“...while attending a portrait-concert of composer and musicologist Marian Borkowski (Warsaw Music Academy, 2 December 1998, the 40th anniversary of creative activity and the 30th anniversary of pedagogical work), I lived through such an adventure, I discovered a whole chunk of good music that I hadn’t known before, I liked it at the first listen, I was moved by the works performed, they imprinted themselves in my memory, they intrigued me in such a way that I wanted to get to know this music better, to listen to these and other works of his from recordings, and to get a glimpse of how they are put together.(…)
And what is his music like? (…) What is it about these works, especially the more recent ones from the 1990’s, which strikes me first and foremost?
What features can I distinguish here?
Clarity of the sound shapes, a very concrete quality of the sound, and something that tells us that this music really exists – rather than just signifying existence. Clarity of structure. Strength and cohesion of construction. Logic of development and building. Proportionality of form. Intense expressivity resulting from the sound substance. The sacred music idiom (in the choral works). Tightness and condensation (the longest work does not exceed 15 minutes). Using every effect with clear purpose.
These are properties of classical music, in the broadest sense. But they should be all the more valued today, in the times aesthetic confusion, faltering judgements, and blurred criteria of value.(…)
Moreover, in the penetrations of various sources of sound – the natural one! – always put in a tight manner and condensed in time (here, the creative patronage of Anton Webern is clear), there is a striking richness of musical imagination: originality of ideas, variety of solutions, creative fantasy (if this word can be used here) but controlled by formal rigour based on sonic specificity (“sonoristic”) – its feel and awareness.(...)."
Bohdan Pociej
Translation: Dominik Karski