„The White Flower of a Giant. Witold Pilecki. Poems and Songs” is the title of an album featuring nine original compositions and musical arrangements of the poetry by Witold Pilecki. The premier concert took place on March 1 at 8:30 pm, on National Day of Remembrance of the Cursed Soldiers, at the Witold Lutoslawski Concert Studio of the Polish Radio.

Rotmistrz Witold Pilecki is not only a heroic volunteer to Auschwitz, a born soldier and a skilled conspirator. He is a defender of the Polish borders in 1939, a participant in the battles of the Warsaw Uprising, and finally a victim of the communist regime. There is also the lesser-known Pilecki - a social activist, agronomist, and finally a poet - an example of a romantic borderland soul. This is exactly the kind of Pilecki - less known, but not less interesting - that the album „The White Flower of a Giant. Witold Pilecki. Poems and Songs.”

„Our initiative of a musical arrangement of Witold Pilecki’s poetry is an attempt to portray him through intimacy and privacy, by the primacy of a loving husband and father, sensitive to the beauty of nature and an empathetic man. Our common goal is to show the Rotmistrz not only as a patriot and an authority, but also as a model of love for the family, thus giving adequate accents to the enormity of his self-sacrifice”

— said Dr. Marcin Zarzecki, Chairman of the Board of the Polish National Foundation. This unique release was made possible through the cooperation of the Polish National Foundation and the Catholic Cultural Initiative Association in Kolobrzeg, which is the publisher of the album. This truly unique and unusual record could appear thanks to the support of the Polish National Foundation, which is the official partner of the publication.

In the public space, Rotmistrz Pilecki stands as a hero of the unbroken. And this is true. However, we try to show heroes as ordinary people with feelings, but also as those who could afford great deeds. If we read the texts of Pilecki’s poems, we can clearly see in them a man who was extremely sensitive to the beauty of nature, as well as feelings towards his children and wife, based on a Christian system of values. There is a note of nostalgia in the poems, as well as a longing for the land of childhood

— added PFN Vice President Michal Góras.

The album was produced by its originator and producer, Jack Pechman, who invited the young and talented artist Katarzyna Mielnik, as well as the excellent musician Hadrian Filip Tabęcki and his musical team. Guest musicians of the Podkarpackie Philharmonic Orchestra from Rzeszow, as well as outstanding actors Andrzej Mastalerz and Przemyslaw Tejkowski participated in the project.

Honorary patronage of the album is held by Prof. Piotr Gliński, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Culture and National Heritage, and the closest Family of the Rotmistrz; Zofia Pilecka - Optułowicz, Andrzej Pilecki, who the album is dedicated to.

Tłum. K.J