KAROL SZYMANOWSKI: PIANO WORKS

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

karol_szymanowski

Karol Szymanowski Piano Music

Preludes, Op.1, Etudes; Op. 4, Masques, Op.34; Mazurkas, Op.34.

Barbara Karaskiewicz, piano       Divine Art 21151

Listening twice to this CD’s 18 tracks with its running time of 67 minutes was intensely rewarding. At no point did monotony never set in, even though the nine preludes that make up Szymanowski’s opus 1 are quite similarly structured. But the variety of harmonic surprises, the sheer melodic inventiveness of the composer, even while maintaining his compositional focus on the traditional form of the piano prelude, kept this listener interested.

Writing prolifically during the first fifteen years of his life as a composer, Szymanowski defined his own style early on. In the Opus 1 preludes the Polish master explores polytonality and a sui generis harmonic language that was already being influenced by the opening of doors that was overtaking European music at the turn of the century in the compositions of Scriabin in Russia and Debussy in France.

By the time Szymanowski penned his Four Etudes, Op. 4 his style was evolving away from the lush Romanticism of Chopin that inevitably influenced him and other composers of his generation. The etudes are severely formal works in which the harmonies keep expanding unpredictably in the direction of dissonance.

Maski (Masques). Op. 34 is a musical triptych made up of three vignettes: Scheherezade, Tantris the Fool and Don Juan’s Serenade. Here we are clearly in a tonally ambiguous territory in which modality and oriental exoticism are at the core of the music.

By the time he was by his own admission “an old man” Szymanowski turned for inspiration to the folklore of Poland, writing about his lively Mazurkas in opus 62, “…the funny thing is that I write more and more bright music at my old age!”

Barbara Karaskiewicz is a pianist of rare gifts: always sensitive, assertive and powerful at crucial times, exquisitely handling the lyricism that abounds in these miniature gems. A specialist in the music of Szymanowski, she continues to enjoy a major European career.

As with all offerings by Divine Art, the album, recorded on July 2916 in Sosnowiec, Poland, is beautifully  mastered by Piotr Czerny, elegantly designed by Pawel Szczepanik, and thoroughly annotated by Anna Stachura Boguslawska.

Rafael de Acha

 

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”

2 thoughts on “KAROL SZYMANOWSKI: PIANO WORKS”

  1. Dear Rafi , I look forward to all of your musical links . I. depend on you know to help me keep up with the world of Classical Music Nancy Marcum.

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