New Album Announcement!
The "Seven Last Words of Christ" (DUX/Naxos) will be released this July 3rd.
I am writing to you today to gratefully announce the pre-release of my third portrait album: The Seven Last Words of Christ. Released by Poland’s wonderful DUX label (international distribution through NAXOS), it is a chronicle of my 16 month residency with the Orkiestra Camerata Stargard in Stargard, Poland. The album can currently be pre-ordered through Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble, with more retailers coming online soon. Many people have worked with me and invested a great deal of time, funds, and energy to bring this project to fruition, and it goes without saying that your pre-release purchase of a CD or digital copy will go a long way in helping our album gain recognition and even potentially enter the classical charts. You all helped me achieve #1 digital sales status on Amazon in 2023 with my album Metanoia, a success which directly led to the beginning of this beautiful project. As such, I’m counting on you once again to help us bring recognition of this collaboration to the world! As Arvo Pärt once reminded us, composers are nothing without dedicated interpreters, while recordings serve as the most important contemporary record of our fruitful collaborations. It only follows, then, that the support of fans is the final indispensable link in this artistic economy.
Amazon Pre-Purchase Link
Barnes and Noble Pre-Purchase Link
While I promise to only send you emails a few times a year, I’ll be sending several emails to remind you about the stages of this album’s release, to announce new related social media posts, and to humbly request your support along the way.
(Don’t forget to follow my Instagram and my Facebook accounts for more posts!)
Before I tell you about the origins of the project, I’d like to share the original fundraising trailer we created which helped garner your support during the publication stage of the project, as I think it does a good job of representing the sound and spirit of our efforts:
A brief background of The Seven Last Words of Christ album:
After the premiere of Speravit anima mea in Domino for orchestra and soprano soloist at the 2022 Soni Spatium festival in Poland, I began an extended conversation with the director of the Orkiestra Camerata Stargard, Monika Konopczynska, who soon came back to me with an ambitious commission: a setting of the the seven last words of Christ from the cross for chamber orchestra and bass-baritone soloist. The timing was perfect as I was going on sabbatical, and seven months later I presented her with the score for this work, which would be premiered on a moody and chilly evening in March of 2024. This was the first concert I had ever experienced entirely featuring my music. As darkness set and the fire illuminated this ancient church, I found myself transported by the technical excellence and deep emotional investment of these wonderful musicians. The resulting recording would become the first work on this forthcoming album.
After this first concert, we immediately began to plan for a second premiere, which would become one of my most personal works - O Mater Dolorosa! - this time featuring the orchestra’s concert-master, Karolina Hyla-Wybraniec. It was a significant expansion of a piece about violence, tragedy and redemption (by the same name), commissioned by the Benedict XVI Institute as a work for violin and organ, and originally premiered by two inestimable musicians in their own right: Fiona Hughes and Ben LaPraire. When the Camerata’s Konopczynska began to speak to me about composing a work to feature a violin soloist, a process of discernment made me strongly suspect that O Mater Dolorosa! could be meaningfully expanded, and that the work could bear even deeper fruit. The existing work became the second movement of a new two-movement work, adding chamber strings and bass drum into the ensemble. I think both versions of the work are complete in their own right, with each representing a particular stage in the journey of grief and growth, just as the work itself does on a macro level. This would become the second recording on the forthcoming album.
The final recording on the album is of the work O Pieknosci Niestworzona — O Beauty Uncreated. Original commissioned for the tenth anniversary of the Projekt Mozart festival in 2012, the assignment was to compose a contemporary work for choir and chamber orchestra using the same instrumentation as the featured work of the festival, Mozart’s Coronation Mass. At the time a financial shortage in the festival prevented a proper recording session, leaving us with only a tantalizing capture using an amateur handheld recorder. Knowing that I would once again have the opportunity to work with my friend and commissioning conductor Szymon Wyrzykowski for this last recording, we decided to bring back O Beauty Uncreated for the proper recording session we always envisioned for the piece. The work, which sets a beautiful text from the spiritual diary of St. Faustyna, has always been one of my favorites, and I am so glad that it can now conclude The Seven Last Words of Christ album. And while you wait for your copy to arrive, I can also share a luminous live performance from my time with the Orkiestra Camerata Stargard.
In the coming weeks I’ll write again to share details of the forthcoming release, and also to share purchase platforms as they become available. For now, it goes without saying that your purchase of an album in digital or physical form would represent the culmination of the efforts of many dedicated people. We thank you for your support in advance!
-Mark Nowakowski