Both Paderewski and
Scharwenka were piano lions who explored
other musical genres beyond the obvious.
Paderewski’s wrote just one opera Manru.
It has been recorded by Dux who
are awaiting funding to support a CD
release. Scharwenka, another gladiator
of the keyboard, wrote his only opera
Mataswintha in the 1880s. This
is still unrecorded. Paderewski was
Polish; so was Scharwenka, although
his birthplace was in Posen, in 1850
a province of Eastern Prussia. Paderewski
has a single piano concerto to his name;
his compatriot has four. Earl Wild played
both the Paderewski and one of the Scharwenka
four. Both composers toured the world,
wearying themselves with concert after
concert. Scharwenka and Paderewski wrote
a single Symphony as also did fellow
Pole Karlowicz. While the Paderewski
Symphony is of Mahlerian scale (though
not style!) the Karlowicz and Scharwenka
are about the same length - a Beethovenian
forty or so minutes.
This disc gives us
the opportunity to hear the four movement
Symphony for the first time. The outer
movements are taken up with emotional
turmoil - a touch of Liszt here a dusting
of Tchaikovsky there. The two central
movements sometimes seem Brucknerian
and at others remind you of Elgar. I
wonder if there could have been a more
flowingly curvaceous effect than achieved
here. The finale is however especially
impressive with a fiery volatile tendency
(at 8.00 onwards) and a gloriously golden
Schumann-inflected ‘blare’ at the very
end. The movement, in which both orchestra
and conductor are inspired to a more
potently driven approach, starts with
thunderous Beethovenian protests. The
plunging gesture in this movement might
well have been the inspiration for a
similar sequence in the George Rochberg
Violin Concerto recently revived on
Naxos. All in all this Symphony
is to be warmly welcomed: a work with
sometimes resolute character, a slight
Russian accent on occasions and the
regal/pastoral tendencies of Dvořák’s
Fifth and Sixth Symphonies.
The Symphony was premiered
in Copenhagen in 1 Dec 1883. Performances
followed in Berlin, Elberfeld, Moscow,
Danzig, New York, Helsinki and Bournemouth.
The Overture is
a brooding, athletic and spirited affair
in which the voices of Schumann (Fourth
Symphony), Weber (Oberon) and
even Mozart (Marriage of Figaro)
meet. The Andante religioso is
a soothingly sedate and extremely memorable
Beecham lollipop manqué. Sterling’s
CEO, Bo Hyttner, quips that it might
even replace Albinoni’s Adagio;
and well it might. Vintage Classic FM
material but WILL they pick it up?
The thorough and satisfying
notes are by the conductor. He has done
his homework!
I hope that there will
be more in this Deutsche Romantiker
series. Sterling continue their talent
for agreeable surprises. Recommended.
Rob Barnett
Christopher
Fifield
Gävle Symphony Orchestra/Christopher Fifield
