Karlowicz Orchestral Works
A young talent cut short early that deserves to be heard
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Mieczyslaw Karlowicz
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: Chandos
Magazine Review Date: 5/2004
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 73
Mastering:
Stereo
DDD
Catalogue Number: CHAN10171
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Bianca da Molena |
Mieczyslaw Karlowicz, Composer
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra Gianandrea Noseda, Conductor Mieczyslaw Karlowicz, Composer |
| Serenade |
Mieczyslaw Karlowicz, Composer
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra Gianandrea Noseda, Conductor Mieczyslaw Karlowicz, Composer |
| Symphony, 'Rebirth' |
Mieczyslaw Karlowicz, Composer
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra Gianandrea Noseda, Conductor Mieczyslaw Karlowicz, Composer |
Author: David Fanning
This second BBC Philharmonic Karowicz disc complements the first (10/02) with three earlier works. Not that there are any late, or even mid-period ones, because the 26-year-old who finished his only Symphony in 1903 had barely six more years to live, making him one of the great might-have-beens of Polish music.
Composed in the first two years of the 20th century, Karlowicz’s 40-minute Rebirth Symphony is very much of its time – not just in its ambitious programmatic span from existential despair to world-saving apotheosis, but in its opulent post-Tchaikovskian idiom. The young composer evidently wanted a taste of the late-Romantic action, much as Elgar, Suk, Zemlinsky, Rachmaninov and a host of other coevals did, but in this instance he clearly over-reached himself, and even in the clutch of symphonic poems that followed he would never quite attain full individuality of voice or overcome a tendency to diffuseness of structure.
Yet this is still a need-to-know piece for anyone interested in the aspirational, not to say delusional, zeitgeist so prevalent before the First World War. And setting aside its obvious shortcomings – there is no Straussian potency or Mahlerian doubt to redeem the unselfcritical naivety of the programme – the Rebirth Symphony has much to offer in its own melodramatic terms. Most immediately appealing, perhaps, is the slow movement, which depicts the soul sleeping and dreaming of liberation, and which features a tender song-like theme that British listeners may connect with the hymn ‘My song is love unknown’. There is a also a fine energy to the finale, even if its would-be redemptive chorale owes aconspicuous debt to the slow movement of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto.
The symphonic prologue Bianca da Molena is extracted from music for a now-forgotten Polish play – ‘a tortuous tale of knight-errantry and doomed love’, as Alastair Wightman’s informative essay reports; not surprisingly it contains many echoes of Wagner. The Serenade for String Orchestra is an apprentice piece with a certain charm, notably in the vaguely Parsifalian slow movement, which helps to compensate for the disappointment of the cursory finale.
The BBC Philharmonic’s playing and Chandos’s recording uphold their customary high standards, the orchestra’s principal conductor Gianandrea Noseda yielding not an inch to his predecessors in turns of energy and insight. I can now rest happy with the knowledge that my old Polskie Nagrania LP of the Symphony has seemingly gone walkabout.
Composed in the first two years of the 20th century, Karlowicz’s 40-minute Rebirth Symphony is very much of its time – not just in its ambitious programmatic span from existential despair to world-saving apotheosis, but in its opulent post-Tchaikovskian idiom. The young composer evidently wanted a taste of the late-Romantic action, much as Elgar, Suk, Zemlinsky, Rachmaninov and a host of other coevals did, but in this instance he clearly over-reached himself, and even in the clutch of symphonic poems that followed he would never quite attain full individuality of voice or overcome a tendency to diffuseness of structure.
Yet this is still a need-to-know piece for anyone interested in the aspirational, not to say delusional, zeitgeist so prevalent before the First World War. And setting aside its obvious shortcomings – there is no Straussian potency or Mahlerian doubt to redeem the unselfcritical naivety of the programme – the Rebirth Symphony has much to offer in its own melodramatic terms. Most immediately appealing, perhaps, is the slow movement, which depicts the soul sleeping and dreaming of liberation, and which features a tender song-like theme that British listeners may connect with the hymn ‘My song is love unknown’. There is a also a fine energy to the finale, even if its would-be redemptive chorale owes aconspicuous debt to the slow movement of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto.
The symphonic prologue Bianca da Molena is extracted from music for a now-forgotten Polish play – ‘a tortuous tale of knight-errantry and doomed love’, as Alastair Wightman’s informative essay reports; not surprisingly it contains many echoes of Wagner. The Serenade for String Orchestra is an apprentice piece with a certain charm, notably in the vaguely Parsifalian slow movement, which helps to compensate for the disappointment of the cursory finale.
The BBC Philharmonic’s playing and Chandos’s recording uphold their customary high standards, the orchestra’s principal conductor Gianandrea Noseda yielding not an inch to his predecessors in turns of energy and insight. I can now rest happy with the knowledge that my old Polskie Nagrania LP of the Symphony has seemingly gone walkabout.
Karlowicz Orchestral Works
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