Magin’s name may better
known through the piano competition
named in his honour, which he founded
in 1985. He was in fact an executant-composer
of distinction and it was only the serious
injuries sustained in a car crash that
prevented him from having a much more
widely known career as a pianist. He’d
certainly swept up a raft of prestigious
international awards and had embarked
upon a recording career as well. The
startling realignment of his career
however gave impetus to his compositional
work and some of the fruits are here.
His writing is steeped
in Polish lore: rhythms and dance music.
The 1967 Triptyque polonaise
has colouristic infusions and plenty
of vivacity but the most startling of
the three is the Oberek finale. This
is a motoric affair characteristic of
his writing generally - see his very
attractive concertos - and one that
turns this into a sort of Polish boogie.
The Trois Pièces
Caractéristiques date from
his apprentice years and far pre-figure
that ruinous car crash. He was nineteen
when he wrote these rhythmically high-spirited
little pieces, the Polka of which is
decidedly larky.
The Second Sonata
dates from his full maturity. It moves
from the declamatory to the limpid,
embraces the fugal, and is lucidly written
and emotively strong. The scherzo is
full of dynamism whilst the slow movement
is broadly clement but for an increasingly
flourishing and chordal outburst. The
finale reveals a debt to Prokofiev but
is independent minded enough to survive
the comparison.
Elsewhere we encounter
the charming and guile-less Miniatures
Polonaises, completed in 1982, the
year after the second sonata. They are
supple and very light. The Images
d’Enfants is earlier and rather
more involved. I was taken by the mysterious
calm at the centre of the third, La
grotte de glace, and by the chiming
treble that gives such pictorial life
to Le Chinois en porcelaine though
pretty lyricism is never far away, as
the concluding Berceuse shows.
The Preludes
include vague reveille hints and reminiscences
of Chopin – the concluding Prestissimo
in particular – but they do make for
an attractive and relatively undemanding
envoi.
The performances sound
well prepared and highly proficient
and the sound quality in the radio studio
is not the kind of chilly one that one
might fear. Concise notes. Magin’s was
an attractive voice, traditional, advancing
not a step beyond Prokofiev, but full
of good cheer, and warmth.
Jonathan Woolf
Full
Acte Préalable Catalogue
Magdalena Adamek (piano) 
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