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Giedymin RODKIEWICZ (1834-1891)
Poet of the Piano
Contents listed below review
rec. 2021, Krzystof Penderecki Concert Hall, Oskar Kolberg Music School, Radom, Poland
Booklet notes in English, Polish, Belarusian and Russian
DUX 1790 [60:46]

The pianistic world was hugely influenced by the music of Chopin and many great composers acknowledged the debt they paid to him while finding their own language and style; Debussy in France and Scriabin in Russia are just two striking examples. Lesser known names from his homeland are beginning to make an appearance; the complete piano works of Julius Zarebski have already appeared and others such as Antoni Kątski, Alfons Szczerbiński, Józef Wieniawski, Ignacy Krzyżanowski are just a few who now find their works on CD. We can now add Giedymin Rodkiewicz to that number. He was born into a noble family in 1834 in Yuratishki, what is now Grodno Oblast in Belarus – his father was assessor at court, a knight of the Order of St. Vladimir. He first studied at the Vilnius Institute for Nobles and followed it with studies at the Paris Conservatory though the liner notes give no details about his education there. His marriage to Teresa Koziełł-Poklewski allowed him the financial stability to devote himself to music producing around 75 works for the piano, some of which appeared in print in Poland and Belarus. Other manuscripts can be found in Lublin in the collections of his descendants though a lack of documentation means that no composition dates can be suggested for these pieces.

The booklet describes him as an outstanding composer. On the strength of the pieces here I would judge this something of an overstatement; he could write for the instrument certainly but the greatest impression I have here is of the great gulf that lies between Rodkiewicz and masters like Chopin and Liszt. I add Liszt into the mix since one of the works here is Harmonie du soir and I was curious to compare it to Liszt epic tone poem from his set of études. There actually is no comparison; Rodkiewicz's work is a gentile nocturne that owes a lot to Chopin's famous Nocturne in E flat, actually sharing much of the same harmony, figuration and decoration but sadly without the melodic interest. He shares genres with Chopin too; there are waltzes, mazurkas, nocturnes and impromptus along with other salon dances such as the galop and a hybrid form, the polka-mazurka. The two waltzes may have the panache of examples by Chopin or Strauss as pianist Włodzimierz Lebiecki who also wrote the booklet essay suggests but they are missing much of the harmonic interest and their themes are relatively straightforward. The A flat nocturne is pleasant enough and follows Chopin's style with a melody floating over an arpeggiated accompaniment.
 
In the six mazurkas Rodkiewicz does not emulate the miniature tone poems of Chopin; these are all short, energetic dances with lyrical qualities more evident in the mazurkas in C minor, B flat and F minor, the last three of five that remain in manuscript. The two polka-mazurkas are waltzes in all but name; I find them more appealing than the slightly longer waltzes that bookend the recital. Their figurations are lighter and the somewhat remorseless um-cha-cha is not so evident here. The galops, light-hearted and rather slight would have doubtless appealed at a salon alongside the polka-mazurkas as would the oddly named Danse chinoise that has no oriental quality that I can discern; perhaps he thought that this and its two companions that formed his op.20 would attract more attention with the exotic suggestion of their title. The impromptu is one of the more successful pieces here, an etude-like study in arpeggios around a short melodic motif while the rather stern and formal La Melancolie matches the reverie in its funereal tone, the latter a stately and sombre march with a more lyrical heart. The longest work here is the Divertissement dramatique, an eight minute romantic fantasy with big tunes and grand gestures that is divided into several sections after a suitably dramatic introduction. The first theme alternates between a noble treatment and a more playful dotted version. A cadenza like passage leads to a new theme in the minor key with an undulating accompaniment and this is developed before a new theme enters; the wealth of arpeggios suggest this is going to lead to the a finish but instead it all wraps up in a rather sad little ending.

Dux have done a lovely job on behalf of Giedymin Rodkiewicz; the booklet is beautifully presented in four languages with portraits of the composer as well as his sons and the family home, a couple of score facsimiles and Włodzimierz Lebiecki at the piano. The sound is clear and bright but unfortunately so is the Steingraeber piano which sounds a little out of tune and brittle. I find myself generally unimpressed with Lebiecki's playing too; although he finds some delicacy in the A flat Nocturne there is a stiffness to his phrasing and lack of colour that is at odds with the title of the disc and which only emphasises the stiffness of some of the writing. I will always be a champion and advocate for the forgotten composers of this world but I don't think that Rodkiewicz has produced anything here that hasn't been done better by more deserving unsung composers.

Rob Challinor

Contents
Waltz 2 in D flat major Op.24 [6:19]
Nocturne in A flat major [3:36]
Mazurka in F minor Op.28 No.1 [2:10]
La Melancolie in F minor Op.10 [2:40]
Harmonie du soir in E flat major Op.11 [6:03]
Impromptu Op.16 [2:08]
Reverie in F minor Op.13 [3:55]
Galop in F major [1:44]
Galop in E flat major [2:29]
Danse chinoise Op.20 No.1 [3:20]
Mazurka in B flat minor [2:46]
Mazurka in G minor [1:23]
Mazurka in C minor [1:26]
Mazurka in B flat major [1:28]
Mazurka in F minor [1:31]
Polka-Mazurka in D flat major [2:17]
Polka-Mazurka in F major [2:10]
Divertissement dramatique pour piano [8:04]
Waltz 3 in A flat major Op.33 [5:04]