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. |
