Polish Works for Solo Cello

JERZY FITELBERG (1906-1951): Sonata*, PIOTR MOSS (b.1949): Récit*, JAN KRENZ (1926-2020): Impromptu*, KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI (1933-2020): Divertimento, KRZYSZTOF MEYER (b.1943): Monologue, WITOLD LUTOSŁAWSKI (1913-1994): Sacher Variation, GRAŻYNA BACEWICZ (1909-1969): Polish Caprice (transcr. and arr. Andrzej Orkisz)*. * - First Recordings.

Description: An attractive and varied recital featuring some significant figures in Polish music and some world premieres. The sadly short-lived Fitelberg (son of Grzegorz) wrote his muscular, expressive four-movement sonata in 1945, after moving from Europe to New York. The work is tonal and largely neoclassical in style and layout, though the slow movement has a rich neo-romantic eloquence and the "scherzo" could be a harmonically updated derivative of a Baroque suite. Bacewicz' well known violin caprice, paying tribute to 19th-century virtuosity and Polish folk music, has been arranged for various forces; this is the world premiere recording of this very effective cello transcription. Moss' substantial Récit is a tough, darkly dramatic work. Although not programmatic it suggests an intense narrative dramaturgy, beginning with elements of funeral march and impassioned funerary oration, and in its later stages takes on the character of an angry character portrait, perhaps of the turbulent figure eulogised earlier in the piece. It ends with the receding funeral procession and cries of grief. The Krenz Impromptu and Meyer Monologue are impassioned, neo-romantic essays in rhapsodic form. Penderecki's little suite was originally composed in 1996, and therefore dates from the years of his self-reinvention as a neo-romantic. Instrumentally inventive, it eschews the terrifying sonoristic effects of the First Cello Concerto, for instance. Tomasz Daroch (cello).