Catalogue Connection: 25151

Barbara Karaskiewicz has compiled a fascinating program in her recording Karol Szymanowski Piano Music. It forms a survey of the composer’s work covering nearly 40 years, beginning with Nine Preludes Op. 1, written in 1900. The presence of Chopin is immediately detectable along with vocabulary reminiscent of some Brahms Intermezzi. There is a familiar fluidity and nostalgic ethos that pervades the music. Karaskiewicz plays these beautifully, bringing forward the composer’s unique voice. The Four Etudes Op. 4 reveal the influence of early modernism, with some careful tonal experimentation that Karaskiewicz integrates quite naturally into the character of the pieces.

Szymanowski’s output is generally considered to fall into two periods, of which the second is strongly influenced by Eastern motifs and subject matter. The exotic elements of Scheherazade from Masques Op. 34 take advantage of the angular melodies and dissonant harmonies of the period’s emerging contemporary music.

Karaskiewicz’s programming arch covers a considerable distance and concludes with Two Mazurkas Op. 62 that reveal the fading but ever-present influence of Chopin in Szymanowski’s music.

This is a nice autumn CD of piano music; the fact that it’s outstanding music played well, we’ll take as a given.

Szymanowski is described in the sleeve notes as one of the most important Polish composers of the 20th century. The sleeve notes are extensive and well written, but the relevant information for those wanting a CD of piano music are that he was from an intellectual background, and was fascinated by Frédéric Chopin. Though he’s claimed as a Polish composer, he was born into a wealthy land-owning Polish family living in the village of Tymoszówka, then in the Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire. So: intelligent music that’s inspired by Chopin, and with the sadness of Mother Russia in places. He was also influenced by the impressionism of Claude Debussy, and Maurice Ravel, and this last point offers the main contrast to the other piano music we’ve reviewed recently. Whereas that was stirring and complex, this is more atmospheric and suggestive, gentle even.

Karaskiewicz has selected pieces from across Szymanowski’s career.

His early years were influenced by the late Romantic German school, then he developed a more impressionistic and partially atonal style; his third period was influenced by Polish folk music.

Nine Preludes, op.1 were written when he was 18 and were immediately praised by “astonished” listeners at their first public presentation, say the notes. They’re Romantic and reflective.

The Four Études op.4, came later and are based on Chopin but more complex. Masques op.34 followed visits to Islamic centres (titles include Scheherazade), though they’re not noticeably Eastern in sound, more like Ravel. They are more complex and livelier than the earlier pieces, and highly expressive.

The final selection is Two Mazurkas, op.62, which close the catalogue of the composer’s work and were written late in his life. Of one he wrote: “I wrote a very pleasant and cheerful mazurka, which I really like to play. The funny thing is that I write actually more and more bright music at my old age!” Again, the sound is more impressionistic of the feel of folk than any actual kind of folk dance (and cheerful is perhaps not a word you would apply).

Arthur Rubenstein did more to introduce Western audiences to the piano music of Poland’s brilliant composer Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) than anyone alive in the 20th century. If today his music is not as frequently performed as it might be, the masterful quality and expressivity of the oeuvre as a whole demands a serious immersion in the best of it if we are to understand the 20th century musical strengths and poetics of Eastern European classical-modernism. Barbara Karaskiewicz combines virtuosity and interpretive acuity to be a near ideal exponent of a series of breathtaking Szymanowski works in her volume of his Piano Music (Divine Art 25151) that has recently become available. What makes this album especially attractive is its intelligent mix of early and later works. The “Nine Preludes, Op. 1” and the “Four Etudes, Op. 4” are followed by the later “Masques, Op. 34” and the “Two Mazurkas, Op. 62.” The earlier music has something of the late romantic virtuoso brilliance that so overtook the musical sensibilities of 19th century piano music via Chopin and Liszt. Even then though the Szymanowski “Preludes” and “Etudes” included here have a distinctively original individuality and a zeitgeist reflecting the winds of change blowing transformatively over Europe and the music of the era. By the time the composer completed his “Masques, Op. 34” and his “Two Mazurkas, Op. 62” there is a distinct movement toward a 20th century modernism conjoined with his ever-prevailing rhapsodistic and poetic demeanor. The early and later phases of Szymanowski’s piano music as we hear them on this album are not a matter of  a contrast between tentative student works and mature mastery. There is a stylistic shift to be followed, surely, but the whole of this music shows a full command over pianistic resources and an highly inventive originality that sings out from first to last. Ms. Karaskiewicz puts a sense of clarity and passion into each movement, a genuinely sympathetic lyrical and dramatic touch that is so needed for a vital interpretation of this most expressive composer. The end result is a very happy meeting of pianist and composer. I would be hard-pressed to imagine a better single CD that brings to us all that makes Szymanowski’s piano music important and movingly alive. Here is a great place to start if you want to know why the composer is a central figure in the Polish early modern period. The selection and performances are equally rewarding to one who already knows something of the music. Barbara Karaskiewicz puts it all before us in glowing terms. Do not hesitate to grab a copy of this album!

After her four previous albums, three with music by Roman Statkowski and one with Michael Garrett’s piano works, Barbara Karaśkiewicz has reached for the works of Karol Szymanowski. Like the last album dedicated to Statkowski, it was released by the British label Divine Art Records, whose products are starting to appear on the Polish market.

The program included Preludes Op. 1, Etudes Op. 4, Masks op. 34 and Mazurkas Op. 62,

i.e. works created from the beginning to the end of the creative path of the great composer, in which one can observe the development of his artistic personality and the evolution of his style, from the post-romantic, through impressionistic and expressionistic to the national one. This is a repertoire from the top of the pianistic canon, requiring not only the mastery of the workshop, but also the exceptional knowledge and sensitivity – these qualities Barbara Karaśkiewicz owns.

In Opuses 1 and 4 the artist leads us into the world of Szymanowski’s fascination with the music of Chopin and Scriabin. In preludes she can build an intimate mood of poetic expression, enclosed in miniature forms, filled with charm of delicate melodies and of refined harmony. In Etudes she complements this with a rich resource of virtuosity, which is always subordinated to musical expression and do not distract the recipient from the depth of the sounds. The pianist treats each miniature from both collections with equal reverence and affection, not only the most famous Prelude in B minor or Etude in B flat minor No. 3, and – as a result – they show their beauty in a full and varied form.

The Masks cycle is the most demanding position of the given repertoire, both technically and intellectually and also emotionally. It obliges the performer to be particularly attentive
to coloristic values, to show the nuances of sound hue (tint??)and saturation. If in the whole production I would have to point out a more obvious drawback, then on the issue of sound. It is somewhat dimmed, although in the high register in dynamics of forte it may irritate the ear with a sudden sharpness. It is difficult to be absolutely sure whether this is due to the quality of the instrument used in the recording or to the sound direction, or the way the pianist shapes the tone. In Masks, which refer to the extreme shades of emotionality, this is particularly noticeable. This does not mean that this fascinating triptych is a weaker position than the rest. I like the way the works has been read, not so much by the prism of the impressionist style, to which it was used to classify Szymanowski’s works created during World War I, but rather to the expressionism, highlighting the complexity of the characters (Sheherazade, Tantris-Tristan, Don Juan) and the dramatic narration associated with them.

For the finale Barbara Karaśkiewicz has chosen two sound gems, a summary of Szymanowski’s pianistic style – Mazurkas Op. 62, as written by the composer: “more and more cheerful music in old age”. This serenity and lightness, which the artist managed to expose and to create a delicate, idyllic atmosphere out of them, are a summary of this very successful album.

The Polish composer Karol Szymanowski lived a complex, uncertain life, characterised by poor health and a spirit that today could be described as rebellious for his time; to some extent he is still relegated to a sort of limbo in music history, one of the composers who have not reached the peak of international notoriety, but is so present in recordings and concert programs that many people are now considering how great was his impact in the early years of the 20th century. He is best known for his piano works, to which he devoted most of his compositional effort, though among his other well known works are ‘King Roger’, four symphonies and concertos for violin and piano. Like Scriabin, he is a figure rather difficult to settle historically, with a language that constantly evolved over his 55 years of life between 1882 and 1937.

Szymanowski was much fascinated by his compatriot Chopin and his  first style was very much that of Chopin, as is evident in the Nine Preludes Op. 1 and the four Op. 4 Etudes, which are marked by a strong melodic sense and with an omnipresent melancholy background that is often quite moving. Szymanowski was also fascinated by the wonders of Wagnerian harmonies, as well as by the simplicity of the popular songs, and was able to sublimate the apparent contradiction that resulted from a river like flow in the composition, to invest the listener with melodies of Oriental flavor and reminiscences of the musical experiences of the early twentieth century (in particular it is possible to listen to recognise echoes of Scriabin in the Three Masques Op. 34 and again in the two late Mazurkas, Op. 62 which recall in their turn the last sublime Mazurka of Chopin.

After her very interesting publication on Divine Art’s label of another lesser known composer Roman Statkowski, Polish pianist Barbara Karaskiewicz shows that she can master  all of the heterogeneous aspects of Szymanowski’s styles through to the mature end of his career, not only out of deep love for the composer’s music, but also of a reflection and research lasting more than twenty-six years and which has resulted in a perfect technical and stylistic maturity, careful to calibrate every aspect of the complex musical style of Szymanowski which, with its continuous harmonic surprises and its inexhaustible melodic invention, needs a highly skilled  guide.

The recording is characterized by a full and wide sound that perfectly represents the great instrument used, a perfectly tuned D model of Steinway, technician Piotr Czerny’s technician sound from the Sosnowiek Concert Hall has a natural glow without application of additional effects.

The Polish pianist Barbara Karaskiewicz plays the piano music by Karol Szymanowski on a Divine Art CD: 9 Préludes op. 1, 4 Etudes op. 4, 3 Masques op. 34 and 2 Mazurkas op. 62. The program encompasses all his compositional work from the first to the last opus number. Barbara Karaskiewicz makes the development of the composer from the romanticist to the expressionist clear and plays the four works on a high level technically, musically always correct, and highly sensitive. Her strength lies clearly in the more meditative and the reflective works.

One would expect a Polish pianist to bring an extra dimension of understanding when performing this great composer. These perform­ances show that to be so, by tracing the composer’s early Chopin influences to his later more harmonically advanced interest in the oriental and the tortured chromaticism of Scriabin. Karaskiewicz’s program offers a good introduction to the composer, and her exten­sive notes are worthy of the highest praise.

Starting with the nine Preludes Op.l and four Etudes Op.4 Chopin is partly to the fore, though the influence is more structural than harmonic. The Preludes are more akin to Cho­pin’s Nocturnes rather than to his Preludes. The Etudes fit in more with Scriabin’s harmon­ic texture than they do as flights of virtuosic challenge for the pianist. There is also a pro­found emotional underpinning to Szymanowski’s pieces that seems to elude many players.

The Masques Op.34 are more extensive and more abstract impressionist in sound. ‘Scheherazade’ is somewhat exotic, while ‘Ser­enade of Don Juan’ fascinates, but not with alluring melody as one might expect. Ending with two Mazurkas Op.62 gives us a good sampling of this music.

Other fine recitals from Peter Anderszewski and Marc-Andre Hamelin stand high among the recommendations for this music, while Martin Roscoe gives us superlative performances of all of the key­board music. Here is yet another great recital, a superb sampling. The plush fullness of the sound is an added attraction.

Not only has Szymanowski come to be regarded as the greatest composer of twentieth century Poland but also as one of the finest composers for the piano working in the early part of that century. He combines classicism with Romanticism and a personal trait of modernism, the latter language increasing as he matured. I remember being surprised at seeing his memorial in a Holy Cross Church in Warsaw, ironically the only part of the building, which survived Second World War bombing.

This CD, fascinatingly, covers the whole range of these styles from the Op 1 Preludes to the later Mazurkas, Op 62. All of these have been recorded before but this particular grouping of works is unique.

The Preludes show the composer’s indebtedness to, indeed love of, his fellow countryman Chopin, not just in the fact that his first Opus was a set of Preludes but also in the late romantic language in which many of them are couched. The Etudes are also Chopinesque in many ways, showing a slight development, with the famous Bb Minor one a stand out work. But the later Masques will remind listeners of figures like Scriabin, or late Debussy, perhaps even Messiaen, with their use of polytonality and other harmonic techniques, as in first of the Masques, the exotic ‘Scheherazade’ with its authentically oriental figurations. Szymanowski came a long way in a short time.

I have to say immediately that Barbara Karaskiewicz seems to have known Szymanowski and his language for a number of years and reading her biography it is clear that she started to play his music when she was just fifteen and took part in the Karol Szymanowski Competition with she was sixteen in 1997 winning a distinction. You are in safe hands with this CD. But that’s not to say that others have not achieved great things with this music.

Some of you may know the fine series by Martin Roscoe of the complete piano music of Szymanowski on Naxos. Volume 3 has a particularly virtuoso performance of the Etudes Op 33 written over ten years after the four recorded here.

Both Masques and the Two Mazurkas were recorded beautifully in 2008 by Roland Pöntinnen on BIS (CD1137) a disc I reviewed at the time and I have continued to enjoy his performance and the wonderful BIS sound ever since. But I have been quite shocked to discover that his recording of the Masques clips over a minute and a half off that of Maraskiewicz who I now see as much more expressive and sympathetic; and this is significant because the harmonies are so chromatically complex that thy need time to be assimilated and spaced. And although less complex, the Mazurkas are likewise half a minute quicker at the hands of Pöntinnen. Here however he emphasizes more the sense of the dance, and a greater feel for the music’s virtuosity and direction whereas the new recording is more distracted and dreamy.

The three Masques reminded a friend of mine of Sorabji, which is quite a claim, but I can see what she means especially in No 1 ‘Scheherazade’. No 2 is a remarkably harsh and brittle movement which uses the story of Tristan disguised on a visit to Isolde and not being recognized. (‘Tantris the Fool’) But No 3 may well bring to mind Granados or the Debussy (who also used the title ‘Masques’) of the ‘La Puerto del vino’ in his Preludes Book 2. It is subtitled ‘Serenade Don Juana’ and it is fascinating how Szymanowski conjures up the Iberian anti-hero so convincingly with almost vivid strumming guitars and clinking castanets, aided by a very punctilious and evocative performance.

The booklet is, for me, a model of what I like to see and read. There is background to the composer’s life and a detailed study of each piece, which, however, never gets overly technical, therefore not alienating some readers. There are photographs of the composer, a translation of Anna Stachura’s essay from Polish into English and a useful biography of Dr. Barbra Karaskiecz’s career. The recording is also ideal.

All in all this disc would make an ideal start for anyone coming anew to this fascinating composer.

There is much biographical detail about Karol Szymanowski available on-line and in good old-fashioned reference books. On the other hand, a few sentences will help contextualise this selection of piano music.

Although regarded as a Polish composer, Szymanowski was born in the Ukraine on 6 October 1882. After study at the Warsaw Conservatory, he completed his first piano sonata and an overture for orchestra. Moving to Berlin in 1906 he began to compose in a German-Romantic style. Soon he abandoned this, and turned his thoughts towards Russian music, including influence from Scriabin. An additional stimulus was French impressionism. After teaching duties in Warsaw, several European tours as a concert pianist, and a visit to the United States he discovered Polish folk-songs and dances. This was to be seminal in his becoming a Polish nationalist composer, inspired by the arts, music and folklore of that country. Between 1926 and 1929 he was director of music at the Warsaw Conservatory, his old ‘alma mater’, and president of the Warsaw Academy of Music. Karol Szymanowski died of tuberculosis on 28 March 1938.

It is ‘conventional’ to refer to Karol Szymanowski as the ‘the greatest Polish composer since Chopin.’ This can be qualified by suggesting that he is certainly more voluminous rather than greater: his considerable catalogue of music is testament to his industry in composing music in virtually every form: two operas, four symphonies, two violin concertos, symphonic poems, songs and piano music. Poland has produced many ‘great’ composers including Witold Lutosławski (1913-1994), Andrzej Panufnik (1914-1991), Henryk Górecki (1933-2010) and Krzysztof Penderecki (b.1933).

Stylistically, Szymanowski is diverse with specific influences from Max Reger, Johannes Brahms, Claude Debussy, Alexander Scriabin and even Arnold Schoenberg. Turning to the piano music, this is often characterised by huge technical demands and the need for considerable interpretative skills. The pianist needs to be able to address the ‘sonorous fabric’ of late romantic piano style as well as the ‘effervescent, shimmering colours of impressionism’, and the development of this style into chromaticism and dissonance.

Barbara Karaśkiewicz has selected four groups of pieces from across Szymanowski’s career. It gives the listener an opportunity to appreciate the composer’s development over a 35-year period.

The opening work is the Nine Preludes, op.1 which were completed between 1899 and 1900 when the composer was only seventeen years old. The listener will find that these pieces are a kind of half-way house between the romanticism of Chopin and the more chromatic style of Reger and with a few nods to Scriabin. The Preludes explore several moods including ‘wistful’ (No.7), ‘reflective’ (No.6) and feature several ‘songs without words.’ No. 5 pays homage to Chopin Etude in C minor, op.10, no.10 (Revolutionary). The set includes the composer’s earliest surviving works (Preludes 7 and 8) which date to 1896. The most popular are No.1 and No.8, however, I think that these Nine Preludes deserve to be heard as an entire set, in order. They were dedicated to Artur Rubenstein (1887-1982).

The Four Études (Studies), op.4, like many such pieces are predicated on being ‘exercises’ for pianists, that major on a technical device woven into a demanding concert piece which are only in the gift of a virtuosic pianist. They severally explore romantic harmonies, complex double notes, octaves and other pianistic figurations. Once again Scriabin and Chopin would appear to be the models for all these Études. They were composed between 1902 and 1904.

Some 12 years later, during the First World War, Szymanowski wrote his Masques op.34. These three pieces had ‘programmatic’ titles which included, ‘Scheherazade’, ‘Tantris the Fool’ and ‘The Serenade of Don Juan.’ These pieces have moved on from their roots in Chopin and Scriabin and now look to the ‘descriptive’ music of Liszt, Debussy and Ravel for their inspiration. They do not simply describe a literary tale, but attempt to get under the ‘mask’ of each character. Full details of the underlying programme are given in the liner notes. The three Masques are enormously complex, both harmonically and in their formal structure. It is my favourite work on this CD.

The final selection in this exploration of Karol Szymanowski’s piano music are the expressionistic (Schoenberg rather than Chopin) Two Mazurkas, op.62, which were written only three years before the composer’s death. It is understood that although the title refers to a national Polish dance, Szymanowski has remodelled this by a free development of the mazurka rhythm and introduced considerable decoration, which emphasises piano sonorities rather than the parodying the original dance.

Dr Anna Stachura has written a nine-page essay about Karol Szymanowski and this selection of piano music. Each piece is given a detailed, satisfying but not overly technical analysis. It has been translated from the Polish (also included) by Barbara Karaskiewicz. My only complaint is that the text of these notes is a wee bit wee: I had to use a magnifying glass, and I could find no ‘on-line’ .pdf file to download.

Polish-born pianist Barbara Karaśkiewicz plays these four works with great understanding, technical aplomb and interpretive skill. It makes a splendid introduction to the piano music of Karol Szymanowski.