Before his time with the Berlin Philharmonic, Simon Rattle shaped the City of Birmingham Orchestra into a body of sound that today attracts visitors from all over the world. After Rattle's departure, the orchestra passed into good hands, but now the conductor has returned for a new recording: with opulent orchestral songs by Karol Szymanowski - Poland's late-Romantic sound magician, whose unjustly neglected work Rattle has championed for years with obvious affection and most successfully. Together with the vocal soloists, Rattle transports his listeners to the fairy-tale world of the Orient so beloved by Szymanowski: the texts of the medieval Persian poet Hafiz inspired him to write the love songs, whose mysticism is also found in the songs of a fairy-tale princess. The spirited ballet pantomime Harnasie for tenor, choir and orchestra, on the other hand, is a late work from 1931 and documents Szymanowski's preoccupation with the folklore of the Górals, a mountain people of the High Tatras.