FELIX NOWOWIEJSKI (1877-1946): In Paradisum for Organ, Op. 61

Description: This was the composer's final work, finished in December of 1941 while he was in hiding in Krakow (the stroke he suffered shortly thereafter ended his writing permanently), his own setting of Christ's "Seven Last Words", dramatic, expressive and evocative and, with what the Nazis were doing outside all over Poland, a true cri de cœur. It's around 36 minutes long. For some reason, the French-born founder of the Monastic Fraternity of Jerusalem (Pierre-Marie Delfieux [1934-2013]) reads each "last word" before its musical depiction and his choir rounds off the disc with a Russian-derived five-minute Blessings. Sebastian Adamczyk (organ of the Church of the Jerusalem Mother of God, Warsaw). 2011 release.