Moniuszkos music, along with Chopins immortal works, was included in the repertoires of all the orchestras revived after the war. Nearly every theatre that was resuscitated or organised anew began its first season with a premiere of Halka or The Haunted Manor. Moniuszko choirs sprang up like mushrooms across Poland. An anonymous journalist reported in June 1948 in The Voice of Pabianice that: Moniuszkos music delights, moves and enchants. Despite its beauty and charm, it is extremely sincere, fresh, simple, and full of feeling. Moniuszko is the singer of the nations very soul. He derives his inspiration from the songs and art of the people, which are his source and model. This is why Moniuszkos music is close to our hearts and dear to us all, because it touches us so, penetrates deep, and dazzles us. The familiar phrases of Moniuszkos songs and arias are easier to memorise than virtuosic passages from Chopins Etudes, plus they gained notoriety largely owing to the choral societies, founded already in the 19th century. But of much greater importance to the popularisation of Moniuszkos oeuvre was the music record industry. Thousands of private record collections perished in the war, most of all the productions of the famous label Syrena-Elektro, but also of the Polish branches of His Masters Voice, Columbia, and Parlophone. The present 3CD anthology consists of recordings from the years 19511961, the oldest of which were made by Muza United Music Industry Factory in Warsaw, while the later ones, after 1956, were already released under the label of Polskie Nagrania Public Company. These recordings are documents fascinating in many respects of an age of transition, when the old performance schools were gradually disappearing, and a new aesthetic was already in the making, represented by the then young singers and conductors.

Artists

Jerzy Lefeld, Maria Kunińska-Opacka, Andrzej Hiolski, Sergiusz Nadgryzowski, Halina Słonicka, Bogdan Paprocki, Marian Woźniczko, Antonina Kawecka, Wacław Domieniecki, Bohdan Paprocki, Zygmunt Mariański, Edmund Kossowski, Barbara Kostrzewska, Felicja Kurowiak, Bernard Ładysz, Orkiestra Opery w Poznaniu, Walerian Bierdiajew, Wielka Orkiestra Symfoniczna Polskiego Radia w Katowicach, Grzegorz Fitelberg, Orkiestra Filharmonii Narodowej, Chór Filharmonii Narodowej, Orkiestra Opery w Warszawie, Chór Opery w Poznaniu, Zdzisław Górzyński, Jerzy Semkow