RECORDING OF THE MONTH     CHOPIN Waltzes and Impromptus Vladimir Feltsman £11 post free World-wide VIVALDI The four seasons London Mozart Players/Juritz £12 post free World-wide BEETHOVEN Symphonies 4 and 5 LSO/Yondani Butt £12 post free World-wide

BUY NOW    AmazonUK   AmazonUS

Henryk WIENIAWSKI (1835-1880) Violin Concerto in D minor Op.22 (1870) [22.42] Grażyna BACEWICZ (1909-1969) Concerto for String Orchestra (1948) [14.16] Krzysztof PENDERECKI (b.1933) Agnus Dei (1980-84) arranged for string orchestra by Boris Pergamenschikow (1994) [6.36] Wojciech Pławner (violin) Beethoven Academy Orchestra/Paweł Przytocki Recorded in the Concert Hall of the Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice, May 2005 DUX 0524 [43.36]

A short all-Polish programme is the engine that drives this Dux disc. It’s issued under the auspices of the Ludwig van Beethoven Association, whose Beethoven Academy Orchestra does the honours throughout. Other than that I must say it is hard to gauge the target audience for a concert such as this. The disc is short measure; there’s a young soloist in a warhorse concerto now more admired in the breach than in the performance, some orchestral Bacewicz and there’s the short but intense Penderecki Agnus Dei in this string orchestra arrangement. Whatever the merits or demerits of the programme it’s always good to hear a young soloist in the Wieniawski D minor, a work once colonised by such as Heifetz, Elman and Stern – more recently Perlman has placed his stamp on it. Pławner was a prize-winning twenty-one year old when he recorded it and he has a nice, sweet, clean style, not always entirely in tune in the early stages. He doesn’t quite sculpt the lines as glamorously as his epic predecessors and some of the orchestral playing is inclined to be a touch inert as well, though there’s a first class principal clarinettist. Pławner employs some decent lower string work in the slow movement, which he takes with lyrical impress, and shows a fine pair of passagework heels in the finale. It’s a promising performance but not especially distinctive. For most people it’s the Bacewicz that will prove the major draw though her Concerto for String Orchestra has been recorded a number of times before, not least by the Cracow Philharmonic under Roland Bader on Koch Swann back in the mid 1990s when it was coupled with the composer’s Third Symphony and also by the Polish Chamber Orchestra slightly earlier which was, in truth, a better recording. Written in 1948 this is a bustly neo-classical work, not one of her most individual or characteristic, but one that builds a good head of steam. The first movement is classic sonata form and has concertante-like moments for solo violin (her own instrument) and cello. It possesses an urgent freshness and in the slow movement a warm lyricism that’s not quite untouched by a certain aloofness. The pizzicato-laced finale has vivid rhythmic impetus and polymetric drive. It makes for diverting listening in a good performance such as this one. The Penderecki Agnus Dei is a powerful, concise threnody, a melancholic utterance of immediate impact. That alone wouldn’t be enough to compel interest; the Bacewicz is a strong piece and as interest in her works has increased of late I’d be happy to recommend it to those yet unaware of it. But it’s very much to be sampled before purchase, as this is more a souvenir of an event than a cohesively designed sequence in its own right. Jonathan Woolf     Advertising Rates Visitor stats MusicWeb International has over 40,000 Classical CD reviews on offer Discs received Having a problem Donating? Gerard Hoffnung Concerts & The Bricklayer Story   New Releases New Releases   MusicWeb sells the Polish catalogue CDAccord £10.50 post free W-W MusicWeb sells the Arcodiva catalogue £12.00 post free W-W £11.75 post-free world- wide MusicWeb can now offer you discs from the following catalogues: Prices include postage [Acte Préalable £13.50] [Arcodiva £12.00] [Avie from £6.25] [British Music Society £12.00] [CDACCORD from £13.50 ] [ClassicO £12.50] [Hallé from £11] [Heritage £10] [Hortus £14.99 ] [Lyrita ONLY £11.75 ] [Nimbus Special prices] [Northern Flowers £13.50] [REDCLIFFE £11 ] [Sheva £11] [Tactus £11.50 ] [Talent from £12.00 ] [Toccata Classics £10.50 ] Musicweb Special Offers Monthly Best Buys     Google Ads - for information about privacy matters, click here.  Amazon Musicweb International is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Return to Index

Reviews from previous months Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.