Two years ago the Poznan Philharmonic released an unusual album prepared especially for the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Greater Poland uprising. “The Greater Poland Symphony 1918. Songs of the Greater Poland Uprising” is a unique musical meeting of the past and the present. On the same album we can find “The Greater Poland Symphony 1918” by Marek Sewen, commissioned by the Poznan Philharmonic on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the uprising (performed by the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra and the Poznan Nightingales led by Łukasz Borowicz) and songs from the period of the uprising, songs from a hundred years ago, but – one might say – in “new packaging”.

Eight new a cappella choral works presented then for the first time on the album are contemporary arrangements of melodies sung by the participants of the Greater Poland uprising or written later to honour the heroic insurgents. Lifting the spirits, comforting, reassuring – over the last decades they were frequently arranged, often in the traditional, marching style.

We requested young Polish composers for a new insight: Marek Raczyński, Dominik Puk, Jakub Szafrański and Jan Krutul. We asked them to look from their own perspective and not to be afraid to arrange them according to their own understanding and individual sentiment. To try to speak to a contemporary listener, who lives in a totally different reality, through military songs. They carried out their task brilliantly.

The songs from the uprising were recorded by Poznan Chamber Choir conducted by Bartosz Michałowski. On the 102nd anniversary of the outbreak of the Greater Poland uprising we would like to remind one of them – the famous “Rota”, this time arranged by Dominik Puk: here