Piotr Schmidt Quartet / Komeda Unknown 1967 (koncert z Chorzowa)

Описание: Piotr Schmidt Quartet / Komeda Unknown 1967

From Galeria Sztuki Muzycznej i Obrazu w Chorzowie

Piotr Schmidt - trumpet
Paweł Tomaszewski - keys
Michał Barański - double bass
Sebastian Kuchczyński - drums

Audio recorded and mixed: Robert Jurowicz
Video recorded and mixed: Paweł Mikołajczyk
Thanks to Łukasz Gliński for help in producing this video.

Premiere of the studio album: 24.06.2022

www.sjrecords.eu

Koncert premierowy: 25 czerwca w Jassmine w Warszawie!


Krzysztof Balkiewicz about the history of this project:

In October 1967, Krzysztof Komeda created in Baden-Baden a project from the series Jazz and Poetry Meine Süsse Europäische Heimat - My Sweet European Homeland. As it turned out, it was Komeda's last European work - the composer's symbolic farewell to Europe.

The Meine Süsse Europäische Heimat album with songs to texts by outstanding Polish poets was released at a time when Komeda was already in Hollywood and was working on the music for Roman Polański's film Rosemary's Baby. The correspondence between the composer and the producer of the album, Joachim-Ernst Berendt, showed that there were more pieces created than there were on the album. In Komeda's letter, he asked Berendt to replace some of the compositions. Berendt refused - in his opinion certain poems emphasized the European character of the album more. And that was the only trace of the existence of additional compositions ...

It seemed that these unknown compositions were irretrievably lost. However, in the National Library in Warsaw, during a detailed search of Krzysztof Komeda's archive, together with musicologist Justyna Raczkowska, I managed to find a real treasure - the manuscripts of six Komeda's compositions from the project My sweet European homeland, which were not included on the aforementioned vinyl record.

These are the pieces:
1. Jonah to the poem by Zbigniew Herbert: Jonasz
2. When Imagination Light Goes Out to the poem by Adam Ważyk: Poem for Adults
3. The Classic to the poetic prose of Zbigniew Herbert: Klasyk
4. Jan Cherubin to the poem by Mieczysław Jastrun: Jan Cherubin
5. Just The Two Of Them to the poem of Bolesław Leśmian: Two People
6. Miserere to the poem by Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński Miserere (On the original German album, the work of the same title contains a different composition than that presented by the Piotr Schmidt Sextet).

About the project My Sweet European Homeland, Komeda himself (otherwise known for his reserved approach to his work) said that it was his most outstanding work. On the other hand, Joachim-Ernst Berendt wrote about Krzysztof Komeda's compositions: "We have never had such beautiful, rich and emotional melodies on an album with poetry!".

After more than half a century, we can admire the second, unknown part of the legendary project by Krzysztof Komeda, My Sweet European Homeland. The album also includes one song, known from the previously released album, After Catastrophe, written to a poem by Czesław Miłosz, Campo di Fiori.

Piotr Schmidt undertook the study of the discovered manuscripts of Krzysztof Komeda and the arrangement of music. Outstanding works were created. All the musicians captured the spirit of Komeda's work with incredible intuition.

Piotr Schmidt and his friends paid tribute to Krzysztof Komeda on the 90th anniversary of the composer's birth in an absolutely unique way. It seems that our "European motherland" was waiting for this music ...

Krzysztof Balkiewicz
President of the Association for the Protection of the Heritage of Krzysztof Komeda

www.sjrecords.eu - Polish version of the description of the project.
Buy the studio album on www.sjrecords.eu and elsewhere.