Karol Stryja - Szymanowski: Harnasie - Mandragora - Etude for Orchestra (1996)

Harnasie is a choral ballet with folk inspired songs and dances that can perhaps be best compared to Stravinsky's Les Noce (The Wedding). It has a similar enlivening sense of rhythm and some really fresh and appealing tunes. The only reason it isn't more popular, no doubt, is because it's hard to find a chorus comfortable singing in Polish. But that's why God invented records, right? Mandragora, by contrast, is a humorous commedia dell'arte play about the rescue of a shipwrecked heroine from the lecherous embrace of her would-be savior. These authentic performances give a good account of the music, and at budget price won't dent your wallet. -- David Hurwitz