The Polish-born composer, Marta Ptaszyńska, studied under Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen, and since 1972 has worked in the United States where she forged cultural links between the two countries. Ptaszyńska has composed in all major genres and has worked with many leading musicians and ensembles. Her harmonic writing is often refined and translucent, with an expressive intensity generated through contrasts. The orchestral works in this album illustrate her gifts for creating evocative atmospheres. Dedicated to and premiered by Yehudi Menuhin, the Concerto grosso explores Baroque archetypes.

Conductor Mariusz Smolij is a Polish music specialist and has recorded several acclaimed Naxos albums. The New York Times has written of his ‘compelling performances’. His album of works by Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz won a 2015 ‘Fryderyk’ Award (Naxos 8573229), the Polish equivalent of an American Grammy. In 2019 the president of Poland awarded him the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit for the promotion of Polish culture.

He has a long and successful series of recordings by Polish and other composers on Naxos, amongst them Bacewicz, Malawski and Paderewski but also a multi-volume series devoted to Hungarian Eugene Zádor. ‘[Smolij’s] sense of nuance and his choice of tempos seem ideally suited to these works, and the performances suggest that everyone involved was in love with them. The orchestra plays magnificently. One could not ask for more from a performance. The recorded sound is excellent’ (Fanfare on 8573800).