Szymanowski King Roger; Harnasie
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Karol Szymanowski
Genre:
Opera
Label: Olympia
Magazine Review Date: 5/1989
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 107
Mastering:
ADD
Catalogue Number: OCD303
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| King Roger |
Karol Szymanowski, Composer
Andrzej Hiolski, Roger II, Baritone Anna Malewicz-Madej, Deaconess, Mezzo soprano Hanna Rumowska, Roxana Karol Szymanowski, Composer Kazimierz Pustelak, Shepherd, Tenor Marek Dabrowski, Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mierzejewski, Conductor Warsaw National Opera Chorus Warsaw National Opera Orchestra Zdzislaw Nikodem, Edrisi, Tenor |
Author: Michael Oliver
Both front and back of the box containing this pair of CDs imply that the complete Harnasie ballet is included, the list of contents on the back even gives a timing for it—47'54''. There would just about have been room for the complete score (King Roger is a rather short opera) but all we have here in fact is a 25-minute suite from it. A complete recording does exist, and since it comes from the same source as this abbreviated one it would presumably have been available to Olympia. Memory suggests that it was better recorded too: in anything above forte (and much of the music chosen for this suite is very loud) the sound is raucous and glaringly bright. In the case of King Roger comparison with the original issue reveals a similar if less drastic brightening: high strings, soprano voices and heavily scored passages have all taken on a bit of a cutting edge, and in some of Szymanowski's most opulent scenes a degree of clarity has been lost. To spoil the ship still further, no libretto is provided (only a plot summary), and there are no cuing bands within the acts of King Roger.
Harnasie represents a fusion of Szymanowski the Westernized cosmopolite (traces of Stravinsky and Prokofiev) and Szymanowski the nationalist. Some of the folk-music evocations are quite startlingly realistic (displaced rhythms, bold dissonances, lurching slides from note to note and impromptu-sounding counterpoint like those in the Highlanders' Dance can be heard in Eastern Europe to this day), while the diatonic peace and pastoral lyricism of the quieter passages are a touching image of Szymanowski the European coming home at last (in its finished form Harnasie counts as a 'late' work) to the Polish soil where his roots lay. Crudely hacked and harshly recorded this account can only hint at the ballet's quality and make one long for a new and uncut recording.
Still, Szymanowski's flawed but deeply fascinating opera is available on CD at last, that's the main thing, and in a first-class performance. Hiolski's troubled Roger is nobly sung, and being a baritone his voice is hardly affected by the Brightness Factor, as I propose calling it (BF for short). Pustelak (why have we never heard of him in the West?) has the ideal voice, serene and otherworldly yet sensuous, for the nameless Shepherd: he is half Dionysus, half fleshly and secular Christ and his allure shakes Roger's austere, Byzantine-Apollonian worid. Like Nikodem, another admirable lyric tenor, he is not too much affected by BF, but the two remaining principals are. Bewitched by the Shepherd's mysterious glamour Rumowska soars ecstatically but now rather piercingly above the stave, while Dabrowski whose impressive denunciations are delivered from well back in the stage picture, sounds as though he is singing inside a tank. The spaciousness that was such a strong feature of the original recording, and which made the hieratic solemnity of the opening scene so unforgettable, has not been wholly lost, and the sumptuousness of Szymanowski's orchestra is not too spoiled, especially in the many passages of delicate arabesque and luminous colour.
I am rather glad, even so, that I still have the original issue. If you have not, I strongly urge you to give these CDs a try, despite my reservations. King Roger lacks conflict: Roger himself is a merely symbolic figure, with no character of his own to oppose the Shepherd's seduction (not too strong a word: there is surely a powerful element of suppressed homosexuality to the plot). It lacks direction (the libretto was originally to have ended quite differently) and goes off fairly severely in the final scene. But it magnificently evokes the Byzantine world and its disruption by dangerous forces from the East and from deep in the psyche, and this performance brings it splendidly to life.'
Harnasie represents a fusion of Szymanowski the Westernized cosmopolite (traces of Stravinsky and Prokofiev) and Szymanowski the nationalist. Some of the folk-music evocations are quite startlingly realistic (displaced rhythms, bold dissonances, lurching slides from note to note and impromptu-sounding counterpoint like those in the Highlanders' Dance can be heard in Eastern Europe to this day), while the diatonic peace and pastoral lyricism of the quieter passages are a touching image of Szymanowski the European coming home at last (in its finished form Harnasie counts as a 'late' work) to the Polish soil where his roots lay. Crudely hacked and harshly recorded this account can only hint at the ballet's quality and make one long for a new and uncut recording.
Still, Szymanowski's flawed but deeply fascinating opera is available on CD at last, that's the main thing, and in a first-class performance. Hiolski's troubled Roger is nobly sung, and being a baritone his voice is hardly affected by the Brightness Factor, as I propose calling it (BF for short). Pustelak (why have we never heard of him in the West?) has the ideal voice, serene and otherworldly yet sensuous, for the nameless Shepherd: he is half Dionysus, half fleshly and secular Christ and his allure shakes Roger's austere, Byzantine-Apollonian worid. Like Nikodem, another admirable lyric tenor, he is not too much affected by BF, but the two remaining principals are. Bewitched by the Shepherd's mysterious glamour Rumowska soars ecstatically but now rather piercingly above the stave, while Dabrowski whose impressive denunciations are delivered from well back in the stage picture, sounds as though he is singing inside a tank. The spaciousness that was such a strong feature of the original recording, and which made the hieratic solemnity of the opening scene so unforgettable, has not been wholly lost, and the sumptuousness of Szymanowski's orchestra is not too spoiled, especially in the many passages of delicate arabesque and luminous colour.
I am rather glad, even so, that I still have the original issue. If you have not, I strongly urge you to give these CDs a try, despite my reservations. King Roger lacks conflict: Roger himself is a merely symbolic figure, with no character of his own to oppose the Shepherd's seduction (not too strong a word: there is surely a powerful element of suppressed homosexuality to the plot). It lacks direction (the libretto was originally to have ended quite differently) and goes off fairly severely in the final scene. But it magnificently evokes the Byzantine world and its disruption by dangerous forces from the East and from deep in the psyche, and this performance brings it splendidly to life.'
Szymanowski King Roger; Harnasie
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