Mieczysław Karłowicz - Symphonic Poems Vol. 2 (Antoni Wit)

Information

Composer: Mieczysław Karłowicz

1. Returning Waves, Op. 9
2. A Sorrowful Tale (Preludes to Eternity), Op. 13
3. Eternal Songs, Op. 10: I. Song of Everlasting Yearning
4. Eternal Songs, Op. 10: II. Song of Love and Death
5. Eternal Songs, Op. 10: III. Song of Eternal Being

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Antoni Wit, conductor

Date: 2008
Label: Naxos
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.570295

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

Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 9

Mieczyslaw Karlowicz was a significant talent, and his early death in 1909 (at age 33) was a serious loss to 20th century Polish music. His symphonic poems are typically refulgent late-Romantic works, full of ambition and, to be frank, pretension. Consider the three parts of Op. 10 (Eternal Songs): Song of Everlasting Yearning; Song of Love and Death; Song of Eternal Being. Heavy-duty stuff, and there’s no point in pretending that Karlowicz, talented as he was, did full justice to the program, but the point is that he tried, tried hard, and produced gobs of richly entertaining music in the process.

Antoni Wit’s first disc of tone poems was exceptional, and this one is excellent as well, if a hair less outstanding than previously. What problems there are stem from having the New Zealand orchestra rather than Wit’s own Warsaw forces. Of course the New Zealanders play very well, and are well recorded, but their string section lacks the luxuriance that the music ideally requires, and while some listeners may prefer a leaner basic sonority, what Karlowicz really asks for is Strauss on steroids (i.e. Korngold and that crowd). Still, you won’t find better performances of this music than Naxos’ edition, and you can purchase this second volume with complete confidence.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday

More reviews:
http://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/karlowicz-symphonic-poems-vol-2
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/Nov08/Karlowicz_8570295.htm
http://www.allmusic.com/album/mieczyslaw-karlowicz-symphonic-poems-vol-2-mw0001862739

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

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

***

Antoni Wit (born February 7, 1944 in Kraków) is a Polish conductor. He studied with Henryk Czyż, Krzysztof Penderecki and Nadia Boulanger. He has recorded over 90 albums, most of them for the Naxos label, and many of them with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, of which he managed and was artistic director from 1983 to 2000. Since year 2002 he has been music director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. Wit specializes in the works of Polish composers such as Henryk Gorecki, Witold Lutosławski, Karol Szymanowski and Krzysztof Penderecki.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Wit

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

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!