Chamber music accounts for over half of Krzysztof Meyer’scontribution, which consists of works for time-honouredtraditional forces – most notably among them 13 string quartets,two quintets (clarinet and piano) and trios (piano and string) – aswell as for less common instrumental pairings like his flutequartet Capriccio per sei strumenti composed in 1987–88.

With his Suite subtitled Baroque reminiscences WladyslawSlowinski wished to pay homage to a venue, which played aseminal role in the history of Polish culture. Hence the workcontains so many allusions to early music where a desire toarouse certain associations is clearly discernible.

In one of his interviews Krzysztof Penderecki admitted that hissource of inspiration for writing Clarinet Quartet was theatmosphere generated by Schubert’s String Quintet during aconcert in he Swiss resor of Evian. Initially he sketched it “forhimself” without any concrete plans, but the work was finallycomposed when commissioned by the Schleswig-HolsteinFestival