A native of Bohemia, Antonín Dvořák contributed much to the reestablishment of Czech national musical identity in the 19th century. It was the popularity of his choral music in England, however, that led to the development of the Mass in D from its smaller-scale original into a movingly dramatic and jubilant masterpiece with full orchestra. Dvořák’s celebratory Te Deum is comparable in form to a four-movement symphony. Antoni Wit is considered by ClassicsToday.com to be ‘the best conductor around these days for big choral works’. His acclaimed recording of Dvořák’s Requiem is available on Naxos 8.572874-75. Antoni Wit has made over 200 records, including an acclaimed release for Naxos of the piano concertos of Prokofiev, awarded the Diapason d’Or and Grand Prix du Disque de la Nouvelle Academie du Disque. In January 2002 his recording of the Turangalîla Symphony by Olivier Messiaen (8.554478-79) was awarded the Cannes Classical Award at MIDEM Classic 2002. He has completed for Naxos a CD series of Szymanowski’s symphonic and large-scale vocalinstrumental works, each rated among ‘discs of the month’ by CD magazines (Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine). He also received the Record Academy Award 2005 of Japanese music magazine Record Geijutsu for Penderecki’s Polish Requiem (Naxos), and four Fryderyk Awards of the Polish Phonographic Academy. In 2012 he received a GRAMMY® Award for Penderecki’s Fonogrammi, Horn Concerto and Partita (8.572482). In 2010 Antoni Wit won the annual award of the Karol Szymanowski Foundation for his promotion of the music of Szymanowski in his Naxos recordings.