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Pianist Hanna Holeska – CD Review, March 23rd, 2022

An album with music by Aleksander Tansman, a composer who lived between 1897 and 1986. A Polish musician of Jewish origin, who became a French citizen in 1938, Aleksander Tansman was,in the art of sound, a follower of neoclassicism, highlighted with modern compositional techniques, creating an original and unique style in the musical landscape of the first decades of the twentieth century. Although he won a major composition contest in Warsaw in 1919, the musician decided to leave his native land Poland to settle in France, and since then his career thrived, Tansman being invited to tour Europe, Asia, North and South America, receiving prestigious awards and being a member of the jury for major music competitions. Nevertheless, his musical creations were not often performed in Poland. It is only in the recent years that Aleksander Tansman's compositions have returned to the attention of the Polish public due to exceptional record achievements, such as that of pianist Hanna Holeska. On December 10th, 2021, the artist released an album featuring piano pieces by Aleksander Tansman.

45-year-old Hanna Holeska is one of Poland's most successful pianists and is the head of the Chamber Music Department of the Academy of Music in Lodz. She graduated from the Karol Szymanowski Academy in Katowice in 2000 and has won numerous contests in her home country, as well as in France and Switzerland. In 2005 she released her debut album which included pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Camille Saint-Saens. Her discography also includes CDs with chamber music by Edward Elgar, Richard Strauss, Karol Szymanowski and Maurice Ravel, reflecting the pianist's affinity for twentieth-century music. In 2019, Hanna Holeska recorded a first album with chamber music by Aleksander Tansman, a critically acclaimed project that encouraged the Polish artist to release a new album, this time with solo piano pieces by the same composer. Aleksander Tansman's music highlights the impeccable technique of the pianist and his subtlety.

Larisa Clempuș