Recordings

Minimus Vocal Ensemble releases a new album featuring the premiere composition “Threni”

Minimus Vocal Ensemble presents a new album – a moving journey through centuries of meditation on suffering and hope. Featuring works by Alonso Lobo, Arvo Pärt, James MacMillan and Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, along with the premiere recording of “Threni” by Marek Raczyński, this is the fourth release in the fifteen-year history of the Poznań-based ensemble led by Sławomira Raczyńska. The album has been released under the patronage of the Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC and TVP Kultura.

The artists undertook the ambitious task of juxtaposing works from different eras and entirely different styles, all united by themes of mourning, suffering and trust. The structure of the new album is clearly delineated – three successive parts comprise: Renaissance Lamentations of Jeremiah, a cappella works by contemporary composers, and the composition “Threni” by Marek Raczyński, written in 2023, scored for choir, saxophone, double bass and percussion instruments.

“The text of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, one of the books of the Old Testament, is both the frame and the key to our entire album,” says Sławomira Raczyńska, artistic director of the ensemble. “This approach allowed us to juxtapose, within a single release, the Renaissance polyphony of Alonso Lobo with the contemporary composition by Marek Raczyński which, despite its modern language and means of expression, references the structure of Renaissance music.”

In the middle section of the album, Minimus broadened the context of the Lamentations with three a cappella works: the contemplative music of Arvo Pärt, the harmonically dense song by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, and the moving prayer by James MacMillan.

“The album Threni is a true journey into the interior of the suffering human being, (…) a study of the tormented soul,” writes Dr hab. Maria Piotrowska-Bogalecka – “Through Minimus Vocal Ensemble, Threni Project Choir and Sławomira Raczyńska, we receive a contemplative, hushed image that invites us to pause, listen and meditate.”

Performers

• Minimus Vocal Ensemble
• Threni Project Choir
• Paweł Gusnar – saxophone
• Szymon Guzowski – double bass
• Bartek Miler – percussion
• Sławomira Raczyńska – conductor / artistic director

Details

• Release date: 31 October 2025
• Catalogue number: RecArt 0069
• Format: CD

RecArt presents the album “Media Vita – Marek Raczyński choral works” (RecArt 0022). The disc features eight compositions, including seven scored for a cappella choir, performed among others by Minimus Vocal Ensemble under the direction of Sławomira Raczyńska. The polychoral composition “Media Vita” for three a cappella choirs, awarded 1st prize at the International Composition Competition Musica Sacra (Cologne, Germany, 2015), was sung specially for this recording by Media Vita Project Choir.

“The album you hold contains a selection of compositions from my sacred choral output. Their choice and arrangement illustrate my artistic explorations over the past ten years. At their centre lies, unfailingly, beauty. When composing, I seek it in references to musical tradition, in melodic quotations and stylisations (“Gaudeamus omnes”, “Sicut lilium”, “Ave Regina Caelorum”), in following the wisdom and depth of the text (“Dominus illuminatio mea”), and in working with space and time (“Media vita”). In my work I strive for beauty, hoping the listener will find and feel it where I intended to place it.”

— Marek Raczyński

Details

• Release date: 8 May 2017
• Catalogue number: RecArt 0022
• Format: CD

On this album we wish to present our vision of carols – somewhat altered, modernised, yet firmly rooted in tradition.

Among the contemporary interpretations of traditional carols, you will find arrangements by composers especially close to the choral community – Grzegorz Miśkiewicz, Maciej Kubacki and Marek Raczyński. True to its title, the album offers not only carols. The ensemble chose to enrich it with, among other pieces, Renaissance motets by Mikołaj Zieleński and Tomás Luis de Victoria, linked to the Christmas season. Alongside the vocal parts, instrumentalists specialising in baroque instruments also appear: violin, cello, oboe and traverso flute.

If you are interested in purchasing the CD edition, please contact us: info@minimus.com.pl

Details

• Release date: 1 December 2014
• Format: CD