What Hyperion did for A Bach Book for Harriet Cohen
[CDA67767] and in their Hommage ŕ Chopin album [CDA67803]
they have now done for the Homage to Paderewski album
from publishers Boosey & Hawkes. The album of music was
planned in 1941 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the
pianist’s first American concert tour in 1891. But Paderewski’s
death in June meant that the project was put on hold and appeared
the following year in memoriam. There were seventeen
pieces in all in the book, though this disc contains twenty-two
pieces from twenty-one composers (Ernest Schelling provides
two); these other pieces were not written for the anthology,
but were dedicated to Paderewski. For the record these are the
works by Wieniawski, Zarzycki, Chaminade, Blumenfeld - and Schelling’s
beautiful, impressionistic, and extensive Nocturne, though
his Con tenerezza was included in the 1942 album.
The album proves both musically satisfying and emotively fascinating.
The music veers from evocations of Polish dance rhythms to threnody
with startling immediacy. There’s a stark compression to some
of the compositions, and a more extensive exploration to others.
Bartók’s Three Hungarian Folk-Tunes Sz66 open the book, Jonathan
Plowright exploring the richly chorded splendour of the final
Maestoso with great weight and balance. Arthur Benjamin’s
deftly coloured Elegiac Mazurka is a brilliantly incisive
piece – powerfully rhythmic in his best style – whilst the much
less well-remembered Theodore Chanler’s Aftermath is
a kind of song-without-words of great feeling.
In fact each piece is strongly characterised and differentiated;
Felix Labunski’s memorial to his erstwhile mentor is a powerful
Threnody, with its lovely, nostalgic aria-like central
panel. Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Hommage seems to celebrate
in sound Paderewski’s vital, energetic personality, whilst Eugene
Goossens has focused instead on a terse, even gaunt approach,
based on Chopin’s Prelude in C minor, which is revealed
explicitly at the end. One of the real ‘finds’ here is English-born
but long-time American resident Richard Hammond, whose Dance
nearly out-Bartóks Bartók and out-Prokofievs Prokofiev. Appropriately,
Milhaud contributes a brief Chorale, Martinů a swirling
Mazurka to conjure up Paderewski’s national dance, little-known
Emerson Whithorne a solemn Hommage, and Vittorio Rieti
a dazzling Allegro danzante.
Schelling had died by the time the album was produced – in fact
he predeceased Paderewski by two years, which caused the Polish
pianist much grief - and his piece, submitted by his widow,
is a warm tribute. Rathaus’s Kujawiak is laid-back, whilst
Weinberger’s Etude is noble, virtuosic and full of Polish
songfulness – indeed he embeds a national song into the piece.
Britten’s Mazurka elegiaca was written for two pianos
and was thus unsuitable for the volume and had to be published
separately. It’s played with drama by Plowright and Aaron Shorr.
Chaminade’s Étude symphonique is Chopinesque in the extreme,
Blumenfeld’s Kujawiak a glittering example of Golden
Age panache, and Wieniawski’s Étude passionate and virtuosic.
This is no mere archival curiosity, no archaeological reclamation
without true musical foundation. The Paderewski album contains
great variety, power, rhythmic vitality and charm. It’s been
brilliantly brought to life by Plowright who, I have always
found, is a natural studio performer, one who can transcend
the supposed limitations of such an undertaking to bring a richly
communicative spirit to bear. Of his technical command, we hardly
need comment; he’s terrific. The recorded sound is also first
class - natural, warm, without flaw. An outstanding disc then.
Jonathan Woolf
Track-listing
Jószef WIENIAWSKI (1837 – 1912)
Étude Op. 44 No. 22 [2:50]
Ernest SCHELLING (1876 – 1939)
Nocturne (Ragusa) (1926) [6:57]
Béla BARTÓK (1881 – 1945)
Three Hungarian Folk-Tunes Sz66: Andante tranquillo, rubato
[0:53] 4 Allegro non troppo, un poco rubato [1:02] 5 Maestoso
[1:20]
Arthur BENJAMIN (1893 – 1960)
Elegiac Mazurka [2:51]
Theodore CHANLER (1902 – 1961)
Aftermath [1:03]
Felix LABUNSKI (1892 – 1979)
Threnody [3:27]
Mario CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO (1895
– 1968)
Hommage ŕ Paderewski [3:55]
Eugene GOOSSENS (1893 – 1962)
Homage [2:21]
Richard HAMMOND (1896 – 1980)
Dance [3:22]
Darius MILHAUD (1892 – 1974)
Choral [1:55]
Bohuslav MARTINů
(1890 – 1959)
Mazurka H284 [1:51]
Joaquín NIN-CULMELL (1908 –
2004)
In Memoriam Paderewski [1:16]
Emerson WHITHORNE (1884 – 1958)
Hommage Op. 58 No. 2 [4:06]
Vittorio RIETI (1898 – 1994)
Allegro danzante [1:54]
Ernest SCHELLING (1876–1939)
Con tenerezza [3:41]
Karol RATHAUS (1895 –
1954)
Kujawiak [2:39]
Sigismond STOJOWSKI (1870 –
1946)
Cradle Song [2:28]
Jaromír WEINBERGER (1896 – 1967)
Étude in G major [4:11]
Benjamin BRITTEN (1913
– 1976)
Mazurka elegiaca Op. 23 No. 2 [8:21] š
Aleksander ZARZYCKI (1834 –
1895)
Chant du printemps Op. 34 No. 1 [3:10]
Cécile CHAMINADE (1857 – 1944)
Étude symphonique Op. 28 [5:54]
Felix BLUMENFELD (1863 – 1931)
Kujawiak – Obertas No. 2 from Suite polonaise No. 2, Op. 31
[3:12]
Jonathan Plowright (piano) 
