Polish Clarinet & Flute recitals

Clarinet Sonatas of the 20th Century

Camille SAINT-SAENS (1835-1921) Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in E flat major Op.167 (1921) Othmar SCHOECK (1886-1957) Sonata for bass Clarinet and Piano Op.41 (1927-28) Leonard BERNSTEIN (1918-1990) Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1942) Mieczysław WEINBERG (1919-1996) Sonata for Clarinet and Piano Op.28 (1945) Edison DENISOV(1929-1996) Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1993) WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING! ***

Dawid Jarzynski clarinet Tamara Chitadze piano

DUX 0799 / 2011

Flute music from Wroclaw

Grzegorz Olkiewicz - flute
Mirosław Gąsieniec, Andrzej Jungiewicz,
Maria Szwajger-Kułakowska, Teresa Worońko - piano

Jacek Rogala Litoral for flute and piano
Leszek Wisłocki 10 Preludes for flute and piano
Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil Eco per flauto
Jadwiga Szajna-Lewandowska Sonatina for flute and piano
Joachim Georg Görlich Zwölftoneindrücke für Flöte und Klavie
Mirosław Gąsieniec Capriccio Spanish Dance

DUX 0826 TT: 59:19

Two valuable, well conceived recital CDs from Poland. Composer/clarinettist Dawid Jarzynski opted for a survey of sonatas through the 20th C for his instrument(s), from Saint-Saens to Denisov.

It "flows" well as a sequence, punctuated for timbral variety with the first ever sonata composed for bass-clarinet. Jarzynski is a well equipped clarinettist, as he would bound to be after having "perfected his skills at masterclasses" by more than seventeen named international clarinettists !

Such over-inclusive CVs may be necessary for getting bookings, but are quite out of place in CD liner notes; they should be drastically pruned.

I enjoyed Jarzynski's playing, in good partnership with Tamara Chitadze, and hope they will make it to UK, where a programme like this one would be well received at the right venue. (An earlier CD includes Conversations by UK composer Paul Patterson [DUX 0622, 2008])

Grzegorz Olkiewicz draws upon the vibrant musical life of his home city, Wroclaw in south-western Poland, with works by his friends and colleagues there, recorded by Wroclaw Radio 1992-93, all thoroughly worth bringing to international attention.

None is negligible and they make for an absorbing programme. Olkiewicz is an excellent advocate for this music, of which the central item is an extended atmospheric Eco for solo flute enhanced with electronically-assisted delay.

Peter Grahame Woolf