More on Wars and UNESCO
Thanks to our great friends at the National Archives in Warsaw, we received three two-volume sets of beautifully produced catalogues released in conjunction with anniversary of the Memory of the World UNESCO program in Poland. During the June 2024 ceremonies at the Ministry of Culture and the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, ten years of Poland’s extensive UNESCO list of unique, world-heritage materials (which now include the PMC) were celebrated.
Unveiled last summer by Archives director Paweł Pietrzyk and Poland’s Minister of Culture Hanna Wróblewska, the exhibit featured—among several rare documents—manuscripts and other materials by Henryk Wars that have been donated to the PMC in 2005 by the composer’s widow, Elizabeth. This treasured PMC collection has been used to promote Henryk Wars as a composer of symphonic music and has led to several performances and recordings of his large-scale orchestral works throughout Poland. This includes, among others, his Piano Concerto, which was recorded with the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra led by Michał Klauza.
PMC Library Additions
Our sound library was enriched in March by a donation of the AKA Duo CD, featuring music by Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Artur Malawski, Aleksander Tansman, and Miłosz Magin. This debut recording by two Japanese virtuosos who specialize in Polish music—violinist Seina Matsuoka and pianist Yuto Kiguchi—is a very welcome addition to our Collections indeed. We now have two copies of this CD: one donated (and inscribed to us) by the musicians, and the other given to the PMC by director Lech Dzierżanowski who represents the National Institute of Music and Dance—the organization that sponsored the recording as well as partially sponsored the AKA Duo’s 2024/2025 U.S. concert tour.
Director Dzierżanowski has also donated to the PMC his biography of Roman Palester, one of the lesser-known Polish avantgarde composers. Published by PWM in their “Małe monografie” [Mini-biography] series, it sheds much needed light on this very interesting composer and his life in exile following the events of World War II. Director Dzierżanowski also graciously inscribed this volume to the Polish Music Center.
Another book with a handwritten dedication to the PMC is Oscar Sladek’s Escape to the Tatras, a harrowing story of a boy’s survival during World War II. It was presented to us by the author’s son, Daniel Sladek, after the AKA Duo concert at the Holocaust Museum Los Angeles on March 30, where music by Polish-Jewish composers was presented to a capacity audience.
Już nie zapomnisz mnie [You won’t forget me] isn’t only the title of a very popular song by Henryk Wars but also a title of a biography written about this fascinating composer about two decades ago by Ryszard Wolański. Illustrated with many photos from the PMC’s digital collections, it is a great introduction to Wars’s successful career in Poland before World War II, his long wartime ordeal, his eventual return to film music, and much more once he settled in Hollywood after the war. This book was donated to us by Nina Dąbrowa, a longtime friend and steadfast supporter of the Polish Music Center’s mission.
The Gift of Spring
Maciej Zimka, a young composer and an accordion virtuoso, recently sent us his CD Campo di Fiori. Published on the Squirus label (CD 2422), the repertoire on this recording opens with Zimka’s 2024 work Pole kwiatów [Flower field] for mezzo-soprano, flutes, clarinets and accordion. Other selections on this release include Eugeniusz Morawski-Dąbrowa’s Wybór pieśni [Selected song] for voice, flutes and clarinets arranged by Zimka, and Plurality Diversity Society, an extended suite of movements for flutes, clarinets and accordion by Thomas Emanuel Cornelius. Maciej Zimka’s partners on this project include mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kulig, flutist Ewa Zawiślak, and clarinetist Piotr Lato.