"The
wonderful discoveries that I have made during my research on neglected
repertoire often make me wonder why it is that so much beautiful Polish
music has fallen into oblivion" - thus writes Acte Préalable (AP)
impresario Jan Jarnicki in his customary preamble for the CD booklet.
Music-lovers who have bought previous AP discs will have asked
themselves the same question - how to account rationally for the big
repertoire gap between Chopin and Szymanowski, and again between
Szymanowski and Penderecki/Górecki. The names capable of filling those
holes are legion, a fact to which many previous AP recordings are
persuasive testimony.
This new disc is the second and - for now at least - last
volume dedicated to the chamber music of one of those composers, Ignacy
Dobrzyński. Volume one itself only came out a few weeks ago. Jarnicki
writes that he "discovered Dobrzyński left behind a vast legacy of
chamber pieces", but this is something of an overstatement - the
present volume and the first, incidentally one of AP's finest
recordings to date (
review),
constitute the complete works of those written to include a piano,
apart from a Clarinet Duo in A. According to Jarnicki, that work may
yet appear on a future volume, but since last year it has actually been
available on another entrepreneurial Polish label, DUX (0857). Roman
Widaszek's account of this delightful piece would in fact be a
difficult one to upstage.
For all that Dobrzyński continues to impress here
- sounding at times not unlike early Schubert or Wieniawski - this
second disc is less compelling than the first, despite its highly
generous running time, for two reasons. First, three of the works, opp.
18, 41 and 47, are the same, bar a change of instrumentation - these
are alternative versions, albeit the notes are not always clear which
ones were made or sanctioned by the composer.
Second, the flautist Jagoda Sokolowska-O'Donovan is not convincing,
especially in the
Andante e Rondo alla Polacca, where she initially
seems to let nerves get the better of her. Her wrong notes right at
the beginning are the worst of it, but it takes her a long while to
settle down. She is on improved form in the op.18
Introduction and
Variations, but there are still articulatory and intonational impurities
that make a second listen-through a less appealing proposition.
The
other musicians all appeared on volume one, where they were excellent
without exception. Les Explorateurs is a chamber ensemble based around
pianist Joanna Ławrynowicz, with guest musicians coming in according to
the requirements of works at hand. Ławrynowicz has recorded over thirty
CDs for AP spanning more than a decade, and was apparently the first
Pole to record the complete works of Chopin (also for AP). As
previously, the performances of Ławrynowicz, Łukasz Tudzierz and Anna
Orlik are poised and nicely coloured.
Sound quality is very good once more - unsurprisingly, in fact, as some
of the works were recorded alongside those on volume one. The accompanying
Polish-English notes are informative, although the translation does
come with a mild foreign accent. Performer biographies are effusive:
Ławrynowicz, for example, is "considered one of the greatest Polish
pianists". Also included is an extended biography of the talented cover
art painter.
Byzantion
Contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk
