The duo "Harmonia Classica" was
formed in 1994 by the husband and wife team of Monika Swiechowicz
and Krzysztof Gadzina. On this recording they perform both as
soloists and as a duo (Monika plays Rameau, Gubaidulina, Liszt/Chopin
and Albeniz, and Krzysztof plays Scarlatti, Jokinen and Semionov;
the rest are duos).
Both Polish accordionists, Monika
and Krzysztof graduated at the F. Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw,
under the tutorship of Professor Lech Puchnowski and Mr. Jerzy
Lukasiewicz. After their graduation, they continued their music
education in the Master Class of the "Hochschule fur Musik" in
Hanover (Germany) with Professor Elsbeth Moser. They are both
high achievers at numerous Polish and international accordion
competitions for accordion soloists and duets. Currently, they
give concerts both as soloists and as a duo, with other chamber
musicians and various orchestras from the whole of Europe. They
co-operated among others, with the National Philharmonic in Warsaw,
Poland, the Norddeutsche Rundfuk in Hamburg and the Hamburg Opera,
Germany. Their artistic achievements also include radio and television
recordings. .
For this recording Monika and Krzysztof
have chosen a repertoire consisting of transcriptions and original
music written for accordion. Their programme takes us through
different musical epochs: baroque, romantic and contemporary,
showing along the way their deep and profound understanding and
knowledge for these styles.
As musicians, Monika and Krzysztof
are professionals of the highest standard. These two artists show
great technical abilities, but their outstanding music and performing
culture is what makes their performance so remarkable.
All the pieces they perform are
perfected to the smallest detail with a lot of taste and class.
It would be very difficult to choose a favourite track: they all
are performed to the highest standard, "Whish" by Liszt/Chopin
with great elegancy and refinement, "Kalina Krasnaja " touchingly,
showing that emotional pain so typical for Semionov's works.........
I cannot speak about this recording
highly enough.
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