STANISŁAW MORYTO (b.1947): Concerto for Percussion, Harp and String Orchestra, Suite for String Orchestra, 4 Pieces in Polish Style for String Orchestra, 7 Kurpie Songs for Soprano and Orchestra.

Description: Moryto is a noted academic with a substantial composing and performing career. He has composed for a wide range of forces, including an extensive quantity of vocal, choral and religious music. This disc highlights two aspects of his output; instantly accessible folk-derived pieces, and weightier instrumental music in a more modern (but still very tonal) idiom. The Four Pieces and songs from the Kurpie region (the latter arranged for voice and orchestra from the choral original) are straightforward and charming arrangements of folk material, as are the central vocal movements of the Suite for voice and strings, while the instrumental outer movements employ a slightly more astringent vocabulary. The inventively scored Concerto is a more sophisticated work altogether, developing its material through a range of instrumental colors and textures in a mysterious, fantastical opening movement, a tenebrous slow movement and a rhythmically persistent finale which gathers weight and momentum before suddenly evaporating. No texts. Anna Mikołajczyk-Niewiedział (soprano), Anna Sikorzak-Olek (harp), Stanisław Skoczyński (percussion), Witold Lutosławski Chamber Philharmonic, Łomża; Jan Miłosz Zarzycki.