Dawid Lubowicz – INSIDE
2025-05-31Zbigniew Seifert – Solo Violin
2025-06-01Matthew Smoczynski - Metamorphoses
Cat. no.: CD-FZS-4, year: 2017
Matthew Smoczynski's first solo album, released in 2017. . The title Metamorphoses refers to the artistic transformation of the violinist, who after many years of jazz music, decided to record an album of classical music3]. The album includes his "Violin Sonata No. 1 Metamorphoses".
The idea of recording and releasing Mateusz Smoczynski's solo album by the Zbigniew Seifert Foundation was quite obvious. Mateusz is the winner of the second edition of the 2016 Zbigniew Seifert International Jazz Violin Competition, and the foundation, after all, does not stop at donating the prize, but works closely with the winners of the competition, organizing concerts for them or supporting them in the realization of recordings. This, however, is not the only reason why we offered Matthew to record a solo recital.
Mateusz Smoczynski is an outstanding and versatile musician, taking part in numerous ambitious and critically acclaimed projects. Suffice it to mention the American Turtle Island Quartet, in which he was active in 2012-2016, the brilliant Atom String Quartet, his own ensembles, i.e. Mateusz Smoczynski Quintet and New Trio, and finally the famous Zakopower or Natalia Kukulska. So it's time to introduce the next artistic incarnation of this talented violinist, composer and arranger.
A solo recital consisting mainly of original compositions is a bold and important step in Matthew's career. Once again, Mateusz proves that there are no musical boundaries he can't cross. And yet a solo concert is an emotionally and physically exhausting undertaking. Finding the balance between technical bravado and remarkable lyricism and gracefully juggling a variety of styles, between focusing on details and conveying the overall idea is an extremely difficult challenge. Filling this space with only one, at most two instruments (Smoczynski's recent discovery is the baritone violin) requires incredible technique, artistry and musicality, which undoubtedly characterize our artist.
In numerous interviews, Mateusz Smoczynski admits to three musical fascinations: they are Zbigniew Seifert, John Coltrane and Karol Szymanowski. The music contained on this CD expands this range of influences to include Niccolò Paganini, Eugène Ysaÿe, György Ligeti and Krzysztof Penderecki. Somewhat stylistically different are the complementary compositions on this recording by Mark Summer and Jan Smoczynski - Matthew's brother and his faithful musical friend.
Matthew Smoczynski says this about his latest project: The main thought that accompanied me in the creation of this album was the desire to record an album that is not jazz, but classical, but with space for improvisation.
I have always been impressed by the longer musical forms found in classical music, but as an author I never had the courage to tackle them. I had been thinking about a solo album for a long time, and it provided an excuse to fulfill my ambitions and test my compositional abilities. The result of this work is, among other things, the four-movement "Sonata," the main piece on this album. Composing pieces that go beyond the jazz theme is new to me, and this is my "metamorphosis." However, in order to avoid the monotony of a solo album, I tried to break up the album with pieces approaching other musical genres.
Zbigniew Seifert's Solo Violin was written more than forty years ago and is still an extremely important position in jazz music, especially in solo jazz violin. We hope that Mateusz Smoczynski's album will also become an inspiration for young artists who are searching for their musical language in the difficult solo matter.
Aneta Norek-Skrycka, president of the Zbigniew Seifert Foundation
Track listing:
Dorothy's Dream
Violin Sonata: Prayer, Lament, Mantra, Confession
Julie-O
Manhattan Island
The Old Tune
Up-Down
The Farmer
Zakopane
Dragonfly
Midnight Psalm
