Emil Młynarski; Mieczysław Weinberg; Krzysztof Penderecki - Polish Music (Jacek Kaspszyk)

Information

Composer: Emil Młynarski; Mieczysław Weinberg; Krzysztof Penderecki

• (01) Penderecki - Polonaise
• (02) Weinberg - Polish Melodies, Op. 47 No. 2
• (06) Młynarski - Symphony in F major "Polonia", Op. 14

Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra
Jacek Kaspszyk, conductor

Date: 2018
Label: Warner Classics

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

It is over 10 years since I first encountered Emil Mynarski’s music, with his marvellous Second Violin Concerto played by Nigel Kennedy (EMI/Warner, 11/07). Since then, not much has been added to his discography but once again it is Jacek Kaspszyk, the conductor for Kennedy, who directs the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra in his F minor Symphony, Polonia (1910). Playing for a full 40 minutes, the symphony dominates the disc.

Mynarski (1870-1935) was a composition pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov and it shows, most particularly in the sparkling Presto scherzo which, in the composer’s programme, symbolises hope for Poland’s release from partition and foreign domination, eloquently depicted in the preceding Adagio. Poland’s past and hopes for the future are the themes of the outer movements, the music shot through with the flavour and rhythms of Polish dances, such as the oberek and cracovienne. Written in a late-Romantic style, this is an attractive score, played with compelling fervour.

The couplings are lighter but no less nationalistic in tone. Penderecki’s 2015 Polonaise is not so much a setting of the dance as a tone poem on the idea of it. An appealing concert-opener, I doubt anyone listening with an innocent ear would guess Penderecki as its creator. Weinberg’s Polish Melodies (1950) are more individual, written at a time of personal danger having fallen foul of the Soviet regime. The orchestration in the first dance reminded me a little of Nielsen, curiously; elsewhere there are touches of Shostakovich (in lighter, raucous vein). The four dances make an endearing and appealing set that at times looks into the abyss but turns away. Excellent performances, fine sound.

-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Emil Młynarski (18 July 1870 – 5 April 1935) was a Polish conductor, violinist, composer, and pedagogue. Młynarski studied violin with Leopold Auer, and composition with Anatoly Lyadov and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He was the founding conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and subsequently served as principal conductor of the Scottish Orchestra in Glasgow from 1910 to 1916. He conducted the premiere of Karol Szymanowski's opera King Roger. He composed, among other things, a symphony dedicated to his homeland (Symphony in F major, Op. 14, Polonia), and two violin concertos (1897, 1917).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_M%C5%82ynarski

***

Mieczysław Weinberg (8 December 1919 in Warsaw – 26 February 1996 in Moscow) was a Soviet composer of Polish-Jewish origin. From 1939 he lived in the Soviet Union and Russia and lost most of his family in the Holocaust. He left a large body of work that included twenty-two symphonies and seventeen string quartets. Weinberg's works frequently have a strong programmatic element. Throughout his life, he continually referred back to his formative years in Warsaw and to the war. Although he never formally studied with Shostakovich, the older composer had an obvious influence on Weinberg's music.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mieczys%C5%82aw_Weinberg

***

Krzysztof Penderecki (born 23 November 1933 in Dębica) is a Polish composer and conductor. He studied music at Jagiellonian University and the Academy of Music in Kraków. Penderecki has composed four operas, eight symphonies and other orchestral pieces, a variety of instrumental concertos, choral settings of mainly religious texts, as well as chamber and instrumental works. Among his best known works are Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, Symphony No. 3, his St. Luke Passion, Polish Requiem, Anaklasis and Utrenja. The Guardian has called him the Poland's greatest living composer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krzysztof_Penderecki
http://www.krzysztofpenderecki.eu/en/

***

Jacek Kaspszyk (born August 10, 1952 in Biała Podlaska) is a Polish conductor. He studied conducting under Stanisław Wisłocki's supervision as well as the theory of music and composition at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. Kaspszyk served as artistic director at the Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as musical director of the Polish Radio National Symphonic Orchestra in Katowice. He has been Music and Artistic Director of the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra since 2013. Kaspszyk has been recording for many labels, including Collins Classics, EMI and CD Accord.
https://culture.pl/en/artist/jacek-kaspszyk

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!