Krzysztof Penderecki’s works for string instruments constitute a rather abundant group of compositions of different forms and genres. The selection presented on this release comprises concerto pieces created at various stages of Penderecki’s creative path. The Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra was established in 2007. The Orchestra’s mission is to bring together the most talented students and graduates of musical academies who are under thirty years of age. They are deeply convinced that an opportunity to cooperate with outstanding artists will inspire many talented musicians and make them more eager to continue to develop as artists, and the personal artistic responsibility of each musician will translate into shared responsibility for the shape and quality of the orchestra. They believe that the Polish Orchestra Sinfonia Iuventus will be perceived by young musicians not so much as an institution, but as a community of shared objectives.

Chopin: Complete Works for Piano & Orchestra, Vol. 1

PADEREWSKI Piano Concerto. Polish Fantasy • Kevin Kenner (pn); Marcin Na??cz-Niesio?owski, cond; Podlasie Op O • DUX 733 (55:40)


Well, I’ve certainly been immersed in Paderewski lately … at least, Paderewski at one or two removes, which is not the same thing as the real deal. First, there was the Homage to Paderewski set on Hyperion 67903, which I reviewed in Fanfare 35:4, and now this new recording of his concerto and Polish Fantasy. As I expected, the concerto is very much in the big, late-Romantic mold of Brahms, Rubinstein, and other composers, but it’s a solid piece built around native Polish rhythms and with an interesting and exciting development section in the first movement. (In fact, at one point a solo piano passage sounds a little bit like a Russian folk song.) Although it is said that the second theme is an evocation of Chopin, it is an original melody and not one borrowed from that composer. The slow movement is even more delicate than Chopin’s andantes , almost Debussyan in its sparse use of the piano in the beginning and actually built around a three-part tune. Eventually, this delicate melody becomes more energetic, but never so much that the initial impression is forgotten. The lively rondo finale, based on a krakowiak, is likewise contrasted with a stately chorale that eventually caps the piece.


I find the Polish Fantasy an even more interesting work, having a more melancholy cast and somewhat related to Liszt’s Hungarian fantasies. It can be divided into four sections, each with its own character, though they are bound together by a mazurka-like motif. It is very nearly a concerto in itself, running over 21 minutes. I suspect that the composer refrained from calling it one simply because the four sections are played without a break, and such works in his day were almost always relegated to the “fantasy” category.


Kevin Kenner, despite his American origins, proves himself to be fully up to the task of interpreting this Eastern European music. Like all modern pianists, he eschews the slightly out-of-synch coordination of hands favored by Paderewski and many other pianists of his generation, preferring to play in a clean, rhythmically consistent manner, but he certainly gets the feel of Polish music very well. Of course, having a Polish orchestra and conductor helps, and I am more than a little amused to see that the orchestra hails from Bia?ystok (known as the “Jerusalem of Poland” because of its heavy Jewish population and the birthplace of Dr. Albert Sabin, immortalized by Mel Brooks with the name of his principal character—Max Bialystock—in his zany comedy The Producers ). All concerned play beautifully on this CD, giving us about as convincing a reading of these works as can be imagined. One can find more visceral and exciting readings from Janina Fialkowska, supported by the great Antoni Wit, on Naxos 8554020, and by the late, great Earl Wild (the concerto on Elán 2266 with Arthur Fiedler and the London Symphony, the Fantasy on Ivory 72010 with conductor Massimo Freccia), but this recording meets the demands of the music with a more convincing nationalistic flavor than Wild and less clattery sound than we get from Fialkowska’s piano. Recommended without hesitation for both the unusual repertoire and its presentation.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

The TANGOSTORIA album is a continuation of one of BANDONEGRO’s projects, in which the musicians focus on the traditional tango. The album refers to the greatest creators of this genre and is a response to the constantly growing interest in Argentine culture. We can find here the greatest hits of sung tango such as: ‘Sur,’ ‘Remembranza’ or ‘Ballada Para un Loco,’ but also the most interesting traditional tangos, selected by the ensemble, by such composers as Juan D’Arienzo, Alfredo Gobbi, Anibal Troilo, Horacio Salgan or Astor Piazzolla. Despite the considerable variety of styles presented by the aforementioned composers, the album is a closed, coherent whole, and it is listened to as a story with its necessary elements of introduction, development and ending. The musicians from Bandonegro invited Uruguayan vocalist Andres Martorell to cooperate. By adding new, fresh arrangements of existing pieces, they created a project with no expiry date. Undoubtedly, Bandonegro’s trip to Buenos Aires in 2019 had an impact on the interpretations of the works present on the album. The experience gained during that tour resulted in new ideas, one of which was recording this album. ‘Traditional tango is an inseparable element of Argentine culture, based on a strong relationship between music and dance. As musicians dealing with this genre, we want to cultivate these traditions, as evidenced by the album Tangostoria.’ The album was recorded six months after Bandonegro’s trip to Buenos Aires.

The 200th anniversary of the birth of Stanislaw Moniuszko, which occurred in 2019, prompted many musicians and concert and festival organizers to promote, in particular, the forgotten works of the Polish Romantic. Performed for the first time on 12 December 1869, the opera The Pariah met with severe criticism during the composer’s lifetime. Almost 50 years later, during Warsaw’s reopening, The Pariah also did not get much sympathy from the audience and reviewers. This album, including a concert recording made during this year’s Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival, is a great opportunity to get acquainted with this little-known work.

The third album of the Ravel Piano Duo from the Polish Kaleidoscope series is entirely devoted to piano dance music written during the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, Fryderyk Chopin is widely recognized as the most brilliant Polish composer creating this type of works. However, adoring and admiring the craft of Chopin’s art, we often forget about many outstanding artists who have undeniable merits in the promotion of both national and foreign dances. That having been said, the present album includes a number of stylistically diverse dance miniatures of respected Polish artists: Moniuszko, Noskowski, Zelenski, Moszkowski, and Friedman.

CANTATAS

Polish pianist Katarzyna Musial, who currently resides in Canada, is, according to the Chicago Classical Review, "a great talent with amazing technique and interpretive brilliance." She performs regularly as a soloist, chamber musician, and alongside orchestras across North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The New York Concert Review described her playing as "pure bliss... miraculously presented... a clearly precise interpretation that reached emotional depth with harmonious colors." According to Beijing Press, Katarzyna Musial is "a pianist who enchants her listeners with a dazzling game." Fanfare Magazine emphasizes that "if an artist is able to show charisma through his playing, Musial is proof that it is possible." On this new release, Karatzyna performs a programme of Spanish piano music. Her concerts of the recorded pieces have been widely acclaimed.

This is a special release, inspired by crossing boundaries, looking for the universal music language, and referring to the notion of pure beauty. In each of these spectacular tracks the clarinet plays the leading role. This recording is dedicated to the memory of Benny Goodman, a legend of the American jazz and the ‘King of Swing’, who elevated the clarinet playing to the rank of art. Similar to Elvis Presley, Goodman significantly contributed to the popularization of ‘black’ music among the white audience in the times of race segregation proving that the art and beauty are able to cross the boundaries between people dictated by disdain and prejudices.

The Olkusz organ, dating to 1611, is among the most valuable instruments surviving on the organ map of Poland. The music of the old masters presented on this disc reveals the extraordinary beauty and richness of this true jewel among historic Polish organs. Organist Marek Kudlicki has been actively engaged in artistic activities around the world for years, with concerts throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas.

The five wind quintets recorded on this album clearly refer to the neoclassical style, which is directly related to the genre preferences and musical language of each of the presented Polish artists active in the 20th and early 21st centuries. THE CRACOW GOLDEN QUINTET is a chamber ensemble composed of professional musicians who, thanks to their passion for music and precision, perfectly render the beauty of the sound of a wind quintet. The ensemble was established in 2015 in Cracow. It consists of graduates of Polish academies of music – soloists, members of symphony orchestras and various chamber ensembles: Natalia JARZĄBEK (flute), Damian ŚWIST (oboe), Tomasz SOWA (clarinet), Małgorzata WYGODA (bas-soon), and Konrad GOŁDA (horn).The ensemble specializes in performing and promot-ing Polish music. Its repertoire, conceived and prepared to participate in the Stanisław Moniuszko International Competition of Polish Music in Rzeszów, features com-positions by, among others, Grażyna Bacewicz, Wojciech Kilar, or Michał Spisak. The ensemble’s portfolio is being constantly expanded, especially with pieces that are rarely performed on the stages of concert halls, but extremely valuable in the context of the Polish national heritage.

Jezusa Judasz przedal

At the turn of the 20th century, apart from the explosion of new artistic phenomena and aesthetic attitudes in art associated with the modernist movement, the trend of continuing Romantic ideas was still an exploited tendency in music as a way of composing expression. The output of Polish composer, pianist, educator, conductor and music critic Juliusz Wertheim (1880–1928) is kept in the neo-romantic convention. The album by Pawel Pawlik and Szymon Telecki is an excellent opportunity both to study the somewhat forgotten page of the Polish history of music and to confront Wertheim’s works with the music of the most outstanding Polish composers of his time.

The youthful compositions of Karol Szymanowski presented on the album were created in the years 1899–1905. Most of them were composed in Tymoszówka in Ukraine and during Szymanowski's studies in Warsaw. Harmony lessons from Marek Zawirski, counterpoint and composition lessons from Zygmunt Noskowski supplemented the knowledge that the young composer drew from his in-depth analyzes of the works of great masters. According to popular opinion, the works of Fryderyk Chopin and Alexander Scriabin were a model for the form and texture of the Preludes, Op. 1 and Etudes, Op. 4, the virtuoso pianism of the Variations, Op. 3 and Fantasiaop. 14 referred to the compositions of Johannes Brahms and Franz Liszt, while Szymanowski's harmonic language was shaped in the first period of his career by the music of Ryszard Strauss and Ryszard Wagner. The problem of the influence of other composers on Szymanowski's early work is the subject of all kinds of analyzes and treatises, which wrongly suggests the author's lack of originality. Meanwhile, Szymanowski's early piano opuses are works full of noble, poetic inspiration and spontaneous expression, which ensured them a permanent place in the piano repertoire.

V 13: MUSICA CLAROMONTANA

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.

"•The present CD brings together for the first time Marian Borkowski’s entire output of a cappella choral compositions in performances by the Polish Chamber Choir Schola Cantorum Gedanensis directed by Jan Łukaszewski. • Mr. Borkowski has written choral music throughout his compositional career but recent years have witnessed his enhanced interest in the genre. Most of his choral pieces fall under the ‘sacred music’ category, being settings of religious texts, either short fragments or single words."

It remains an open question whether Bach’s six trio-sonatas fall into the category of keyboard music or chamber music. Bach adopted the then quite common form of the Italian trio-sonata not only for compositional but also for pedagogic reasons. It is also difficult to say how much of the musical material was written specifically for this cycle. At the same time they are exercises demanding an extremely high level of artistry in playing three independent voices with two hands and pedals. The student-originally in this particular case this was probably Wilhelm Friedemann Bach- is to learn thereby not only manual dexterity but also compositional technique. At first sight these pieces may look rather complex, but in fact the upper voices with their richly embellished lines proceed from a quite normal solid harmonic structure that is essentially a product of the basso continuo style. In addition, music for three independent voices provides an excellent opportunity for showing how an organ, with its distinct separate manual and pedal sections, can really sound like three different instruments simultaneously. This music is performed on The Organ of Joachim Wagner in Siedlce, an instrument discovered in 2002 in the village church in Pruszyn.

The history of musical theatre can be written in many ways. One of them is a perspective of duos, which often constitutes nodal moments in the work's drama. A duo brings either a combination of two elements into one harmonious whole or a collision of opposing forces; as we know, the opposites passionately attract one another. Such a story is sung by two great artists: Katarzyna Oles-Blacha and Monika Korybalska. The soprano and mezzosoprano are in a particular relationship that arises between a master, academic teacher and a young student of vocal art. The perfect agreement between the vocalists can be heard in each episode of the musical performance, which fluently switches between dramatic and funny moods.

The opera- or rather and properly the musical interlude- At the Boar’s Head was written in 1924. Gustav Holst composed it at his home in Thaxted, where he was resting after collapsing, probably due to being overladen with work. By the time his health deteriorated, the composer had taught in a number of schools and played as an orchestra trombonist, devoting all his free time to composing. The libretto, which Holst also composed, is based on Shakespeare’s Henry IV parts 1 and 2. Also included in this release is Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Riders to the Sea, a short one-act opera based on the play of the same name by John Millington Synge. The opera has remained largely in the realm of students and amateurs until Sadler Wells added it to their repertoire in 1953.

Witold Lutosławski’s String Quartet no. 2 comes from a time when his style had entered a 'Sturm und Drang' period. + Dissonant harmonies, vivid juxtapositions in musical color, and complex textures fill the majority of his works from the 1960s, including this 1964 work. + Its compositional craft places it directly among the most important works in the genre’s history. + Paweł Mykietyn’s String Quartet no. 2 belongs to his creative evolution that began in 2004 and continues to this day. + Works created in this time are more or less widely considered to be the greatest Polish works of recent years.

SYMPHONY NO. 4 - ADAGIO

ORGAN AND THE PANPIPE IN THE C

Nowadays, the work of François Couperin is commonly associated with harpsichord music of the turn of the Baroque and Classicism. His elaborate miniatures and suites, plenty of brilliant ornaments, are now almost inextricably linked to the canonical harpsichord repertoire. The album by Dorota Cybulska-Amsler makes us aware, however, that François was not the only composer in the Couperin family. As the artist points out, names of members of the Couperin family, originating from the Chaumes-en-Brie region, are already in documents from the 16th century. In 1586, Mathurin Couperin (ca. 1569–ca. 1640), is still making a living mainly from farming, but he obtains the right to practice music for remuneration. His son, Charles I (1595–1654) is going to be the founder of a musical dynasty.

This album is a wonderful showcase of over forty years of activity of the Witold Lutoslawski Chamber Philharmonic. The albums programme shows the repertoire versatility of a chamber orchestra (from Baroque to contemporary music). Thus, we are dealing with a kaleidoscope of various compositional styles, which allows us to appreciate the ensembles multifaceted capabilities. The Witold Lutoslawski Chamber Philharmonic in Lomza was established in 1977 as the Lomza Chamber Orchestra. During its 40 years of existence, it has given almost two thousand concerts in Poland and abroad. It has received a number of awards for its activity and contribution to the development of musical culture, including the Podlasie Brand of the Year 2018 and Lomza Business Angel 2019.