Ignacy Jan PADEREWSKI (1860–1941)
Complete Songs
Anna Radziejewska (mezzo)
Karol Kozlowski (tenor)
Agnieszka Hoszowska-Jablońska (piano)
rec. Artur Malawski Podkarpacka Philharmonic, Rzeszów, 16-20 July 2015
Sung texts enclosed. Polish songs with English translations, French songs with Polish translations.
DUX 1246 [60:39]
In January 2008 I reviewed a Dux CD of the complete songs of Paderewski, sung by mezzo-soprano Anna Radziejewska. Now, nine years later, the same company release the songs again in brand-new recordings with the same mezzo. This time she shares them with tenor Karol Kozlowski. Both I and my colleague Robert Hugill were very fond of the songs and coming to them again after almost a decade I found them just as attractive. Melodious songs in a late-romantic idiom, many of them rather melancholy, should win admirers from those who like the songs of Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninov. That they have remained little played in the West is down to linguistic reasons. Polish is not a language that comes easily to other than Poles. However it is worth observing that Dans la forêt and the twelve songs Op. 22 are in French.
Anna Radziejewska has the lion’s share of the songs this time too, and her voice has grown heavier and more vibrant during the intervening years. She has retained her ability to find exquisite nuance and a lot of her singing is very sensitive. Tenor Karol Kozlowski has the same laudable ability in searching out nuance and his mezza voce is really something to savour. It’s a pity he hasn’t more to sing. The sad Polaly sie łzy (My Tears) (tr. 6) and the beautiful Piosnka dudarza (The Piper’s Song) (tr. 7) are among the best things on this disc. One can also admire some of the piano accompaniments. Listen to the church bells in La none (tr. 19) and the image of icicles in Lune froide (tr. 21).
The older disc is still available and readers will probably want to know which one to choose. Those who bought DUX 0585 need not hurry to acquire the new one but it has a selling point: it presents all the songs by Paderewski in the original vocal parts and original keys.
Göran Forsling
Track listing
Four Songs Op. 7 (1882 – 1885):
1. Gdy ostatnia róża zwiedla (The Days of Roses) [2:10]
2. Siwy koniu (To My Faithful Steed) [1:26]
3. Szumi w gaju brzezina (The Birch Tree and the Maiden) [2:39]
4. Chlopca mego mi zabrali (My Love is Sent Away) [4:04]
5. Konwalijka (Lily of the Valley) (1882) [2:02]
Six Songs Op. 18 (1893):
6. Polaly sie łzy (My Tears) [2:29]
7. Piosnka dudarza (The Piper’s Song) [3:21]
8. Moja pieszcotka (My Own Sweet Maiden) [2:18]
9. Nad woda wielka I czysta (Above the Vast Clear Waterspace) [2:50]
10. Tylem wytrwal (So Much I’ve Suffered) [1:56]
11. Gdybym sie zmienil (Could I Be Changed) [2:30]
12. Dans la forêt (1896) [2:28]
Douze melodies sur de poésies de Catulle Mendès, Op. 22 (1903):
13. Dans la forêt [3:18]
14. Ton coeur est d’or pur [1:09]
15. Le ciel est très bas [2:23]
16. Naguère [2:00]
17. Le jeune pâtre [1:14]
18. Elle marche d’un pas distrait [2:00]
19. La jeune nonne [3:41]
20. Viduité [3:44]
21. Lune froide [2:40]
22. Querelleuse [1:28]
23. L’amour fatal [3:32]
24. L’ennemie [3:14]
