Karłowicz
is a true late-romantic with
his orchestral works adopting a big
Wagnerian sound.
In the case of the
present disc, the resonantly active
acoustic of BBC Studio 7 in Manchester
complements and enhances the Straussian
luxury of the music. I say Strauss ...
in fact there are also strong resonances
of Elgar (Froissart, In the
South). Listen to Bianca da
Molena (in fact the Symphonic
Prologue from Music for the White
Dove) written in 1900. This is regal-tragic
music sumptuously thundered out and
ending in both tired repletion (Strauss's
Don Juan) and glowing radiance.
The String Serenade
moves
away from grand passions into the realms
of Dvořák's Serenade for Strings
and Grieg's Holberg. This
is urbane music painting the emotions
in watercolours rather than glaring
primaries. It is a winningly put-across
mixture without quite the consummate
witchery of its apparent models. A lovely
piece though.
This
disc has come out at about the same
time as Hyperion's recording of the
Karłowicz Violin Concerto.
Both the concerto and Karłowicz's
single Symphony are works written under
the benevolent shadow of Tchaikovsky
- the symphony more so. The Symphony
is a substantial forty minute work in
four movements. As Karłowicz authority
Alistair Wightman points out in the
Chandos notes, this work parallels
Tchaikovsky's Fifth. It does so with
considerable élan and is by no
means a tired copy. It also reminded
me occasionally of Scriabin's six movement
First Symphony. The music is given startling
bite and attack by Noseda. At the other
end of the spectrum the violins of the
BBCPO sing out richly, confounding the
starveling reputation of radio orchestras'
string sections. This is a big discursive
work; in that sense rather like the
Paderewski Symphony (recorded on both
Dux and Hyperion) however the
ideas are more memorable. Karłowicz's
reputation rests on his psychological-philosophical
tone poems which post-date both the
concerto and the symphony. This Symphony
stands on the cusp of full maturity
yet its roots are psychological. The
composer provided a full programmatic
note (given extensively in the Chandos
booklet) in which he explains that the
four movements chart the travails and
final triumph of the artist's soul;
all very Nietzschean. The triumph rings
out like an Imperial hymn rather than
anything very personal. It is still
effective despite the conventional ending.
This is not the work's
first recording. There is at least one
other. In 1988 Olympia issued OCD 304
an AAD transfer of Polskie Nagrania
tapes of both the Violin Concerto and
this Symphony. It was long ago deleted.
There the symphony was played by the
Pomeranian Symphony Orchestra of Bydgoszcz
conducted by Bohdan Wodiczko. It had
been recorded in 1973. Timings are pretty
similar; Noseda: 39.45; Wodiczko: 41.05.
Wodiczko delivers a tense and mordant
performance with every creak and rustle
reported by the faithful analogue recording.
There is a fiery touch of Svetlanov
about Wodiczko. The downside is the
glassy patina of the Pomeranian violin
sound. Chandos's naturally captured
and cleanly voluptuous sound easily
outpoints the Olympia.
A
well-judged selection from Chandos.
Noseda is a worthy successor to Tortelier
who conducted the tone poems on Chandos's
other Karłowicz disc (CHAN 9986
- review).
This is, I think, even more of a success
than the Tortelier disc. The programming
of these three works in this sequence
has the right emotional geometry. The
overall effect will win many new friends
to Karłowicz's cause.
Rob Barnett
BBC Philharmonic/Gianandrea Noseda