SZYMANOWSKI: Piano Works vol. 1

Roscoe, Martin

8.553016

Szymanowski's twenty Mazurkas, Opus 50, were written in 1924 and 1925. While the title may suggest a debt to Chopin, these Mazurkas owe more to the Mazur source of the dance, drawing on varied folk material from the Tatras, although the result is very much in the composer's own mature idiom. • The three pieces that form Metopes were completed in 1915, a reflection of Szymanowski's travels in Southern Europe the year before and of his study of Greek civilisation now undertaken in the war-time isolation of Timoszówka. The title of the set of pieces suggested the figures in low-relief on the pediment of an ancient Greek temple. The individual pieces take their character from Homer's Odyssey, the account of the long home-coming of the Greek hero Odysseus after the fall of Troy. The four Etudes, Opus 4, come from relatively early in Szymanowski's career, written between 1902 and 1904 and betraying an overt debt to Chopin and to Skryabin. The impressive first of the series is followed by a rapid and brief second Etude. The slightly longer third of the set is possibly the best known of all, in its mood of tender melancholy nostalgia. The fourth Etude, with its torrents of notes, suggested another aspect of Chopin. • Szymanowski's Sonata No. 2, Opus 21, was completed in 1911, at the time of the composition of the Second Symphony, and was described by the composer as diabolically difficult. The challenge was taken up by Artur Rubinstein, who gave the first performance in Warsaw in the same programme as the new symphony.

CD x 1

Naxos

4/10/95

730099401623