Shakespeare's Sonnets

'''Shakespeare's Sonnets' by Paweł Mykietyn are thought to be some of the composer's best works. This composition, along with Paweł Szymański's three songs to words by Georg Traki, constitute the greatest achievements in Polish vocal lyric composition since Witold Lutosławski. In undertaking the task of setting selected sonnets by Shakespeare to music, Mykietyn wanted to retain something of the ''hermaphroditic'' aura of the literary origin in his composition. He did it through an appropriate selection of human voice: the male soprano he requires sounds, after all, very like a woman in its high register, in contrast with its low register which resembles a man's voice (this sexually ambivalent character of the piece is irretrievably lost if performed by a female singer, although it is allowed by the composer). [...]'' [M. Gmys]