Emil Młynarski; Mieczysław Karłowicz - Violin Concertos (Nigel Kennedy)

Information

Composer: Emil Młynarski; Mieczysław Karłowicz; Frédéric Chopin

• (01) Młynarski - Violin Concerto No. 2 in D major, Op. 16
• (04) Karłowicz - Violin Concerto in A major, Op. 8
• (07) Chopin - Nocturne Op. 9, Nos. 1 & 2 (arr. Krzesimir Dębski)

Nigel Kennedy, violin
Polish Chamber Orchestra
Jacek Kaspszyk, conductor

Date: 2007
Label: EMI Classics

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Review

Kennedy’s accounts of these neglected concertos are first-rate

Emil Mynarski’s main claims on posterity hitherto have been as father-in-law to Arthur Rubinstein and as a conductor of some note. (In the latter capacity he was involved with the founding of the Warsaw Philharmonic, held a post in Scotland from 1910 to 1916 and conducted the premiere of Szymanowski’s King Roger). But he was also a violinist – he studied with Leopold Auer – and a composer, his teachers including Liadov and, for instrumentation, Rimsky-Korsakov.

Mynarski’s two violin concertos date from 1897 and 1917. The Second in D major given here is the only work of his that I can recall having encountered and am baffled as to why it is not more widely known (even despite Konstanty Kulka’s earlier Polskie Nagrania recording – nla). In some respects quietly unprepossessing, the concerto is beautifully put together with some splendidly idiomatic writing in the lively outer movements and a meltingly lovely melody in the central Quasi notturno. It is not hard to see why this work appealed so much to Kennedy and he responds with some of the most sheerly poetic playing I have heard from him in some while. There is an appealing sense of discovery to his performance and his enthusiasm makes him an exciting advocate, ably supported by the Polish Chamber Orchestra.

The Karowicz Concerto (1902) is the lesser work though better known (this is the fourth recording currently available). I concur with David Fanning’s assessment (1/07) that it is no masterpiece, its earnestness seeming as much striking a pose as genuine expression. It has its good points, however, with some warmly lyrical writing throughout. Kennedy is at his most persuasive, more convincing of its merits than either Little or Anderszewska, and the support from Kaspszyk is faultless. The two Chopin Nocturnes prove pretty makeweights in Debski’s arrangements but it is the Mynarski that is the real find here.

-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/Jan08/Polish_spirit__DVD_3799349.htm
https://www.allmusic.com/album/polish-spirit-mw0001855656
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Polish-Spirit-Nigel-Kennedy/dp/B000VLR0II
https://www.amazon.com/Polish-Spirit-Nigel-Kennedy/dp/B000VLR0II

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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

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Mieczysław Karłowicz (11 December 1876 – 8 February 1909) was a Polish composer and conductor. Karłowicz studied in Warsaw and Berlin, and studied conducting with Arthur Nikisch. Karłowicz's music is of a late Romantic character with influences of Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Richard Wagner. His music inhabits a primary place in the history of Polish music between Frédéric Chopin and Karol Szymanowski. Among his works are a Symphony in E minor (Rebirth, Op. 7), a Violin Concerto in A major (Op. 8), several tone poems, and a number of songs for voice and piano. Karłowicz died at the age of 32 in an avalanche while skiing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mieczys%C5%82aw_Kar%C5%82owicz

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Nigel Kennedy (born 28 December 1956 in Brighton) is a British violinist and violist. A boy prodigy from a musical family, he became a pupil at the Yehudi Menuhin School of Music at the age of seven, and later studied at the Juilliard School in New York City with Dorothy DeLay. Kennedy made his early career in the classical field (his recording debut was published in 1984), and has more recently performed jazz, klezmer, and other music genres. Kennedy's persona is seen by some as abrasive and limiting to his career. He once withdrew completely from public performance from 1991 to 1997.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Kennedy

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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

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