En hommage

eda records has been devoting special attention to the composer Simon (Polish: Szymon) Laks for several years now. World-premiere recordings of his works run through the entire “Poland Abroad” series (eda 26, 27, 34, 35, and 37), some of his vocal compositions can be found on the CD “Elegy for the Jewish Villages” (eda 30), while the present production is dedicated entirely to him as an homage. Born in 1901 in Warsaw, Laks belonged to a group of Polish musicians and composers who banded together in Paris in the late 1920s as the “Association des Jeunes Musiciens Polonais.” Under the stewardship of Paderewski, Szymanowski, Arthur Rubinstein, and Nadia Boulanger, it was considered the most important non-French music association in what was then the music capital of the world. Laks, who had studied at the University of Warsaw and the Conservatoire in Paris, began his auspicious career as a composer in the early 1930s. He composed for famous ensembles such as the Roth Quartet and renowned