Wienawski: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2, Fantaisie brillante

Includes concerto(s) for violin by various composers.

VIOLIN CONCERTOS

Karol Szymanowski was, after Chopin, probably the first Polish artist whose name was internationally linked to a modern and innovative musical language, but also to a free relation to the heritage of the European culture. At the same time, he also remains a thoroughly Polish composer who showed the world the beauty of the Podhale and Kurpie traditions, among others. The most known and most characteristic pieces by Szymanowski, in excellent interpretations, will help each listener to get a better insight into the phenomenon of the composer’s work. This release is an overview of Szymanowski’s best work, performed by some of the finest Polish musicians including the Warsaw Chamber Orchestra, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, The Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra, and others.

VERY BEST OF KILAR

Johann Joachim Quantz, in his handbook for transverse flute written in 1752, wrote of the composer Georg Philipp Telemann: “I wish to especially recommend Telemann’s trios written in the French style, many of which he had already fashioned thirty or more years ago.” Georg Philipp Telemann not only gained the admiration of Quantz, but his pieces are still frequently performed and recorded today. For this album, his Concerto di camera in G minor, Double Concertos in A minor and E minor, and Suite in A minor have been recorded. Performing these timeless works are three outstanding period instrumentalists, Bolette Roed, Reiko Ichise, and Alexis Kossenko.

TANSMAN 5 pièces. 1 Violin Concerto. 1 Suite Baroque • Marcin Na??z-Niesio?owski, cond; Bartosz Cajler (vn); 1 Bia?ystok O of Podlasie Op & P • DUX 639 (50:12)


The Polish composer, Alexandre Tansman, wrote his Cinq pièces in 1930 for Joseph Szigeti—according to Iwona Linstedt’s notes, in two versions: for violin and piano and for violin with small orchestra. If the first movement, “Toccata,” sounds motoric and spiky, the second, “Chanson et boîte à musique,” strikes a richer, more sultry vein. The third movement, a chatty, bustling perpetual motion, somewhat in the manner of Heifetz’s famous transcriptions of Poulenc’s pieces in the genre, gives way to a throbbing “Aria” and a concluding jazzy “Basso ostinato.” Bartosz Cajler, captured by the engineers in the midst of the orchestral sound, possesses the technical alertness required by the fast movements’ elfin sprightliness as well as an ability to wring the expressivity out of the slow movements. But the five pieces last in total only about 11 minutes; the weight of the violin pieces therefore lies in the longer, more highly developed Violin Concerto from 1937, a four-movement virtuosic showpiece in which, the notes relate, Heifetz had taken an interest. In fact, the first movement’s soaring passages seem as reminiscent of Heifetz’s style as do similar ones in works dedicated to him, such as Korngold’s (or Gruenberg’s) Violin Concerto. But the writing for the solo instrument sounds more violinistic in the technical passages than do the corresponding moments in Korngold’s work; and Cajler plays the first movement’s dashing coda with verve and aplomb. The second movement begins ruminatively and introduces cadenza-like passages in which the solo instrument engages in spectral effects—but, as did the preceding movement, this one ends with colorful rapid passagework, in which the solo violin vies with winds and even percussion. The third movement spreads a lush harmonic (and textural) backdrop behind the violin’s cantabile, yet Cajler never steps outside the work’s dry-eyed sensitivity into Romantic exaggeration or sentiment—the generally tonal, accessible style, in fact, never seems to invite such waywardness. The finale alla zingaresca introduces contrapuntal passages in the woodwinds after a cadenza, and that complexity, no matter how high-spirited, serves as a foil to the Gypsy passages with which Tansman has peppered the movement (and which Cajler and the Orchestra play with panache). Once again, the engineers have caught Cajler in the orchestra’s web—or does his 1895 Postiglione violin simply fail to project the solo part beyond it?


The program concludes with the Suite Baroque for chamber orchestra from 1958, a five-movement confection that bubbles with heady energy, bright orchestral timbres, and spiky rhythms (in the manner of an especially genial Stravinsky). While the Sarabande and Rigaudon may not owe much to the original dances, still, as do the movements of Grieg’s Holberg suite, they pay tribute in vigorous modern language to a bygone era. As throughout, the orchestra plays incisively, and Na??z-Niesio?owski gives evidence of a finely tuned ear for Tansman’s sonorities. For its attractive but unfamiliar repertoire and zesty performances (not to mention the creative photographs of Cajler in the jewel case and booklet), the program deserves a strong recommendation.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

SZYMANOWSKI Violin Concertos: No. 1; No. 2 • Alena Baeva (vn); Bogus?aw Dawidow, cond; Opole PSO • DUX 575 (49:31)


Alena Baeva is a sultrily attractive young woman—a matter the open-out pasteboard sleeve, with its four fetching full-page color photographs, makes inescapable. Through both works she maintains a guilelessly fluent, sweetly seductive croon in even the most raucous passages, though her cadenzas are reeled off—albeit in startling coruscations—as if they held no expressive secrets. In these works it is not enough to play beautifully. Baeva alternates moments of poetry with stretches of faceless proficiency. The Opole band is a cut above bush league, but one immediately discerns a lack of direction, slant, or interpretive thrust in these splashy readings. Dawidow simply keeps things moving at a relaxed pace, where Wit (with Ilya Kaler, Naxos 8.557981, Fanfare 31:1), say, wallows in Szymanowski’s sensuous scoring, or Kazimierz Kord (with Kaja Danczowska, Accord 011 314, Fanfare 24:3 ) makes the most of his ecstatic, hallucinatory shifts. Both bring immediate lift and animating focus where Dawidow beats time.


Superbly balanced, glowingly detailed, walloping sound—with the soloist brilliantly on top—may persuade you that these are better performances than they are. I look forward to hearing Baeva again—in these works, coached and led by a more practiced hand. Recommended as an introduction to a promising artist, and as one of the best sounding CDs of the year.

FANFARE: Adrian Corleonis

Beyond question, Karol Szymanowski wrote the greatest piano Mazurkas since Chopin's. They capture all the elemental passion of the traditional Mazurka rhythms in a pungent and pianistically idiomatic language that sounds fresher with each passing year. It's good to see these works turn up more frequently on CD, especially when they're played with Anna Kijonowska's stylistic perception and technical mastery. Like Martin Jones, she's not afraid to rough up rolled left-hand chords in order to give them more rhythmic kick. Some of her tempo choices are unusual, such as a more measured and inward take on Op. 50 No. 12, as opposed to Marc-André Hamelin's more volatile, skittish account. Yet if her touch doesn't quite match Hamelin's supple shadings, her rubatos often speak more organically (Op. 50 No. 18, for example). Unlike Hamelin and Jones, Kijonowska does not include Szymanowski's four Polish Dances and Valse Romantique. This highly distinctive release is a worthy addition to the Szymanowski discography.--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

This new release features two compositions by Polish composer Kazimierz Serocki. One of the founders of the Warsaw Autumn contemporary music festival, Serocki was a part of the composers’ group Group 49. During his life he received numerous awards both in Poland and abroad, including the award for which he is most remembered, a State Prize for his music to the film Young Chopin. This album features the works “Forte e piano” and “Pianophonie. Pianists Szabolcs Esztenyi and Jerzy Witkowski brilliantly perform the demanding works, accompanied by the Polish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra in Krakow and the Great Polish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, respectively. These recordings come from 1973 and 1979 live performances, and are conducted by esteemed conductor Stanislaw Wislocki.

Pianist Eugen Indjic Made His First Public Performance at Age Nine, Playing Mozart's D Minor Piano Concerto. Between 1961-71, Invited By Arthur Fiedler, He Appeared Often Each Season with the Boston Pops Orchestra. In 1968, He Met Arthur Rubinstein, Who Called Indjic a World-Class Pianist of Rare Musical and Artistic Perfection. His Discography Includes Works By Chopin, Debussy and Schumann As Well As Works By Stravinsky and Beethoven. He Continues to Play Regularly on the World's Great Stages, and Often Teaches Master Classes in Europe.

This CD contains two introspective and lyrical Piano Sonatas and the exciting Wanderer Fantasie by Franz Schubert. These are masterful interpretation in one of the best contemporary American pianists, Garrick Ohlsson.

Ohlsson's performances reveal the characteristics of instrumental sensitivity in this composer. In the intangible realm of moods and feelings, the music expresses contrasts between despair and hope, sadness and illness, yet also the joys of Vienna with its salons, coffee shops, conversations and dances. The music [of late Schubert sonatas] also expresses a suspension between the the older classical school and the then new romantic style. Above all, with every note and turn of phrase there is lyricism. After all, the lyricism of song was a favorite genre for Schubert. The form and design of the "Wanderer Fantasy" is kin to a Romantic canvas. In the variations of the Wanderer theme, you will find gleaming melodious pearls but never at the service of cheap virtuosity and some of Schubert's musical images and harmonies foreshadow Impressionism.

Garrick Ohlsson is popular and well-liked in Poland since the time he won the 1970 Chopin Competition. Maturity and musical sensitivity makes possible an appreciation of the quality within the Schubert sonatas, many of which were unpublished in the composer's lifetime. This recording was realized within the perfect acoustics of the Concert Hall of the Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland. - Dux Records (Translated from Polish)

Hugo Reinhold, born in Vienna in 1854, studied piano in the class of Julius Epstein and composition under the direction of Anton Bruckner. While he was still just a student, he obtained the prestigious Beethoven Award for his Suite Op. 7 for piano and string orchestra. For many years, until his death in 1935, he lectured as a professor at the Vienna State Academy of Music and Fine Arts (Staatsakademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst), educating numerous pianists. His compositions, largely forgotten today, constitute over a dozen cycles of piano pieces, single pieces for string orchestra, chamber music with the participation for the violin or the cello and a few collections of solo and choral songs. Aleksandra Milcarz graduated from the Academy of Music in Wroclaw having studied piano under Professor Grzegorz Kurzynski. Since 2008 she has worked as an accompanist at the Faculty of Music Education, Choral Art and Church Music at the Karol Lipinski Academy of Music in Wroclaw. Tomasz Bosewicz graduated from Karol Szymanowski Primary and Secondary School of Music in Wroclaw studying violin under Professor Krzysztof Bruczkowski. He is the founder and concert master of Assai Quartet, and since 2006 has worked as a musician for Witold Lutoslawski Philharmonic in Wroclaw.

Jean-Phillippe Rameau was born in Dijon, France into a musical family. Since his early childhood, he learned how to play various instruments. At the beginning of his "Parisian years", he was known among his contemporaries mainly as a brilliant music theoretician, teacher and harpsichordist. Rameau began composing three collections of pieces for the harpsichord during these years. The collects are: Premier livre de pieces de clavecin, Pieces de clavecin avec une methode, and Nouvelles suites de pieces de clavecin. Rameau held a deep love for the harpsichord...so much that the majority of his compositions were for it.

RECITAL CHOPIN