Michał Bergson - Orchestral Works (Łukasz Borowicz)

Information

Composer: Michał Bergson

1. Concert symphonique, Op. 62: I. Allegro con fuoco ed agitato
2. Concert symphonique, Op. 62: II. Andante sostenuto
3. Concert symphonique, Op. 62: III. Allegro vivace, alla zingarese
4. 4 Mazurkas, Op. 1: No. 1 in A minor
5. 4 Mazurkas, Op. 1: No. 4 in G sharp minor
6. Grande polonaise héroique précédée d'un air slave, Op. 72
7. Polonia
8. Luisa di Montfort, Op. 82 (Excerpts): Introduction
9. Luisa di Montfort, Op. 82 (Excerpts): Scene & Aria
10. Il Ritorno

Jonathan Plowright, piano

Jakub Drygas, clarinet

Aleksandra Kubas-Kruk, soprano

Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra

Łukasz Borowicz, conductor

Date: 2022

Label: DUX

http://www.dux.pl/bergson-muzyka-symfoniczna-plowright-orkiestra-filharmonii-poznanskiej.html

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

Review

As we read in the liner-notes by conductor Łukasz Borowicz (well known from his many CPO discs), Polish composer and pianist Michał Bergson spent the greatest part of his life outside Poland and ended by retiring to England. The manuscript for his Concerto Symphonique (piano concerto) written thirty years before his death only came to light when recently unearthed in a London antiquarian bookshop. It seems that Bergson was the soloist for the premiere in Paris.

It’s a swirlingly flamboyant piece with a strong romantic punch. It’s by no means the fluffy inconsequentiality we might have feared. Schumann and Tchaikovsky are in Bergson’s vocabulary and there’s something familiar about the pleading woodwind contributions that suggest Eugene Onegin. The concerto is short at about 23 minutes and three movements. It is the kind of fare that would have made it a good fit for the Hyperion Romantic Piano Concerto series. Dux even have the redoubtable Jonathan Plowright at the helm.

For the Concerto the strings of the Orkiestra Filharmonii Poznańskiej are a bit fierce and that is an impression made right at the outset of the piece. Still, this is quite eminently listenable with some very fresh invention in it. When the concerto is praised as “Not just a historical curiosity, but a fine romantic piano concerto that rewards the listener time and again” this is not hyperbole. Its pleasures, if not its style, are comparable with the similarly rewarding Scriabin Piano Concerto. I have to concede there are some stock reach-me-down gestures, usually in the opening bars of the three movements, but Bergson soon warms the progress of the music with much that is gracious and often unexpected. This piano concerto here receives its world premiere recording.

Plowright caresses into our listening orbit the fragile and gentle-handed opalescence of the two Op 1 Mazurkas. The second of these (in fact No 4) is slightly less feathery but takes just as affecting a toll on the listener’s senses. What happened to Mazurkas 2 and 3? The title Grand polonaise heroique suggests a Gottschalkian hothouse-spectacular but in fact it is in parts just as gentle as the two Mazurkas that precede it. It also has the second longest playing duration here. The score inhabits some intriguing bright and shadowed shallows. As expected, the music builds to imperial bravado from about 3:10 onwards and often confidently swaggers with elbows that jostle with the best Chopin from 3:40 onwards. For the little Polonia! Mazurka pour piano Bergson is moderately animated and he makes capital use of the interplay of quiet and gruff, piano and forte.

Next come three tracks of music from Bergson’s operatic works. The diminutive Introduction to the Opera Luisa di Montfort opens with a trumpet solo and a skein of contented ideas that intertwine. There’s also a skim of tragedy at the end, but nothing too terrifying and no hints of a mad scene. The Scena and Aria for solo clarinet and orchestra is a substantial piece, gale-blown at first then, at the hands of the clarinet, typically honeyed and healingly mellifluous. Here Bergson shows himself indebted to, or perhaps predictive of, the pieces for solo instrument and orchestra by Verdi, Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti. Lastly comes Il Ritorno for soprano and orchestra. This is a fulsome and pout-lipped, operatically florid scena. Aleksandra Kubas-Kruk revels in all that oompah-accompanied vivacity and stratospheric display. You will want to hear it again.

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2021/Jul/Bergson-orchestral-1704.htm

https://www.wtju.net/michal-bergson-piano-concerto-revived/

https://www.pizzicato.lu/unbedingt-entdecken-michal-bergson/

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

Łukasz Borowicz (born 25 September, 1977 in Warsaw) is a Polish conductor. He graduated with honors in orchestral and opera conducting from the Warsaw Academy of Music in the class of Bogusław Madey. From 2007 to 2015 he was Chief Conductor of the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Warsaw. Considered one of the leading conductors of younger generation, Borowicz is distinguished from others by his interest in the less-known repertoire. A prolific recording artist with over 75 albums to his name, Borowicz's recordings have been awarded three Diapason d’Or, among other prizes.
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Łukasz_Borowicz
http://lukaszborowicz.com/

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

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!