Mieczysław Karłowicz; Stanisław Moniuszko - Songs (Piotr Beczała)

Information

Composer: Mieczysław Karłowicz; Stanisław Moniuszko

1. Karłowicz - Songs, Op. 1: I. For a Sorrowful Girl
2. Karłowicz - Songs, Op. 1: II. Whence the First Stars
3. Karłowicz - Songs, Op. 1: IV. Disappointment
4. Karłowicz - Songs, Op. 1: V. I Remember Quiet Days, Golden, Bright
5. Karłowicz - Songs, Op. 1: VI. My Soul is Sad
6. Karłowicz - Songs, Op. 3: I. Speak to Me Still
7. Karłowicz - Songs, Op. 3: II. Erotic (‘In lieu of suns and stars’)
8. Karłowicz - Songs, Op. 3: III. It Goes to the Fields
9. Karłowicz - Songs, Op. 3: IV. On a Placid, Gloomy Sea
10. Karłowicz - Songs, Op. 3: V. The Deep Sea Sleeps
11. Karłowicz - Songs, Op. 3: VI. Before the Eternal Night
12. Karłowicz - Songs, Op. 3: VII. Don’t Cry over Me
13. Karłowicz - Songs, Op. 3: VIII. In the Still of the Evening
14. Karłowicz - Songs, Op. 3: IX. Over the Boundless, Boundless Sea
15. Karłowicz - Songs, Op. 3: X. An Enchanted Princess
16. Karłowicz - By the Maple Tree
17. Karłowicz - The Autumn Wind Denudes the Trees
18. Karłowicz - Sometimes, When Half Asleep I Dream
19. Karłowicz - O Don’t Believe
20. Karłowicz - With the New Spring
21. Karłowicz - My Most Beautiful Songs, Op. 4
22. Moniuszko - Two Dawns
23. Moniuszko - Wild Rose
24. Moniuszko - The Spinstress
25. Moniuszko - A Son of Cracow
26. Moniuszko - Know’st Thou the Land?

Piotr Beczała, tenor
Helmut Deutsch, piano

Date: 2020
Label: Fryderyk Chopin Institute
https://sklep.nifc.pl/index.php?produkt=2_159&jezyk=eng

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Review

In his songs, the Polish composer Mieczyslaw Karlowicz does not portray picturesque, rural landscapes, but first and foremost soul landscapes. In this sense Karlowicz is very close to Schubert and Schumann, although his songs are much shorter, often barely a minute long. This of course presents the performer with a particularly difficult task, namely to create something atmospheric in the shortest possible time. The four songs of Stanislaw Moniuszko are no less interesting.

Piotr Beczala dedicates himself with devotion to the songs of his compatriots. His characteristic voice and Helmut Deutsch’s piano playing do not allow any false sentimentalities. Beczala is close to the text, always caring for a clear and emphatic phrasing.

The thoroughly romantic character of the songs is thus relativized and put into a somewhat more concrete picture. Both performers avoid larmoyance or pastel colours. Everything seems clear, beautiful and well balanced. With one of today’s most beautiful voices, Beczala’s singing is stylistically confident and artful. Helmut Deutsch is more than just an accomplished accompanist. His many years of experience mean that his playing is expressively very clear, doesn’t make any gimmicks and carries the singer as if on hands. The recording is therefore recommendable in all respects for anybody open for a new repertoire.

-- Alain Steffen, Pizzicato

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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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Stanisław Moniuszko (May 5, 1819 – June 4, 1872) was a Polish composer, conductor and teacher. He wrote many popular art songs and operas, and his music is filled with patriotic folk themes of the peoples of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (predominantly the Poles, Lithuanians and Belarusians). He is generally referred to as "the father of Polish national opera", and is also recognized in Belarus as an important figure of Belarusian culture. Moniuszko's series of twelve song books is also notable, containing songs to the words of Adam Mickiewicz, Antoni Edward Odyniec, and Józef Ignacy Kraszewski.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Moniuszko

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Piotr Beczała (born December 28, 1966) is a Polish operatic tenor. Beczała was born in Czechowice-Dziedzice in southern Poland and initially trained in Katowice, both Upper Silesia. He studied under Sena Jurinac in Switzerland. His first engagements were with the Linz State Theatre from 1992 to 1997, after which he became a regular member of Zurich Opera. Beczała made his debut at the London's Royal Opera House in April 2004, the San Francisco Opera in November 2004, La Scala in January 2006, and the Metropolitan Opera in December 2006. In 2018 he was awarded the International Opera Awards - best singer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piotr_Becza%C5%82a
http://piotrbeczala.com/

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