RAOUL KOCZALSKI (1885-1948): Piano Concertos, Vol. 3 - Piano Concertos No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 140 and No. 6 in E, Op. 145.

Description: “The Fifth (c.1942), written during the height of the war, allies athleticism with charm, powerful chording with almost tea-shop pertness. The slow movement, where the piano’s oddly perky stalking figures strike a strange note, allows an eventual unfolding of a reflective line, whereas in the scherzo there’s a tussle between Iberian rhythms and solid nineteenth century declamation. But he’s full of surprises. The finale’s theme is not especially distinguished but there is a lovely B section that, in its filmic quality, is most attractive and a sense that some of the writing is so vocalised it could easily be a song transcription. The final peroration, whilst revisiting earlier themes in triumph, does though strike me as perfunctory. By the time he played the solo role in the Leipzig première of the Sixth Concerto the war was over. Polish critics received the work with open derision, one claiming it was an ‘improvisation written on sheet music’. Clearly so anachronistic a work would face a hard time, for the concerto’s amiability, its ultra-romanticised loquacity, its promotion of the winds, and its rather externalised sense of romantic melancholy must have opened a vast gulf between its nostalgic reverie and recent experience. What I enjoy, however, is precisely Koczalski’s innocent candour and his blithe disregard of conventional form and expectation.” MusicWeb International Joanna Ławrynowicz (piano), Lublin Philharmonic Orchestra; Wojciech Rodek.