The album A Kalergis, an original idea of pianist Monika Quinn, presents piano compositions by 19th-century composers (Theodor Kullak, Carl Tausig, Franz Liszt, Jozef Nowakowski, Kazimierz Lubomirski and Alexander Dreyschock) dedicated to Countess Maria Kalergis - a talented student of Chopin, one of the most important figures of 19th-century European art salons, and a generous patroness of the arts. Her Paris salon brought together well-known artists and influential men from the world of politics. When she lived in Warsaw, she would promote Polish composers and domestic institutions of musical life.
Most of the works recorded on the album are world premiere recordings, and this CD champions the rediscovery of forgotten music of the Romantic era.
"The efforts of Monika Quinn to interpret and record these 19th-century piano compositions are absolutely right and praiseworthy. As a result, the album perpetuates the memory of outstanding pianists of the Romantic era and the technique and style of play as well, but it also testifies to their compositional skills. Moreover, this anthology of musical dedications commemorates the fascinating, magnetic personality of a lady of the Romantic era who gathered outstanding artists of that time around herself. They, in turn, not only commemorated the achievements and merits of artists' patroness by writing "to Kalergis" on the scores of their virtuoso or lyrical works - they also gave today's audience the opportunity to go back in time to a 19th-century art salon and to listen to the echoes of the past" - Mieczyslawa Demska-Trebacz.
The recordings were made in December 2021 in Warsaw, in the Concert Hall of the Chopin University of Music.
