A belated thank you for your support, Antonio.

Saturday, June 13, 2020

Stanisław Moniuszko - Overtures (Antoni Wit)


Information

Composer: Stanisław Moniuszko
  1. The Fairy Tale: Overture
  2. Paria: Overture
  3. Halka: Overture
  4. Verbum nobile: Overture
  5. The Raftsman: Overture
  6. The Countess: Overture
  7. The Haunted Manor: Intrada
  8. Jawnuta, Idyll: Overture
  9. The New Don Quixote, or 100 Follies: Overture
  10. The Hetman’s Mistress: Overture

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra
Antoni Wit, conductor

Date: 2014
Label: Naxos
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.572716

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Review

Stanislaw Moniuszko (1819–1872) is a musical descendent of Weber and Donizetti, with some clear influences of both heard in his operas. He was Poland’s leading operatic composer in the 19th century, and his works deserve more exposure than they get in today’s “masterpiece” driven climate. This collection of overtures is the most generous one we have been given on disc, and probably the finest. One hears influences of Weber, Donizetti, Rossini, and even early Wagner and Verdi in this music, but it would be too easy, and wrong, to write Moniuszko off as a cheap imitator. His voice may not be so strong as to be easily identifiable, but this is attractive music that demonstrates both inspiration and craft.

An Olympia CD (OCD 386) features recordings from the 1950s and 60s conducted by Fitelberg, Krenz, and Rowicki. These are exciting performances, but unevenly played by a variety of Polish orchestras, and with variable recorded sound. In the 1990s Robert Satanowsky led a collection with the Pomeranian Philharmonic on CPO (999 113) and Roland Bader and the Cracow Philharmonic gave us a similar grouping on Koch Schwann (3-1444-2). Both were adequate, neither was outstanding.

It is unlikely that any collector needs duplicate collections of Moniuszko overtures, and it would be difficult to recommend replacing one of those CDs with this one if you own and are satisfied with an earlier collection. If you don’t have one, or if you consider yourself a Moniuszko fanatic, then this would be the place to go. Although it would be difficult to make the case that Wit was a uniquely great interpreter, he does in fact bring more life and personality to these than was the case with Bader and Satanowski. (I’ll eliminate the Olympia collection from consideration because of its variable engineering standards). The lilt in the dance music at the center of The Countess , the tension created by careful dynamic shadings in The Haunted Manor , the wit present in The New Don Quixote are all qualities communicated clearly and with natural spontaneity in these performances. There is a lovely grace and elegance to much of this music, and Wit captures it with a lighter touch than others. The Warsaw Philharmonic is a front rank orchestra, and this music is in their blood.

Naxos’s generosity brings 25 more minutes of music than the Koch Schwann CD, and 13 more than the CPO disc. The accompanying notes provide helpful context for each of the overtures by summarizing briefly the operas’ stories. The recorded sound is a bit on the reverberant side, lacking ideal clarity of texture, but not seriously problematic. In sum, this is a delight.

-- Henry Fogel, FANFARE

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2014/Jan14/Moniuszko_overtures_8572716.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2014/Apr14/Moniuszko_overtures_8572716.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jan/29/moniuszko-overtures-haunted-manor
https://www.allmusic.com/album/stanislaw-moniuszko-overtures-the-haunted-manor-paria-halka-the-fairy-tale-mw0002609175
https://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.572716&languageid=EN
https://www.amazon.com/Moniuszko-Overtures-Haunted-Manor-Paria/dp/B00GK8P0TC

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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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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

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