At one time Ignacy Dobrzyński is said to have
been as well known in Poland as Chopin, with whom he once shared the
teacher Józef Elsner. One left Poland and found fame, the other
remained in Russian-occupied Warsaw and was ultimately all but forgotten.
Bits and pieces of Dobrzyński's music have appeared on disc in
recent years, but very few monographs. The opera overture, piano concerto
and symphony offered here by the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra under
Łukasz Borowicz for Chandos make for a varied and enjoyable, though
not essential,
table d'hôte.
The pirate-painting Monbar Overture is of a generally Rossinian nature
- cheerful, catchy, with an exuberant finale. Though not quite as huge
as the Piano Concerto, the Symphony is nevertheless a substantial work.
Dobrzyński gave it a new second movement more than a quarter of
a century on, and that is the version heard here - although the attractive
original movement has thoughtfully been included by way of bonus. The
ostensibly nationalistic Symphony is no stand-out masterpiece - Dobrzyński's
own title is perhaps more revealing than he intended - but it is tuneful
and very well-crafted in the way many lesser symphonies of the time
were. The final movement, oddly, sounds not unlike a Rossini overture
itself, brimming with high spirits and operatic-style reprises.
The best work of the three is, ironically, the Piano Concerto. Ironically,
because Dobrzyński was only seventeen when he wrote it. In that
respect it is an astonishingly assured work, elegantly proportioned,
sophisticatedly orchestrated and with an abundance of pianistic and
symphonic ideas. In some respects this is an an unfortunate pairing
for the Symphony by Chandos - Howard Shelley's recording of the Piano
Concerto was released only last year by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute
(NIFCCD101, paired with Franciszek Lessel's) to widespread praise. Chandos
made their recording in early 2010, more than six months after Shelley's,
which was done live at the 'Chopin and his Music' festival in Warsaw
- thus it seems unlikely no one at Chandos was aware of it. It might
have been more revealing at any rate if Borowicz and team had recorded
Dobrzyński's First Symphony, which indeed the PRSO already have
in their repertoire.
On the other hand, the Chandos version is sufficiently different - many
minutes longer than Shelley's, and taking advantage (controversially,
it must be said) of a reconstruction by composer Krzysztof Baculewski
from Dobrzyński's original deletions. The concerto itself does
not resemble those of Chopin, but rather Johann Hummel's or Friedrich
Kalkbrenner's crowd-pleasing, bravura-stoked works. Bizarrely, the first
known performance was not given until 1986. Polish soloist Emilian Madey,
himself a composer, gives a suitably heroic performance of this epic
work.
Sound quality is pretty good, but never reaching the heights one or
two prominent reviews of this disc indicate - a suggestion of lossiness
in the strings sections is hard to escape. The two CDs only add up to
a single plus a quarter of an hour, but as Chandos are only charging
single-disc price, the timing is actually extremely generous. The trilingual
booklet notes by Adrian Thomas are interesting and well written. Moreover,
the text goes almost to the edges of the page - what a tree-saver, if
this marks the beginning of the end for the label's notoriously wasteful
margins! Madey and especially Borowicz stare out from the booklet in
a strikingly dour, humourless way - quite what the origin of their severity
is, is unclear. Not Dobrzyński's music, for sure.
Byzantion
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