Here we have three piano quintets by Polish composers played in Poland
by a Polish group. More to the point, here we have total delight from
beginning to end of a varied, well filled and recorded disc.
I must admit to knowing of only two of these composers before listening
and to not having heard any of these works before. That said, the
Zarebski has been recorded several times before, most recently on
a recent much praised Hyperion
disc with Jonathan Plowright and the Szymanowski Quartet that I have
not heard. The Zarebski is indeed by some way the most impressive
work here: impassioned, varied, and well constructed. The composer
was a piano student of Liszt and the music is clearly strongly influenced
by him in style. The rhetorical gestures, phrases recurring between
movements, the general eloquence and the sheer beauty of sound all
catch the listener’s attention right from the start and do not let
go. I have been unable to obtain a score or to listen to other versions,
but what is heard here sounds extremely convincing to my innocent
ears, with no lack of conviction from the performers.
Also on offer is the earlier of two Piano Quintets by Grazyna Bacewicz.
It has a clear elegance and precision of manner together with real
individuality. This is to be heard especially in the funeral march
in the slow movement and in the folk inspired rhythms of the second
movement. Again, the performance is wholly convincing. The final work,
by Aleksander Lason, is named after its first performance at the “Young
musicians for a young town” Festival in Stalowa Wola. It is the shortest
work on the disc but its strong individuality and character make it
in some ways the piece that makes the biggest impression. There are
echoes of Lutoslawski and Messiaen but it is never a mere clone of
their writing. I am unclear as to whether the Ensemble is named after
the composer or after its three members with the same surname but
they certainly seem to have a real affinity for the sound-world of
this music.
The piano quintet is a notoriously difficult medium, with a terrible
risk of excessively thick and unvaried textures. It is noticeable
that the great masterpieces of the genre – Schumann, Dvorák, Brahms,
Shostakovich and so on - adopt radically different solutions to the
inherent problems of balance and texture. All three composers on this
disc have similarly been able to find new solutions, and the results
are immensely enjoyable. I was uncertain what to expect when I received
this disc, but it gave immense pleasure from beginning to end.
John Sheppard
see also
review by Byzantion
