Karol Szymanowski - Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4 (Antoni Wit)

Information

Composer: Karol Szymanowski

• Concerto Overture, Op. 12
• Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Op. 15
• Symphony No. 4 'Symphonie Concertante', Op. 60
• Study in B flat minor, Op. 4, No. 3 (orch. Grzegorz Fitelberg)

Jan Krzysztof Broja, piano

Ewa Marczyk, violin solo

Marek Marczyk, viola solo

Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra

Antoni Wit, conductor

Date: 2009

Label: Naxos

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Review

Naxos here completes its second recorded cycle of Szymanowski’s orchestral works. And that apparent duplication seems less remarkable once you hear the passionate playing and exceptional musical understanding of the Warsaw Philharmonic under their general and artistic director. The early Concert Overture, son of Rosenkavalier and proud of it, is resplendently played here, only at rare moments craving a more glamorous sound stage. And the over-heated two-movement First Symphony, which the composer himself described as a “contrapuntal-harmonic-orchestral monstrosity” and withdrew after its premiere, emerges as far more purposeful and less rebarbative than I can remember from any of the admittedly few rival versions that have come and gone over the years.

As a listening experience the Fourth Symphony is initially somewhat more problematic, in that the opening pages (surely the model for Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto) suffer from slight intonation problems between the concertante piano and the orchestra. But with a bit of acclimatisation, helped by the firm and affectionate shaping of the performance, this proves to be liveable with. Jan Krzysztof Broda seems to grow in stature through the rhapsodic slow movement, and he never loses the thread in the finale’s Ravelian and Prokofievian deviations.

All in all, it would take significantly greater financial outlay to find anything better than this, and even then the differences would be marginal.

— David Fanning

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Karol Szymanowski (3 October 1882 – 29 March 1937) was a Polish composer. Born in present-day Ukraine, he studied music in Warsaw and developed his career through four main periods, producing influential compositions while travelling throughout Europe and the United States. In 1927, he became director of the Warsaw Conservatory, where he sought to reform music education and encourage a new generation of Polish composers. Despite suffering from tuberculosis and significant health challenges, Szymanowski achieved international recognition with major works such as Stabat Mater, King Roger and Harnasie.

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Antoni Wit (born 7 February 1944) is a Polish conductor. Educated in conducting at the Academy of Music in Kraków and in Paris under Nadia Boulanger, he also holds a law degree from Jagiellonian University. Following success at the Herbert von Karajan Conducting Competition, he led major Polish orchestras, serving as director of the Warsaw Philharmonic from 2001 to 2013 and later as music director of Spain's Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra. Wit has made over 200 records, earning numerous international awards, including a GRAMMY Award, for his acclaimed interpretations of Polish and classical repertoire.

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