Review in Gramophone Magazine [https:\/\/www.gramophone.co.uk\/review\/szymanowski-piano-works-vol-4-5] Karol Szymanowski was neither one of the 20th century piano-virtuoso-composers on the model of Bartók or Prokofiev nor an ardent self-publicist of Stravinsky’s ilk. For the longest time, if one were curious about his piano music, one had recourse to the recordings of his compatriots, Rubinstein and Małcużyński, and little else. Gradually others came aboard, Richter in the 1950s, then more recently, a veritable groundswell including Anderszewski, Hamelin, Pöntinen, Tiberghien, Jones, Roscoe, Fialkowska, Blechacz, Lortie and many others both inside and outside Poland. Among those for whom recording a few pieces or a single opus was insufficient, and who resolved to record all the piano music, is the Finnish pianist Anu Vehviläinen. Vols 4 and 5 of her series include works from each of Szymanowski’s style periods: the first from 1900 until 1913; the second roughly coinciding with the First World War; and the third from his relocation from Ukraine to Warsaw up to his death in 1937. It has become a commonplace to observe that from within Szymanowski’s piano sonatas, a symphony struggles to emerge. In the case of the earliest of his three surviving sonatas, that ‘symphony’, harmonically speaking, has a great deal in common with Brahms. Vehviläinen copes resourcefully with its thicket of over-written textures, replete with double glissandos and multi-voiced trills. It may be, however, that her intrepid pianism is shown in its best light in two of the four books of the Op 50 Mazurkas, which contain some of Szymanowski’s most characteristic and mature writing for the instrument. She is also persuasive in the two early sets of Variations, Opp 3 and 10, in which the original voice of the composer is fleetingly heard amid allusions to Chopin and Scriabin. Patrick Rucker, Gramophone Magazine ——————————————————————————– Karol Szymanowski: Pianoteokset, voI. 4 & 5. Anu Vehviläinen, piano. Alba ABCD 407 1-2 (2 cd). Anu Vehviläinen välttää Karol Szymanowskin (1882-1937) pianoteosten levytysprojektissaan kokonaislevytyksiin usein tunkevan sudenkuopan, kuuliaisen luettelomaisuuden. Hän ei ole levyttänyt teoksia aikajärjestyksessä, vaan valikoi osat 3 ja 4 käsittävälle tuplalevylle kappaleita vuosilta 1900-1925. Szymanowskin pianosävellykset ovat lisäksi sekä tyyliltään että tyypeiltään hyvin erilaisia. Szymanowski aloitti 1900-luvun alussa myöhäisromanttisten tunnusten alla, mutta muunnelmasarjoissa opp. 3 ja 10, puhumattakaan preludista ja fuugasta cis-molli on myös vahva konstruktiivinen heräte. Ilmeisimmin romanttisesta perinteestä kasvaa ryöpsähtelevä ensimmäinen pianosonaatti. 12 etydiä vuodelta 1916 edustavat paljon modernimpaa ajattelua, myös suhteessa pianonsoiton tekniikkaan. 1920-luvun lopulla sävelletyt masurkat op. 50 ja muut tanssit luotaavat Chopinin perintöä uudenlaisessa etnografisessa hengessä. Joistakin kappaleista on kuultu räväkämpiäkin tulkintoja, mutta Vehviläisen vahvuutena on teoksesta toiseen yltävä erittelevä paneutuminen. Taiteellisen tohtoritutkinnon osana syntynyttä levysarjaa vahvistavat hänen omat esittelytekstinsä sekä pitkän matkan varrella syventynyt ymmärrys persoonallisen puolalaissäveltäjän ajatusmaailmasta. Antti Häyrynen, Rondo Classic 2\/2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Review in Gramophone Magazine [https:\/\/www.gramophone.co.uk\/review\/szymanowski-piano-works-vol-4-5] Karol Szymanowski was neither one of the 20th century piano-virtuoso-composers on the model of Bartók or Prokofiev nor an ardent self-publicist of Stravinsky’s ilk. For the longest time, if one were curious about his piano music, one had recourse to the recordings of his compatriots, Rubinstein and Małcużyński, and little else. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5774,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[230,190,195,205],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5582","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-abcd-en","7":"product_cat-all-discs","8":"product_cat-classic-romantic","9":"product_cat-piano","10":"product_shipping_class-cd","12":"first","13":"instock","14":"taxable","15":"shipping-taxable","16":"purchasable","17":"product-type-simple"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alba.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/5582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alba.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alba.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alba.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alba.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alba.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alba.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=5582"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alba.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=5582"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alba.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=5582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}