CD Review (The Straits Times, January 2018)

SZYMANOWSKI &

KARLOWICZ Violin Concertos

TASMIN LITTLE, Violin

BBC Symphony / EDWARD GARDNER

Chandos 5185 / *****

Some sixteen years separate the two violin concertos of Polish nationalist composer Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937), but when heard one after another, they sound like contiguous movements of a mega-concerto that plays for some 45 minutes. 

The First Violin Concerto (1916) is so ethereally beautiful that its neglect in concert halls is perplexing. The outsized demands for the soloist, both technical and expressive, are likely the reason. Its rhapsodic nature and dynamic shifts from impressionistic dreaminess to boisterous drama makes it an exciting listen. The Second Violin Concerto (1932-33) that follows is more compact, utilising gritty folk music elements in its two movements linked by a cadenza.    

The Violin Concerto in A major (1902) by the short-lived Mieczyslaw Karlowicz (1876-1909, killed in an avalanche while mountaineering) comes from a different era. Its spirit is closer to the effusive Romanticism of Wieniawski, Bruch and Glazunov with the requisite fireworks to match. 

All three concertos receive gorgeous performances by British violinist Tasmin Little that go to the music's heart, the perfumed decadence of Szymanowski and the showmanship of Karlowicz. Every detail of is captured on demonstration sound by Edward Gardner's excellent BBC Symphony Orchestra. A must listen for violin lovers.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, December 2013)

 SZYMANOWSKI Symphonies Nos.1 & 2

London Symphony / VALERY GERGIEV

LSO Live 0731 / ****1/2

Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937), widely hailed as the greatest Polish composer after Chopin, wrote four symphonies. While the latter two get occasional airings in concerts, the first two are rarely performed. These earlier works illustrate his eclectic and evolving style which mirrored the progressive and rapid erosion of tonality in Europe at the turn of the century. The First Symphony in F minor (1906-07) is in two movements, and was never completed. Its sound palette continues where Wagner’s seminal opera Tristan And Isolde left off and shares the same feverish atmosphere as Schoenberg’s early tonal scores. Although Szymanowski despised it, the music does make an impressive impact.

The Second Symphony in B flat major (1909-10) is a finer and more mature work. It shares the same volatile spirit as its predecessor, but the aesthetics are now more aligned with the opulence of Richard Strauss and Scriabin. An opening theme heard on solo violin is its recurring motif that unites its sprawling half-hour duration. The second movement is an elaborate theme and variations, culminating in a mighty final fugue, as if to display his academic credentials. The London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev gives marvellous live performances (recorded in late 2012), and its audience is remarkably quiet. The music deserves nothing less.    

PORTRAITS: THE CLARINET ALBUM

ANDREAS OTTENSAMER, Clarinet

Rotterdam Philharmonic

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Conductor

Deutsche Grammophon 481 0131 / ****1/2

This is young Austrian clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer’s debut album on the famed German yellow label, just under an hour of clarinet concertos and encores. He is a versatile as they come, equally at home with the classical repertoire and modern works. He weaves a luscious creamy tone in the opening of Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto (famously recorded by Benny Goodman) before extrovertly breaking out into jazz-inspired runs which make this work such a hit.

The Clarinet Concerto by Italian Domenico Cimarosa, better known for his operas, is arranged from a keyboard sonata by Arthur Benjamin (the Australian-born composer of Jamaican Rumba). Its clean classical lines, beautifully shaped, evoke the mellifluous operatic arias of the period. With the First Clarinet Concerto by Louis Spohr, one arrives at the golden age of the clarinet, where an outsized virtuoso technique becomes a pre-requisite in meeting the music’s acrobatic demands. Ottensamer delivers with panache, and the three short works orchestrated by Stephan Koncz that precede each concerto are well chosen. Gershwin’s First Prelude, Debussy’s Girl With The Flaxen Hair and Amy Beach’s Berceuse are totally enjoyable as well.

LUTOSLAWSKI QUARTET / Review

LUTOSLAWSKI QUARTET

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Wednesday (27 March 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 March 2013 with the title "Pleasing symmetry by Polish quartet".

2013 has been exceptional year for chamber music, and it got even better at the 6^th Singapore Chamber Festival with a very challenging but rewarding recital by the Lutoslawski Quartet from Poland. Seldom has a programme of 20^th and 21^st century chamber music been performed with such vibrancy and dedication.

Its first half ran for close to an hour, beginning with the String Quartet (1964) by Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994) whose birth centenary is celebrated this year and after whom the ensemble is named. Its atonal 25 minutes in two movements were a concentrated study in modernist gestures and techniques, with little concession made for both performer and listener.

The opening gambit was dispatched with utter clarity by first violinist Jakub Jakowicz; mere wisps and shards of muted tones, and answered with an equally trenchant response by his three partners. The mostly quiet first movement was contrasted by lacerating violence and rapidity of reflexes, a deliberately provocative riposte in the ensuing movement. The storm eventually settled with the sustained long lines of the final lament, closing with the apparent placidity of its beginning.

Even if one did not take to the uncompromising and rarefied musical language, it was hard to ignore the manner to which the players listened and responded to each other. Each had his own distinctive and very difficult part but together they resounded in one accord, which is the true mark of virtuosity

By comparison, Shostakovich’s Eighth String Quartet (1960) is an established classic. The composer’s own motto theme (D-E flat-C-B) hovered ominously through its proceedings, with quotations from earlier works thrown into the fray. Satirical and grotesque elements were keenly brought out in this rapt reading, leaving one without a doubt that while he had dedicated the work to “the victims of Fascism”, Shostakovich counted himself among them.

The second half opened with the Third String Quartet by Marcin Markowicz, the quartet’s second violinist. It was the shortest work and ironically the most approachable. It began with a familiar motif from the first violin, which comes from the opening of Szymanowski’s Roxana’s Song (from the opera King Roger).

The tonal work ambled into an impish scherzo, reminiscent of Shostakovich, and culminated with a furious fugue, the subject of which was instigated by Markowicz himself. Like a rainbow’s arc, the earlier song returned but now shared by the foursome.

The aural beauty continued with Karol Szymanowski’s Second String Quartet (1937), with Marciej Mlodawski’s cello singing high above a gently rocking accompaniment. The first movement was played on mutes throughout, while the vigorous scherzo relived the spirit of folk music and dance of  Poland’s Tatra Mountains, providing both rhythmic and thematic contrasts.

The finale comprised two fugal episodes, the second of which was an echo of Shostakovich’s motto theme. As the concert drew to an emphatic close and very enthusiastic applause, it did so with a pleasing symmetry.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, April 2011)

LISZT Annees de Pelerinage (Complete)

LOUIS LORTIE, Piano 

Chandos 10662(2) (2 CDs) / *****

New recordings of Franz Liszt’s piano music are not exactly sprouting like mushrooms after a rain in 2011, his bicentenary year. However this double CD album will rank among the best. Liszt’s Années De Pelerinage (Years Of Pilgrimage) is a collection of heterogeneous works spanning some forty years (1830s-1870s), inspired by his travels in Switzerland and Italy. Legends, folklore, literature, poetry and scenery figure in these 26 pieces, which range from straight-forward transcriptions to original essays of outsized virtuosity and fantasy. The first two books – Suisse and Italie – are the most familiar, containing popular Romantic numbers like the rhapsodic Vallee d’Obermann, lyrical Petrarch Sonnets and hellish Dante Sonata.

The most modernistic third book hurls a lance into the future, with Tristanesque discords in the Cypresses of Villa d’Este, the fluid imagery of Debussy and Ravel in the Fountains of Villa d’Este, and pieces coloured by the starkness of the Second Viennese School. French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie possesses the imagination and technique to do justice to this varied music, which sings, sparkles and storms to equal degree. And there are startling fistfuls of notes on show for knuckle-busters like Orage (Storm) and the Tarantella from Venice and Naples. This stupendous account already surpasses the late great Lazar Berman’s legendary 1980s set on Deutsche Grammophon.

BOOK IT: 

LISZT Piano Recital 

by KENNETH HAMILTON

Where: Esplanade Recital Studio 

When: Monday 18 April 2011, 7.30 pm 

Tickets available at SISTIC

SZYMANOWSKI 

Violin Concerto No.1 / Symphony No.3

Vienna Philharmonic / PIERRE BOULEZ

Deutsche Grammophon 477 8771 / ****1/2

The Polish composer Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) has often been labelled an impressionist and nationalist, drawing him into circles occupied by Debussy and Ravel, or Chopin, Grieg and Janacek. His music is more difficult to pigeonhole, incorporating many disparate and contrasting influences. In his First Violin Concerto (1916), one senses Debussy’s variegated hues, Stravinsky’s clockwork intricacies, Richard Strauss’ orchestral opulence, Scriabin’s mysticism and intoxicating throes of ecstasy. All this makes for an aromatic 23 minutes within a single movement, drawing the listener in through a swirling vortex of volatile shifts and supercharged emotions. German violinist Christian Tetzlaff is the highly impressive soloist with an intuitive feel for this music.

Szymanowski’s Third Symphony (1914-16) shares a similar sound canvas. A setting of the Sufi poet Rumi’s Song Of The Night, it further employs solo tenor, the excellent Steve Davislim in this recording, and chorus for a suffocating and near-orgiastic sound experience. Veteran French conductor Pierre Boulez is renowned for his coolness and objectivity, but does not stint from delivering performances imbued with a highly sensuous emotional core. On a bonus disc, he speaks about his encounters with Szymanowski’s music in three different languages. But does this justify the extra cost of this hard-covered deluxe edition ($36.95 at HMV), when the first disc plays for under 50 minutes?