Henryk Melcer was born
near Warsaw in 1869. He was a highly
talented pianist who won competitions
and toured extensively, eventually studying
with Leschetizky. As a result of the
renown generated by his playing he accepted
a pedagogic position in Helsinki before,
as the new century dawned, he moved
to Lvov, firstly as pianist and thereafter
as a conductor. A Viennese interlude
(at the Meisterschule – Melcer was an
inveterate traveller) was followed by
return to Warsaw and a gradual ascent
of the professorial ladder until he
became director of the Conservatory.
He and the entire teaching team resigned
in 1926 protesting at political interference
and into this void came Szymanowski
to take Melcer’s place. He retained
his piano professorship however but
died in 1928 during a lesson.
Whilst piano music
was clearly an important facet of his
compositional life Melcer also turned
his hand to chamber music. In this enterprising
disc we have three world premieres and
two big works. The 1907 Violin Sonata
is steeped in cleverly integrated Polish
dance rhythms. The Oberek galvanises
the first movement and the folksy scherzo
is flavoursome. Pure lyricism is the
Adagio’s creed, a lied, increasingly
passionate and embracing some fulsome
double-stopping. The finale is frolicsome
and clean limbed. The ethos here is
strongly influenced by Grieg – it’s
the Polish equivalent of the Second
and Third sonatas rolled together, though
without the immediacy of ideas or the
mastery of form and texture. Little
of Brahms, maybe some sense of Franco-Belgian
cyclical form – Franck in other words,
though the predominant influence is
Grieg.
The trio is a much
earlier work – his Op.2 in fact – written
when Melcer was in his early to mid
twenties. It’s a big, solid work and
Brahmsian. It builds up a strong late-Romantic
steam though Melcer tends to rely on
repeated figures too much. This is a
particular fault of the slow movement,
which may be finely lyrical, indeed
wistful in places, but is overlong.
The most engaging of the four movements
is the scherzo, a real rustic affair
with a gallant feel to it as well, and
thoroughly engaging, taking the trio
back to its roots. The finale has terpsichorean
twists a-plenty.
There’s the bonus of
a Dumka for violin and piano,
which turns out to be little more than
a paraphrase of an influential song
by Stanislaw Moniuszko.
The Warsaw Trio play
well. They’re canny enough not to
underplay the more passionate outpourings
of the Trio and the duo of Andrzej Gębski
and Joanna Ławrynowicz do well
by the folksiness of the sonata. Very
reasonable recording quality and some
helpful notes completes the package.
If you’re keen to find how far
Grieg’s influence spread into continental
Europe try the sonata first.
Jonathan Woolf
Full
Acte Préalable Catalogue
The Warsaw Trio (Andrzej Gębski (violin),
Jarosław Domżał (cello), Joanna
Ławrynowicz (piano)) 
for
details
