Szymanowski - Piano Works
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Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Cat No: 4863007
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Instrumental
Release Date: 30th September 2022
Contents
Works
Masques (3), op.34Mazurkas (20), op.50
» no.13 Moderato
» no.14 Animato
» no.15 Allegretto dolce
» no.16 Allegramente: Vigoroso
Preludes (9), op.1 » no.1 in B minor
» no.2 in D minor
» no.7 in C minor
» no.8 in E flat minor
Variations on a Polish Theme, op.10Artists
Krystian Zimerman (piano)Works
Masques (3), op.34Mazurkas (20), op.50
» no.13 Moderato
» no.14 Animato
» no.15 Allegretto dolce
» no.16 Allegramente: Vigoroso
Preludes (9), op.1 » no.1 in B minor
» no.2 in D minor
» no.7 in C minor
» no.8 in E flat minor
Variations on a Polish Theme, op.10Artists
Krystian Zimerman (piano)About
One of today’s leading pianists sheds new light on an unjustly overlooked composer: for Krystian Zimerman, Karol Szymanowski’s piano music deserves to stand alongside that of their compatriot Chopin.
When Krystian Zimerman travelled to Fukuyama, Japan, in June 2022, it was to complete a journey that had taken 28 years: a recording of music by his compatriot Karol Szymanowski that he had first begun in 1994. The spur came on the one hand from the fast approaching 140th anniversary of Szymanowski’s birth (6 October 1882), and on the other hand from the prospect of recording in a beautiful concert hall in Fukuyama designed by Zimerman’s friend Yasuhisa Toyota, whose acoustics Zimerman has long admired. “In Toyota’s halls, every note is clear,” Zimerman says, “yet each is in a cushion of warm surroundings.”
For this album Zimerman has selected repertoire that for him shows the essence of Szymanowski, aiming to shed new light on his music and place him firmly in the canon of great composers of piano music. Each work or group of pieces represents a different, distinctive stage in his development. The album features the Masques, op.34, recorded in 1994 but never released, alongside interpretations of the Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10, and selections of Préludes and Mazurkas.
When Krystian Zimerman travelled to Fukuyama, Japan, in June 2022, it was to complete a journey that had taken 28 years: a recording of music by his compatriot Karol Szymanowski that he had first begun in 1994. The spur came on the one hand from the fast approaching 140th anniversary of Szymanowski’s birth (6 October 1882), and on the other hand from the prospect of recording in a beautiful concert hall in Fukuyama designed by Zimerman’s friend Yasuhisa Toyota, whose acoustics Zimerman has long admired. “In Toyota’s halls, every note is clear,” Zimerman says, “yet each is in a cushion of warm surroundings.”
For this album Zimerman has selected repertoire that for him shows the essence of Szymanowski, aiming to shed new light on his music and place him firmly in the canon of great composers of piano music. Each work or group of pieces represents a different, distinctive stage in his development. The album features the Masques, op.34, recorded in 1994 but never released, alongside interpretations of the Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10, and selections of Préludes and Mazurkas.
Sound/Video
Paused
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19 Preludes, op.1 (1899–1900): 1. Andante ma non troppo in B minor
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29 Preludes, op.1 (1899–1900): 2. Andante con moto in D minor
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39 Preludes, op.1 (1899–1900): 7. Moderato in C minor
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49 Preludes, op.1 (1899–1900): 8. Andante ma non troppo in E flat minor
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5Masques, op.34 (1915–16): 1. Shéhérazade. Lento assai. Languido
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6Masques, op.34 (1915–16): 2. Tantris le Bouffon. Vivace assai
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7Masques, op.34 (1915–16): 3. Sérénade de Don Juan. Vivace
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820 Mazurkas, op.50 (1924–25): 13. Moderato
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920 Mazurkas, op.50 (1924–25): 14. Animato
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1020 Mazurkas, op.50 (1924–25): 15. Allegretto dolce
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1120 Mazurkas, op.50 (1924–25): 16. Allegramente. Vigoroso
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12Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Andante doloroso rubato
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13Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Tema. Andantino semplice
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14Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 1. Meno mosso
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15Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 2. Agitato
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16Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 3. Lento mesto, ma poco agitato
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17Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 4. Allegro molto agitato
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18Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 5. Andantino
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19Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 6. Andante dolcissimo
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20Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 7. Più mosso
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21Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 8. Marcia funebre
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22Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 9. Più mosso (Allegro)
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23Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 10. Finale. Allegro vivo
Europadisc Review
Following recent forays into Schubert, Bernstein and Beethoven, Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman returns to the music of his homeland with a disc devoted to the music of Karol Szymanowski. Most of the disc was recorded in June this year in the splendid acoustic of the Fukuyama Hall designed by Zimerman’s friend Yasuhisa Toyota (‘In Toyota’s halls, every note is clear, yet each is in a cushion of warm surroundings,’ says Zimerman). Its central work, however, the formidably difficult Masques of 1915–16, was set down in May 1994 in Copenhagen’s Tivoli Concert Hall. (It’s a tribute to Deutsche Grammophon’s production values that the acoustics – in different halls and under different producers – are remarkably consistent throughout.) That same year saw the release of Zimerman’s award-winning account of Debussy’s Préludes, and the same command of nuance, colour and elasticity of tempo that marked his Debussy playing is also in plentiful evidence here.
The disc opens with four of the nine Preludes of 1899–10, Szymanowski’s first published works, some of which date (like nos. 7 and 8 included here) from even earlier. Student works these may be, with the palpable influence of Chopin and even (in the first Prelude) Bach to the fore, yet Zimerman shapes them lovingly, with a generous warmth of tone and freely deployed rubato lending them more than a hint of fin-de-siècle wistfulness. They make for ideal curtain raisers for a disc that ranges wide across the timeline of Szymanowski’s output.
The contrast with the intoxicating world of the Masques is nevertheless a huge one. These were composed during the hugely productive war years, when Szymanowski – still resident at the family home in Tymoszówka near Kyiv, and exempted from service in the Russian military – composed some of his best-known works. Like the Mythes for violin and piano, the Third Symphony (‘The Song of the Night’), and his other celebrated piano cycle Metopes (all cast in three movements), the Masques betray the influence not just of Debussy, Ravel and late Scriabin, but of Szymanowski’s pre-war travels to Italy, Sicily and North Africa. Like Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit and Miroirs, they show a complete command of pianistic expressive possibilities, added to which is a pronounced exoticism all Szymanowski’s own, a bending of textures and harmonic language that is completely beguiling.
Zimerman’s performance captures the sensuality as well as the anxious undertones of the opening ‘Shéhérazade’, the humorous awkwardness of the Petrushka-like ‘Tantris le Bouffon’ (inspired by Ernst Hardt’s parody of the Tristan myth), and the satirical edge of the ‘Sérénade de Don Juan’. But beyond his expressive mastery, he demonstrates total technical command in music whose complexity often extends to three staves. This is a performance of enormous depth of tone and musical insight, as well as dynamic range, fully aware of the variety of influences at work yet delving beyond them to impart a musical cogency unparalleled on disc.
The latest works here are four of the 20 Mazurkas, op.50 (1924–25), originally published in five books of four Mazurkas each. Zimerman plays the complete fourth book (nos. 13-16). Following the upheaval of the Russian Revolution, Szymanowski returned to a newly independent Poland and found a source of creative renewal in the folk music of the Tatra Highlands around Zakopane. The Mazurkas, however, are no faux-naïf exercises in neo-Chopinesque pianism, nor even tributes to Scriabin’s contributions to the genre, but genuinely individual works of a mature musical mind, going beyond virtuosity to real emotional depth. The warm, wonderfully ‘centred’ tone of no.13 (Moderato) is as engaging here as the folk-infused edginess of no.16 (marked ‘Vigoroso’) which brings the book to a close.
Zimerman ends this superb disc with another early work, the Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04), one of the first works to gain Szymanowski recognition at home. In it he began the move away from his early fascination for the music of Richard Strauss, and although the overall flavour is still more Germanic than in his later Tatra-inspired music, the sense of a young genius spreading his wings is tangible. After a dreamy introduction, the theme is inflected with expressionistic harmonies, while outrageously virtuosic variations (nos. 2 and 4 as well as the Finale) contrast with introspection and, in the eighth variation, a gloriously lugubrious funeral march. Zimerman brings out the character of each section, while carefully charting the overall trajectory, building unerringly to a hugely satisfying conclusion.
There have been several notable discs of Szymanowski’s piano music over the years, but in this latest release from Zimerman we finally have one that raises the composer to his rightful position as one of the outstanding voices of the first third of the 20th century. Which, we’re sure you’ll agree, is an achievement worth celebrating on the occasion of Szymanowski’s 140th anniversary!
Reviews
With the Masques of 1915, Szymanowski had moved on to – and past – the styles of Debussy and Ravel, blending them at times with Stravinsky and early Prokofiev. ... Zimerman has all the quick-wittedness and nimbleness called for, not to mention power and agility. ... Placed last on the programme, the Op 10 Variations on a Polish Folk Theme takes us back to the composer’s student days, 11 or 12 years before Masques. ... Zimerman lavishes as much fantasy, expressive freedom and subtlety on it as on the rest of programme, doing a superb job in decluttering the textures, helped by predictably first-rate recording quality. David FanningGramophone November 2022
Every new release from Krystian Zimerman is a special event, but this one is more so than most. ... He begins with four of the 1900 preludes (Nos 1, 2, 7 and 8) that make up Szymanowski’s Op 1, transforming each into a glowing jewel. The stylistic shift between their Chopinesque world and the Masques, composed 15 years later, is stark; those three pieces were written when Szymanowski’s modernism... was at its most intense, and Zimerman brings to them the wit and bewitching command of keyboard texture and colour that makes his Debussy playing so peerless. ... This is a marvellous disc from an utterly exceptional artist. Andrew ClementsThe Guardian 13 October 2022
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