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Warsaw Philharmonic and the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR) conducted by Antoni Wit - Record sales reach three million

Sales reports published by NAXOS, the leader of the world's classical music market, inform that the company has already sold nearly 3 million CDs recorded by Antoni Wit with NOSPR and Warsaw Philharmonic. More than one fifth of this number are recordings of works by the greatest Polish contemporary composers: H.M. Górecki, W. Kilar, W. Lutosławski.

The NAXOS catalogues cover a wide spectrum of Polish music on 28 CDs. Thanks to these releases, the majority of symphonic and large-scale vocal-instrumental works by these composers has been made available worldwide, as NAXOS is renowned for excellent, global distribution of its products. Many of NAXOS's projects have not been sold in large numbers of copies and have not brought sufficient profit to offset the initial outlay. In spite of this, NAXOS has upheld the decision to release Polish music by the above listed composers in collector sets, and in now has in its catalogue 10 CDs with music by Lutosławski and 8 CDs with works by Penderecki. A complete edition of works by Szymanowski and Karłowicz, recorded with the Warsaw Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, is forthcoming. The recording sessions were completed in January 2008, and the first disc containing both Violin Concertos (with Ilya Kaler as soloist) as well as the Nocturne and Tarantella by Szymanowski has already been released.

Eighty records sold in more than 2,200,000 copies feature music by European composers, as well as film music. The top selling records contain compositions by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Mahler and Ravel. In the previous year, the albums which enjoyed the greatest popularity were those with recordings of Symphony No. 8 by Gustav Mahler (with the Warsaw Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and Choir) and The Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss (with Staatskapelle Weimar), which were highly acclaimed by music critics worldwide.

Antoni Wit has also recorded for such record labels as EMI-HMV, CBS, Decca, NVS Arts, Pony Canyon, Polskie Nagrania, altogether - more than 140 titles. The total sales figures for CDs which feature maestro Wit as conductor are the highest among the Polish conductors and place him on a par with the greatest European artists.