The story of Polish composer Roman Maciejewski is a strange one. Born in Berlin in 1910, then a student at the Warsaw Conservatory, where he drew the attention of Szymanowski, he would leave to spend a while in Paris with Nadia Boulanger – and in fact, he would never again set foot in Poland. He spent a few months in England; a long stretch in Sweden (living there from 1939 to 1951, he would write, amongst other things, incidental music for the films of Ingmar Bergman); and an even longer period in California (1951-1977), before returning to Sweden, dying there in 1998. Only his remains made the final voyage to Poland, for burial there. Without a doubt, this Missa pro defunctis was his magnum opus, begun in 1944 and only finished about fifteen years later. In it, we hear plenty of confluences (rather than influences) with Poulenc, Fauré, Szymanowski, and sometimes Stravinski, and some rare accents of Hollywood (not surprising, given that he was living around there at the time), but in reality his post-romantic language remains powerfully personal, not especially "Polish", with an utterly stunning science of orchestration. This recording, which is sumptuous, to say the least, was made in 1989 by a particularly inspired Warsaw Philharmonic, and a selection of first-class soloists. We would like to hear this masterpiece performed more often on stage or in a great church, in the place of the ubiquitous Requiems by Verdi or Mozart. © SM/Qobuz