Józef SZULC (1875-1956)
Sonata in A minor, for violin and piano, op.61 (c.1908) [35:30]
Berceuse, Op.4 (1901) [5:24]
Mélodie orientale (1911) [5:49]
Sérénade (1925) [2:27]
Jarosław Pietrzak (violin)
Julita Przybylska-Nowak (piano)
rec. March and September (Berceuse) 2014, Concert Hall of the Karol
Lipiński Music Academy, Wrocław
DUX 0951 [49:06]
Józef Zygmunt Szulc - also known by the forename Joseph when living in
Berlin, Paris and Brussels - came from a musical family, his father Henryk
being a long-standing member of the Warsaw Grand Theatre Orchestra. Henryk
was also a conductor and composer and instilled high musical standards into
his three sons, one becoming a horn player in the Palestine Symphony
Orchestra (now Israel Philharmonic) in 1936. Józef studied with Noskowski,
taking piano studies with Moszkowski in Berlin, before wandering to Paris
where he studied composition with Massenet. This eclectic background was
fuelled by further piano studies with Paderewski. A career as a virtuoso was
clearly in preparation but operatic conducting claimed him - his wife was
Suzy Delsart, star of the Monnaie - and he produced a stream of operas and
operettas. He continued to win plaudits, his last success being
Pantoufle in 1945. He died in his adopted city of Paris in
1956.
Szulc was mostly just a name to me though I'd heard his song
Clair de
lune, because Melba and Maggie Teyte both recorded it, as well as
Hantise d'amour because it was in Caruso's repertoire and he
recorded it too. I knew he'd written a Violin Sonata but this was my first
hearing. It was written around 1908 and has a feeling of unfettered warmth
that proves very appealing on repeated listening. It's more cosmopolitan
than explicitly Polish, at least in its early stages; indeed it reflects his
travels across Europe, and seems to have been composed in Brussels. There's
a lot of detailed passagework in a first movement that dissolves into
rarefied silence at the end and is followed by a songful
Andante
sostenuto that proves richly vocalised. There's a canny distribution of
material between violin and piano, with ardent thematic material repeating
and circling. The most interesting thing is the sonata gets more Polish the
longer it goes on. The scherzo has elements of folkloric dance and there is
more than a hint of the mazurek in the finale. These last two movements bear
the dance imperatives of the work and tend somewhat - however ingeniously -
to overbalance the work rather than allowing the nationalistic material to
run throughout. However it's a well-written and enjoyable sonata, played
with characterful verve by Jarosław Pietrzak and Julita
Przybylska-Nowak.
The three morceaux come from somewhat different stages of musical
development - 1901, 1911 and 1925. The
Berceuse is a salon charmer
of succulent lyricism, whilst the
Mélodie orientale cleaves close
to generic models: Pietrzak's playing in the higher positions is fine.
Finally
Sérénade is a deft little bonbon, not unlike some of
d'Ambrosio's sweetmeats of the time.
With decent booklet notes and a sympathetic recording this offers a
particular slant on a Polish wanderer who has largely slipped from musical
view. There is a competitor for the sonata in the shape of
Acte Préalable AP0271,
though I've not heard it. The current duo's performance however is
thoroughly commendable.
Jonathan Woolf
