Szymanowski: Symphonies No 2 & 4 - Gardner (2013)

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Szymanowski: Symphonies No 2 & 4 - Gardner (2013)

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This recording of orchestral works by Karol Szymanowski form part of the Polish Music series on Chandos, and is performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Edward Gardner. These performers have impressed in their Lutosławski survey, which is part of the same series; in a review of volume 1, Gramophone described them as a veritable ‘dream team’.

Symphony No. 2 by Szymanowski is a work of great power and ingenuity, with many passionate and varied contrasts in its use of solo instruments. Composed in 1909 – 10, it is widely considered the greatest orchestral work of the composer’s early period, not to mention one of the most important Polish symphonic compositions to date. Szymanowski himself thought very highly of it, and in August 1911 wrote in a letter to his fellow Polish composer Zdzisław Jachimecki: ‘How happy I am that this Symphony impressed you as I had wanted. I will frankly admit that I feel somewhat proud about its value. In some miraculous way I have managed during my work on it to resist all those garish phantoms which seduce “young and inexperienced” artists and to produce pure and uncompromising beauty in the way I personally understand it.’

The internationally acclaimed pianist Louis Lortie joins the orchestra and conductor in Symphony No. 4 of 1932, which the composer subtitled ‘Symphonie concertante’ in recognition of the near-soloistic role played by the pianist. Whereas Szymanowski’s early and middle works clearly reflect Wagner, Strauss, and Scriabin, this work is strongly influenced by Prokofiev, particularly in the finale, an agitated and daring movement reminiscent of the Russian composer’s Piano Concerto No. 3, composed about a decade earlier.

Written in 1904 – 05 in a style recalling Wagner and Strauss, the Concert Overture is characterised by enormous expressiveness and gusto in the way it handles the expanding themes. Szymanowski inscribed the original score with part of the poem Witeź Włast by his friend Tadeusz Miciński: ‘I will not play you sad songs, O Shades! but will give you a triumph proud and fierce…’. This vivid imagery is perfectly in keeping with the music’s exuberant and vivacious character.

Composer: Karol Szymanowski
Performer: Louis Lortie
Conductor: Edward Gardner
Orchestra/Ensemble: BBC Symphony Orchestra

Reviews: Following on from their marvellous exploration of Lutoslawski’s orchestral works, Edward Gardner now enters the very different world of Karol Szymanowski in a fifth volume in their recordings of music from Poland. The review of volume four is here. Chandos released both of these symphonies in 1996 on a highly regarded disc conducted by Vassily Sinaisky and with Howard Shelley as soloist, CHAN 9478, but an online search leads me to suspect this may be out of print and I don’t have a copy for comparison. The superlative standards of Gardner’s previous volumes are very much maintained here, and you know you are in for a treat once the first bars of the early Concert Overture kick in. This was one of the works which put the young Szymanowski on the musical map, and even with the influence of Richard Strauss a clear stylistic element the convincing marks of an impassioned individual voice are unmistakable.

Fans of Szymanowski will more than likely know his Symphony No. 4 in a fine recording on EMI with Sir Simon Rattle conducting City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (see review) which is still something of a reference for its refined transparency and eloquently expressive playing. Rattle’s Stabat Mater is also not to be missed. Antoni Wit’s Warsaw forces on Naxos (see review) are also superb, the piano solo further forward in the recording balance emphasising the ‘concerto’ nature of the work. This disc also has a terrific performance of the Concert Overture. Gardner’s Chandos SACD recording is perfectly balanced, the piano a clearly audible presence and with plenty of heft in more turbulent passages, but still a part of the orchestra rather than an overblown soloist. The little touches of orchestration and instrumental solos are all perfect, including a mad clarinet in the third movement. The harmonic worlds of sweeping energy and ever-eventful repose are all keenly observed. Louis Lortie is the ideal soloist, using subtlety of touch to mix with the orchestral textures as well as stamping an authoritative touch on the first movement cadenza and other solo passages.

Szymanowski is one of those composers who can ‘turn’ those resistant to high romanticism in music and, spellbound by that opening violin solo, if you allow it to envelop you further the Symphony No. 2 will carry you away in a bubble of orchestral sensuousness and transport you to lost worlds. Antoni Wit’s recording on the Naxos label (see review) was rightly praised and remains an excellent reference, but Gardner’s is easily its equal in terms of performance. He is a little tighter in terms of tempi here and there, heightening the excitement but still allowing the sonorities to generate organic effulgence. The richness of string tone in the central Theme and Variations is superlatively captured. Neither conductor wallows in the romantic sentiment, but Gardner also has an ear for Szymanowski’s moments of dancing rhythm and witty reference, still with echoes of Richard Strauss, but as Adrian Thomas points out in the booklet notes, adding the sophistication of Berg and Schönberg to a language still drawing on the resources of Austro-German late romanticism.

This is an excellent recording of two of Szymanowski’s great symphonies. Very fine in standard stereo, the added dimension of SACD 5.0 channel surround is something which turns these opulent scores into a truly visceral and emotive experience. I very much look forward to seeing which works come out next in this series.