Witold Maliszewski - Works for Violin & Piano (Les Explorateurs)

Information

Composer: Witold Maliszewski

• Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 1
• Quatre morceaux for violin and piano, Op. 20

Les Explorateurs

    Joanna Ławrynowicz, piano

    Anna Orlik, violin (All except Op. 20 last movement)

    Józef Kolinek, violin (Op. 20 last movement only)

Date: 2013

Label: Acte Préalable

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Review

Witold Maliszewski was a musical conservative; ironically, he taught Lutosławski who, nonetheless, spoke highly of him. His chamber output is small – three string quartets, a quintet and the violin sonata – and are products of his younger years. For anyone who likes their music lyrical, wistful, elegant, his Violin Sonata ticks all the boxes. A gentle Adagio molto (arguably taken a little too andante by the performers) follows an opening Allegro cantabile that certainly lives up to its name. The third and final movement, amounting to half the total length, is a theme with seven variations, taking the listener back to long before Maliszewski was even born. Not cutting edge material, then, but – as with his own teacher, Rimsky-Korsakov - beautiful music likely to enchant any audience from any age.

 

The Four Pieces op.20 are a similarly amiable work: warm, good-natured, humorous, graceful. Though written twenty years after the sonata, through its four movements - Intrada (Air), Serenade, Romance and Waltz – it stylises, almost sentimentalises, historical forms. Acte Préalable (AP) boss Jan Jarnicki writes that the manuscript of the first two movements was "almost illegible [and] had to be edited for the sake of the recording." The last two are transcriptions, having originally been written for cello rather than violin. Józef Kolinek's ostensibly bizarre replacement of Anna Orlik for the final movement of this work is in fact perfectly rational, as Jarnicki elucidates. Orlik had recorded with Ławrynowicz the three pieces that had been available at the time, but Jarnicki subsequently tracked down the fourth movement before the project had gone to press. With Orlik now unavailable, Kolinek stepped in to record it.

 

Ławrynowicz herself is a veteran of 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). Whether or not she is "considered one of the greatest Polish pianists", as the booklet claims, she is as poised as she is dedicated and reliable.

 

Sound quality is commendable too. Polish Radio's recordings often seem to come with microphones just slightly too far off for optimum pick-up, and this one is no different; but the fact will surely be of very little consequence to anyone. The accompanying notes are informative and reasonably well translated from the Polish. The front-cover print is by late-nineteenth-century Polish realist painter Józef Chefmonski; by way of bonus, the booklet offers a short biography of him.

 

Finally, there is more Maliszewski to look forward to from Acte Préalable: his 'Complete Works for Piano' are imminently due for release on AP0320.

 

— Byzantion

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Witold Maliszewski (20 July 1873 – 18 July 1939) was a Polish composer, conductor and educator. After studying mathematics and medicine in St. Petersburg, he pursued composition under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He worked extensively in Odessa before returning to Warsaw in 1921. There, he taught composition, helped organize the first International Chopin Competition, co-founded the Frederic Chopin Institute, and headed the Ministry of Education's music department. His compositions received numerous awards in Poland and internationally. Among his students was the renowned Polish composer Witold Lutosławski.

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Joanna Ławrynowicz (born 16 April 1975) is a Polish pianist. Born in Warsaw, she studied at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy under Teresa Manasterska and later with Halina Czerny-Stefańska. An award winner at international competitions, she has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician across Europe, Asia, the Americas and New Zealand. Ławrynowicz has recorded more than 40 albums, many featuring world premiere recordings of Polish repertoire, earning international critical acclaim. She also teaches masterclasses worldwide and is a professor of piano at the Fryderyk Chopin University in Warsaw.

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