No 2