Customer Reviews

Paderewski: Symphony in B Minor / Maksymiuk, et al

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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Here's a disc that will delight you if you're a musical detective. Paderewski's only symphony is a compendium of early 20th century romantic styles as well as a harbinger of several later composers including Shostakovich. The Amazon reviewer is right that you'll hear echoes of Sibelius, Elgar, Rimsky Korsakoff and a number of other composers in this gargantuan symphony which never offends the ear with excessive dissonance.

Where I think he goes off base is comparing it to Bruckner in construction. Bruckner built cathedrals of sound that rose to higher and higher spiritual levels. Paderewski seems more interested in mood painting. There are many lovely episodes amid the 74+ minutes of this piece. However, it does wander around a bit...and in fact, it takes a while to actually get going. A more accurate comparison for this piece might be Gliere's "Ilya Murometz" symphony, although this has a lot more musical content than that glossy showpiece.

Regardless, it's an entertaining and fascinating symphony to listen to and would serve as a pleasant break from the deluge of Mahler that plagues our concert halls. Paderewski isn't into the hair pulling of Mahler. Instead, he seems to want to give us a glorious travel log of Poland.

This performance is the first complete recording of the score that hasn't come from a Polish source. It is colorfully played and spaciously recorded, although I sense a bit of distance from the orchestra. Perhaps it could use a little more Slavic passion. Still, it's hard not to wallow in the glorious sounds one hears and perk up with delight as the ear hears yet another echo of a 20th century master. It's certainly an enjoyable way to spend an evening.

This is a somewhat sprawling work that to my ears is more of a symphonic poem than a symphony in the traditional sense. It is a contrast in styles, and as the previous reviewer noted does contain elements of many different composer's styles.

Paderewski knew the orchestra very well. While the thematic material used is not particulary melodic, the composer handles the orchestration and development of these themes adequately.

This is not a heaven storming symphony as Mahler, or one that has a great sense of musical architecture as Beethoven. But taken within the confines of its own tonal and loosely formed whole, it is a very enjoyable work. It definitely has some grand moments. Not a work that I will listen to very often, but a very good piece for an occasional hearing. It is tone painting, pure and simple. And quite interesting tone painting it is.

Recommended as a diversion from more 'mainstream' classical music. These kinds of works should have a solid place in a serious music lover's collection. They can be enjoyed on their own merit, and they help our ears to 'stretch' a bit.

Although HYPERION released this recording in 1998, I passed it by, because I had a perfectly lovely performance on LP, with the Pomeranian Philharmonic of Bydgoszcz conducted by Bohdan Wodiczko (MUZA SXL 0968). However, this re-release on the mid-priced HELIOS series induced me to purchase, and I'm VERY glad I did. For starters, I discovered that the LP had extensive cuts, omitting over 20 MINUTES. HYPERION/HELIOS presents the work absolutely complete--over 74 minutes!

So much for dry statistics--what about the music and the performance? Paderewski, the impassioned Polish patriot, composed the symphony in direct response to the 40th anniversary of the 1863-64 uprising. Most of it is not overtly programmatic, but the finale is a struggle between disguised references to the Polish national anthem and "the forces of evil." The symphony became sort of a musical incendiary bomb, of great significance and encouragement to Polish listeners when Poland was partitioned between Austria, Prussia and Russia, and Polish culture was brutally suppressed. At the time, every performance of the "Polonia" Symphony turned into a more or less camouflaged patriotic manifestation.

With the Symphony, Paderewski demonstrates that when he wanted to, he could write music of vastly greater emotional depth and range than his 'Menuet in G' or the lovely if rather facile Piano Concerto. (Similar in this regard are the 'Sonata' and 'Variations and Fugue' for piano--also warmly recommended to seekers of neglected but worthy works. Paderewski: Piano Sonata Op. 21; Variations & Fugues Opp. 11 & 13) True, the Symphony comes off sounding more like a collection of three huge and episodic symphonic poems, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Paderewski's voice is not totally original, but he absorbs and personalizes many of the late romantic stylistic tendencies of his era. Perhaps the musical chain of events is not absolutely riveting at every moment, but lovers of Glazunov, Gliere, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Liszt and (even early Sibelius!) will discover much here that is to their taste.

The extravagant scoring of the symphony matches the sprawl of its time-scale. Organ is included, as well as such rare instruments as three sarusaphones, and Paderewski's own newly-invented percussion instrument, the "tonitruone"--a suspended piece of tin which produces sinister and mysterious sounds. Hyperion's sound is rich yet transparent, doing full justice to the sumptuous orchestration.

So intense is the present performance, one might think the orchestra, not just the conductor, was Polish! I can't imagine we shall get a better one any time soon. The triumphant ending carries absolute conviction. If one is a lover of epic late romantic symphonies that alternate romantic brooding with swaggering heroics, HELIOS' reduced price ought to entice one to give this unfamiliar work a try.

The composer was one of the greatest virtuosi of the past century and wrote some wonderful music for the piano. Parts of this this symphony are quite wonderful, but one feels the symphony could have benefitted from a little, or a lot, of editing. In addition to the many inspiring moments there are a good many "just competant" moments that could have been left out. That said, is it worth the curiosity value? A resounding yes!

Paderewski is still most famous as a pianist and Prime Minister of Poland, but his original compositions are becoming better and better represented on disc (even his opera Manru is now available; and there are alternative versions of the symphony around as well, although I have heard none of these). His piano concerto, for instance, is a delightful affair, strongly recommended to all lovers of late romantic virtuoso piano music. His symphony in b minor (composed 1903-08) is slightly more problematic but ultimately very rewarding. It is extremely ambitious, lasting for a total of 74.21 in this performance, and consists of two epic movements framing a not insubstantial (17 minutes) Andante con moto. The tonal language is late romantic, the themes are strong and the scoring not unimaginative; it is also quite discursive in character, even though the overall structure is formally quite convincing.

The first movement opens with a bit of atmospheric landscape painting from which a fine theme gradually appears. The clouds gather and we are off on a troubled journey with plenty of sidetracking (though the digressions are always interesting) but a pretty convincing overall development - the grand dramatic climax at ca. 21 minutes is very effective, for instance. The style is personal at least to a degree, though there are elements reminding one of (at least) Richard Strauss and Sibelius (and plenty of others). The second movement begins bleakly, and the general mood is one of pensive unrest realized through economical means, until sweetness appears in the form of a violin solo approximately three quarters of the way in. Again, the movement shows that Paderewski, despite a tendency to meander, had a genuine skill when it came to building impressive, effective climaxes.

The finale is more urgent in character, with plenty of drama and pugnacity - very enjoyable, but at the same time evocatively atmospheric and colorful. It is the most obviously nationalist movement (the symphony is subtitled Polonia), but none the worse for it, and it provides a very satisfying conclusion to what is, in the end, an impressive work. It may perhaps be a little too much to demand that any conductor should manage to make complete sense of all the twists and turns, but Maksymiuk is impressively effective; the reading at hand lacks nothing in drama and very little in terms of momentum. The playing of the BBC Scottish is very satisfying as well, and in particular the climaxes are thoroughly full-blooded and almost overwhelming. The recorded sound is clear and the dynamics are wide, even if the music is recorded at an annoyingly low volume. In short, this disc warrants an extremely strong recommendation for lovers of late romantic symphonism, and one that will provide plenty of rewards for more casual listeners as well.