Tadeusz Baird

On disc for the first time: intriguing orchestral music by Tadeusz Baird for two films that deal, in very different ways, with the subject of war. Poignant lyrical passages build into polyphonic frescoes that still surprise and delight with both their craft and their simplicity.

Agnieszka 46, the second feature by Sylwester Chęciński, was considered by the director himself to be his real debut. A successful drama with excellent performances by Joanna Szczerbic and Leon Niemczyk, it took apart postwar veterans' heroics, concentrating the problems of millions of people into the micro-scale of a small village. Baird scored the film with a series of distinctive melodic lines that weave into an elaborate whole, full of interesting tonal turns. His music for Jerzy Passendorfer's Zerwany most is in a similar spirit, at times bolder and calling on larger forces.

Agnieszka 46 appears remastered from the original tapes in the archive of the Feature Film Studio (Wytwórnia Filmów Fabularnych) in Wrocław. The booklet contains a text on both films, stills and reproductions of memorabilia. The disc continues the joint series of the Wrocław Feature Film Studio and GAD Records presenting the most interesting film music recordings from the studio's archives, which has already included Adam Walaciński's music for the series Czterej pancerni i pies and Wojciech Kilar's complete score for Salto. Agnieszka 46 (tracks 1 to 7) and Zerwany most (tracks 8 to 15) are performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Stefan Marczyk.