FREE UK SHIPPING OVER £35!

Szymanowski - Piano Works

£13.75

Usually available for despatch within 5-8 working days

Label: Deutsche Grammophon

Cat No: 4863007

Barcode: 0028948630073

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Instrumental

Release Date: 30th September 2022

Works

Szymanowski, Karol

Masques (3), op.34
Mazurkas (20), op.50

» no.13 Moderato

» no.14 Animato

» no.15 Allegretto dolce

» no.16 Allegramente: Vigoroso

Preludes (9), op.1

» no.1 in B minor

» no.2 in D minor

» no.7 in C minor

» no.8 in E flat minor

Variations on a Polish Theme, op.10

Artists

Krystian Zimerman (piano)

Works

Szymanowski, Karol

Masques (3), op.34
Mazurkas (20), op.50

» no.13 Moderato

» no.14 Animato

» no.15 Allegretto dolce

» no.16 Allegramente: Vigoroso

Preludes (9), op.1

» no.1 in B minor

» no.2 in D minor

» no.7 in C minor

» no.8 in E flat minor

Variations on a Polish Theme, op.10

Artists

Krystian Zimerman (piano)

About

One of today’s leading pianists sheds new light on an unjustly overlooked composer: for Krystian Zimerman, Karol Szymanowski’s piano music deserves to stand alongside that of their compatriot Chopin.

When Krystian Zimerman travelled to Fukuyama, Japan, in June 2022, it was to complete a journey that had taken 28 years: a recording of music by his compatriot Karol Szymanowski that he had first begun in 1994. The spur came on the one hand from the fast approaching 140th anniversary of Szymanowski’s birth (6 October 1882), and on the other hand from the prospect of recording in a beautiful concert hall in Fukuyama designed by Zimerman’s friend Yasuhisa Toyota, whose acoustics Zimerman has long admired. “In Toyota’s halls, every note is clear,” Zimerman says, “yet each is in a cushion of warm surroundings.”

For this album Zimerman has selected repertoire that for him shows the essence of Szymanowski, aiming to shed new light on his music and place him firmly in the canon of great composers of piano music. Each work or group of pieces represents a different, distinctive stage in his development. The album features the Masques, op.34, recorded in 1994 but never released, alongside interpretations of the Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10, and selections of Préludes and Mazurkas.

Sound/Video

Paused

1

9 Preludes, op.1 (1899–1900): 1. Andante ma non troppo in B minor
2

9 Preludes, op.1 (1899–1900): 2. Andante con moto in D minor
3

9 Preludes, op.1 (1899–1900): 7. Moderato in C minor
4

9 Preludes, op.1 (1899–1900): 8. Andante ma non troppo in E flat minor
5

Masques, op.34 (1915–16): 1. Shéhérazade. Lento assai. Languido
6

Masques, op.34 (1915–16): 2. Tantris le Bouffon. Vivace assai
7

Masques, op.34 (1915–16): 3. Sérénade de Don Juan. Vivace
8

20 Mazurkas, op.50 (1924–25): 13. Moderato
9

20 Mazurkas, op.50 (1924–25): 14. Animato
10

20 Mazurkas, op.50 (1924–25): 15. Allegretto dolce
11

20 Mazurkas, op.50 (1924–25): 16. Allegramente. Vigoroso
12

Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Andante doloroso rubato
13

Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Tema. Andantino semplice
14

Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 1. Meno mosso
15

Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 2. Agitato
16

Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 3. Lento mesto, ma poco agitato
17

Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 4. Allegro molto agitato
18

Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 5. Andantino
19

Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 6. Andante dolcissimo
20

Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 7. Più mosso
21

Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 8. Marcia funebre
22

Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 9. Più mosso (Allegro)
23

Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04): Var. 10. Finale. Allegro vivo

Europadisc Review

Following recent forays into Schubert, Bernstein and Beethoven, Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman returns to the music of his homeland with a disc devoted to the music of Karol Szymanowski. Most of the disc was recorded in June this year in the splendid acoustic of the Fukuyama Hall designed by Zimerman’s friend Yasuhisa Toyota (‘In Toyota’s halls, every note is clear, yet each is in a cushion of warm surroundings,’ says Zimerman). Its central work, however, the formidably difficult Masques of 1915–16, was set down in May 1994 in Copenhagen’s Tivoli Concert Hall. (It’s a tribute to Deutsche Grammophon’s production values that the acoustics – in different halls and under different producers – are remarkably consistent throughout.) That same year saw the release of Zimerman’s award-winning account of Debussy’s Préludes, and the same command of nuance, colour and elasticity of tempo that marked his Debussy playing is also in plentiful evidence here.

The disc opens with four of the nine Preludes of 1899–10, Szymanowski’s first published works, some of which date (like nos. 7 and 8 included here) from even earlier. Student works these may be, with the palpable influence of Chopin and even (in the first Prelude) Bach to the fore, yet Zimerman shapes them lovingly, with a generous warmth of tone and freely deployed rubato lending them more than a hint of fin-de-siècle wistfulness. They make for ideal curtain raisers for a disc that ranges wide across the timeline of Szymanowski’s output.

The contrast with the intoxicating world of the Masques is nevertheless a huge one. These were composed during the hugely productive war years, when Szymanowski – still resident at the family home in Tymoszówka near Kyiv, and exempted from service in the Russian military – composed some of his best-known works. Like the Mythes for violin and piano, the Third Symphony (‘The Song of the Night’), and his other celebrated piano cycle Metopes (all cast in three movements), the Masques betray the influence not just of Debussy, Ravel and late Scriabin, but of Szymanowski’s pre-war travels to Italy, Sicily and North Africa. Like Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit and Miroirs, they show a complete command of pianistic expressive possibilities, added to which is a pronounced exoticism all Szymanowski’s own, a bending of textures and harmonic language that is completely beguiling.

Zimerman’s performance captures the sensuality as well as the anxious undertones of the opening ‘Shéhérazade’, the humorous awkwardness of the Petrushka-like ‘Tantris le Bouffon’ (inspired by Ernst Hardt’s parody of the Tristan myth), and the satirical edge of the ‘Sérénade de Don Juan’. But beyond his expressive mastery, he demonstrates total technical command in music whose complexity often extends to three staves. This is a performance of enormous depth of tone and musical insight, as well as dynamic range, fully aware of the variety of influences at work yet delving beyond them to impart a musical cogency unparalleled on disc.

The latest works here are four of the 20 Mazurkas, op.50 (1924–25), originally published in five books of four Mazurkas each. Zimerman plays the complete fourth book (nos. 13-16). Following the upheaval of the Russian Revolution, Szymanowski returned to a newly independent Poland and found a source of creative renewal in the folk music of the Tatra Highlands around Zakopane. The Mazurkas, however, are no faux-naïf exercises in neo-Chopinesque pianism, nor even tributes to Scriabin’s contributions to the genre, but genuinely individual works of a mature musical mind, going beyond virtuosity to real emotional depth. The warm, wonderfully ‘centred’ tone of no.13 (Moderato) is as engaging here as the folk-infused edginess of no.16 (marked ‘Vigoroso’) which brings the book to a close.

Zimerman ends this superb disc with another early work, the Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, op.10 (1900–04), one of the first works to gain Szymanowski recognition at home. In it he began the move away from his early fascination for the music of Richard Strauss, and although the overall flavour is still more Germanic than in his later Tatra-inspired music, the sense of a young genius spreading his wings is tangible. After a dreamy introduction, the theme is inflected with expressionistic harmonies, while outrageously virtuosic variations (nos. 2 and 4 as well as the Finale) contrast with introspection and, in the eighth variation, a gloriously lugubrious funeral march. Zimerman brings out the character of each section, while carefully charting the overall trajectory, building unerringly to a hugely satisfying conclusion.

There have been several notable discs of Szymanowski’s piano music over the years, but in this latest release from Zimerman we finally have one that raises the composer to his rightful position as one of the outstanding voices of the first third of the 20th century. Which, we’re sure you’ll agree, is an achievement worth celebrating on the occasion of Szymanowski’s 140th anniversary!

Reviews

Every new release from Krystian Zimerman is a special event, but this one is more so than most. ... He begins with four of the 1900 preludes (Nos 1, 2, 7 and 8) that make up Szymanowski’s Op 1, transforming each into a glowing jewel. The stylistic shift between their Chopinesque world and the Masques, composed 15 years later, is stark; those three pieces were written when Szymanowski’s modernism... was at its most intense, and Zimerman brings to them the wit and bewitching command of keyboard texture and colour that makes his Debussy playing so peerless. ... This is a marvellous disc from an utterly exceptional artist. Andrew Clements

The Guardian 13 October 2022

With the Masques of 1915, Szymanowski had moved on to – and past – the styles of Debussy and Ravel, blending them at times with Stravinsky and early Prokofiev. ... Zimerman has all the quick-wittedness and nimbleness called for, not to mention power and agility. ... Placed last on the programme, the Op 10 Variations on a Polish Folk Theme takes us back to the composer’s student days, 11 or 12 years before Masques. ... Zimerman lavishes as much fantasy, expressive freedom and subtlety on it as on the rest of programme, doing a superb job in decluttering the textures, helped by predictably first-rate recording quality. David Fanning

Gramophone November 2022

Also Available

Schubert - Piano Sonatas D959 & D960

£12.42

(Deutsche Grammophon)

Beethoven 2020: The Very Best of Beethoven

£10.07

(Deutsche Grammophon)

Chopin - Piano Concertos 1 & 2 (LP)

£38.59

(Deutsche Grammophon)

Chopin - Ballades, Barcarolle, Fantasia (LP)

£23.83

(Deutsche Grammophon)

Wiener Philharmoniker Deluxe Edition Vol.2

£114.95

(Deutsche Grammophon)

Error on this page? Let us know here

Need more information on this product? Click here

Condition	Description
New	Brand new item, only ever sourced from the official UK distributor. Usually seal-wrapped, although a minority of labels do not use seal-wrap.
Used - Mint	Used item in excellent condition. Not usually seal-wrapped.
Used - Good	Used item with some minor signs of wear and tear. Never seal-wrapped.
Used - Acceptable	Used item with obvious scuffs or cosmetic damage to the case or booklet. Never seal-wrapped.

Condition	Description
New	Brand new item, only ever sourced from the official UK distributor. Usually seal-wrapped, although a minority of labels do not use seal-wrap.
Used - Mint	Used item in excellent condition. Not usually seal-wrapped.
Used - Good	Used item with some minor signs of wear and tear. Never seal-wrapped.
Used - Acceptable	Used item with obvious scuffs or cosmetic damage to the case or booklet. Never seal-wrapped.

Szymanowski - Piano Works

Usually available for despatch within 5-8 working days

Despatch Information

Contents

Works

Artists

Works

Artists

About

Sound/Video

Paused

Europadisc Review

Reviews

Also Available

£12.42

£10.07

£38.59

£23.83

£114.95

Condition Information

Condition Information