The CD entitled ‘Le Clavecin Moderne - New Polish Music for Solo Harpsichord’ is the first CD in the career of Alina Ratkowska, a harpsichord player, devoted to the contemporary Polish music for the harpsichord solo. Many compositions complied in the album were either performed by Ratkowska for the first time, or dedicated to her.

The names of the authors whose music is recorded on the CD, namely: Miłosz Bembinow, Bartosz Kowalski, Edward Sielicki, Paweł Łukaszewski, Anna Ignatowicz-Glińska, Marian Sawa, and Jacek Grudzień, evidence that the harpsichord inspires the most esteemed Polish contemporary composers.

The CD proves that the harpsichord which is primarily associated with early music has the potential to inspire contemporary authors, too. There is a side to the instrument which places it in the midst of most recent music. The same goes for Alina Ratkowska: a graduate of the Academy of Music in Warsaw and Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel and laureate of first prizes at renowned early music competitions she now comes as a remarkable interpreter of music composed contemporarily.

The CD was presented during the International Scientific Symposium, THE HARPSICHORD IN THE OUTPUT OF THE CONTEMPORARY COMPOSERS – INSPIRATIONS, CHALLENGES, POSSIBILITIES, organised on the 19-20. November 2016, by the Chair of Organ and the Harpsichord of The Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.