http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2009/July09/Stojowski_violin_AP0221.htm
Zygmunt STOJOWSKI (1870-1946)
Sonata for violin and piano No. 2 in E major Op. 37 (1911) [28:09]
Romance for violin and orchestra Op. 20 (1919) [6:10]
Concerto for violin and orchestra in G major Op. 22 (1900) [30:05]
Agnieszka Marucha (violin); Jean-Jacques Schmid (piano)
Orkiestra PSM II st. im. J. Elsnera/Piotr Wajrak
rec. 25-26 August 2008, Oekumenisches Zentrum Kersatz (sonata, Romance); 28-30 May 2008, Polskie Radio, Studio S2 (concerto). DDD. world premiere recordings
ACTE PRÉALABLE AP0221 [64:28]
Stojowski leaves you in no doubt of his vaunting confidence. The leaping lyrical romantic stride of his Violin Sonata No. 2 is struck from the same precious metal as the sonatas by Delius, Foulds, Korngold and Dunhill. His leonine aureate romanticism flows like lava but he can also draw on reserves of poetic passion surgingly sustained yet slowly released as in the
Arietta. He is not averse to a chuckling good humour either as in the emphatic
Allegro giocoso finale with its contrasting reserves of striving passion. Both Marucha and Schmid give this their all.
The First Violin Sonata was recorded by Barbara Trojanowski (violin)and El'zbieta Tyszecka (piano) on an earlier Acte Préalable AP0112 in 2004
.
Having carved out a place among the eminent players and composers of Europe Stojowski left for New York City in 1905. This was at the invitation of Frank Damrosch at the Institute of Musical Art. Teaching was his sustenance but there was time for a concert reputation and his first fixture was at Carnegie Hall in 1906 with the Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 4.
The 1919
Romance,
written for Pawel Kochanski, can stand unblushingly alongside the concert pieces by Saint-Saëns and Bruch. It has a sometimes Elgarian flavour but its chocolate bittersweet flow of nostalgia is also reminiscent of the constancy of song in the Glazunov and Schoeck concertos. It was written for and premiered by Wladyslaw Gorski who premiered the work in Paris. It is as good as the brace of Stojowski piano concertos recorded by
Hyperion.
The thirty minute three movement Violin Concerto is a demonstrative work - a showy but substantial enough piece of late-Romantica steeped in mercurial
cantabile gold. It starts with imperial shadows and the rumble of insurrection. The solo part is more Dvořák and Beethoven than Brahms although there are moments in the
Allegro Deciso (I) that predict the Elgar concerto. There is then a relaxed yet not particularly special
Andante non troppo. The finale is a folk-inflected
Allegro giocoso in the same frame of mood as the first movement but more spectacular. This is perhaps a case of Bruch-meets-Glazunov-meets-Wieniawski. There are some really touching moments and occasional reminiscences of the violin concertos of his countryman Karlowicz and of the Belgian August de Boeck.
More please.
Rob Barnett
Agnieszka Marucha (violin);
Jean-Jacques Schmid (piano) 
