Handwritten ballet manuscripts found in the most unexpected way. Two world premiere recordings. A mysterious composer. And last but not least, electrifying Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra with a young, award winning director – Sebastian Perłowski. These releases will definitely not be forgotten!

Warner Classics Poland presents two corresponding albums with the complete ballet music of Feliks Nowowiejski – a German-born Polish composer, often compared to Wagner, Richards Strauss and Anton Bruckner. The albums recorded by the vigorous Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra together with the Polish Radio Choir under Sebastian Perłowski are world premiere studio recordings of Feliks Nowowiejski’s ballets: The King of The Winds, op.37, and Folk Paintings, op.18.

The composer and organist-virtuoso (born 1877 in Wartembork) studied in Berlin under Max Bruch. He moved to Poland after the first World War and became one of the most prominent figures of Polish music. Unfortunately, many of his works were destroyed due to the complicated 20th century history, and after his death in 1946, Nowowiejski became almost totally forgotten. Until very recently even the most prominent researchers of his music believed that his ballets were lost forever. However, it turned out that they were wrong. The scores were found in 2014 and then carefully recovered and edited under the supervision of Jan Nowowiejski , the composer’s son, who unfortunately passed away soon after the recordings were made.

The significant mark on this exciting artistic journey is this release, which shows to the musical world the emblematic works of one of the most unjustly forgotten composers of the turn of the 19th and 20th century. The style of Nowowiejski is rich and colourful, characterized with great orchestration craft and melodic invention. Despite being trained in Germany, he included a lot of traditional Polish culture in his scores, which makes for an exciting, emotional mixture of universal value.

Feliks Nowowiejski is one of the most mysterious Polish composers. Extremely popular during his lifetime and almost totally forgotten today, many of his scores were destroyed due to the complicated 20th century history. Even researchers thought at first that the score of The King of The Winds was lost. No one expected that Folk Paintings would exist either. Only the determination of one persistent fan (who is also the producer of this huge project) proved them wrong….