MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUK AmazonUS


Apolinary SZELUTO (1884–1966)
Cello Sonata in F, op.9 (1906) [16:43]
Violin Sonata in D, op.73 (1931) [23:36]
String Quartet in E flat, op.72 (1930/1931) [36:02]
Konstanty Andrzej Kulka (violin); Andrzej Wróbel (cello); Andrzej Tatarski (piano); Camerata Vistula Quartet (Andrzej Gębski – Wojciech Proniewicz (violins) – Grzegorz Chmielewski (viola); Andrzej Wróbel (cello))
rec. June 2008, 5–1 Studio of Polish Radio, Warsaw DDD
DUX 0672 [76:40]
Experience Classicsonline

Who was Apolinary Szeluto? Born in Leningrad, he studied at the Faculty of Law in Warsaw from 1902 to 1905 whilst having composition lessons from Zygmunt Noskowski  at the State Conservatory. After three years of piano study with Leopold Godowski he completed his law studies and worked in the Russian legal system from 1911 to 1918. After the outbreak of the Revolution he was appointed Chairman of the Revolutionary Committee and following his return to Poland he was head of a department in the Ministry of Justice from 1923 to 1938. During the Nazi occupation of Poland he wrote 14 Symphonies and became a baker and street trader. After the war he wrote another 3 Symphonies, a Piano Concerto and retired as a District Court Judge to devote himself entirely to composition and performance. In 1948 he proposed a reform of the spelling of the Polish language making it easier for all classes.
 
His output is quite large and includes seventeen symphonies, seven operas and a ballet as well as other orchestral works and chamber music.
 
The Cello Sonata is a pleasing, if somewhat old-fashioned, and not particularly inspired, work – it could have been written at any time during the previous 40 years. It reeks of undiluted Brahms, and there’s more than a hint of Richard Strauss’s Sonata for the same instrument. By this I don’t mean that it is influenced by Brahms; I mean that it could have been written by him, only the occasional turn of phrase or harmony show that it wasn’t the German master. Wróbel plays it as if giving the Brahms sonatas and gives a bold and romantic reading to the work. This makes me wonder if he is actually doing a disservice to the piece. A little less intensity might show it to be a more approachable and enjoyable work. The material really cannot stand this kind of hot-house performance.
 
It’s interesting that Busoni wrote that Szeluto’s work indicated a “… great creative talent, with extremely individual nature” and Fritz Kreisler said that “His compositions are completely different from everything else.” I have to admit to being rather confused by these statements for neither seems at all possible for although the other two works on this disk are much more mature and display a surer compositional hand, I don’t feel a really individual voice at work. Both are well written and are in a rich and very romantic style but they don’t really go anywhere or say anything which grabs my attention. Although the notes claim that they are Polish in spirit they seem much more comfortably German late-romantic. There are none of the folk influences which make Szymanowski’s later works so exciting and vital. In fact I would point to Reger as being the spirit behind these works, except that that composer is always alive to his invention. This music never takes flight.
 
The performances sound to be very spontaneous and the musicians make the most of the music. They obviously have faith in it, but no amount of advocacy can infuse life into something which seems to be, basically, dull. The recording is superb and the notes fascinating and although it’s interesting to discover a new voice from a period which is well known to us, I cannot see how repeated hearings of this music could bring about further investigation of this composer. Perhaps his orchestral music is brilliant, but we may never know.
 
Bob Briggs

 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.