Szymanowski Festival Joan Rodgers soprano Christopher Glynn piano
Wigmore Hall 21 June 2005

Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) Buntelieder. Three Songs from Word Songs. Seven Songs to Poems by James Joyce. Dans les prés fleuris. The swan. Two Songs from Kurpie Songs

A connoisseurs' evening, with a popular singer drawing modest attendance for songs which will have been mainly unfamiliar to Wigmore Hall regulars. There was a previous Szymanowski Festival in London at South Bank Centre in 1990, which revealed his chameleon-like changes of style, but failed to raise his concert profile long term.

Joan Rodgers made a good selection of four groups, spanning Szymanowski songs from 1910-1932, set in four languages, and mostly sung from memory, which is impressive for such esoteric repertoire. They were interspersed with a Tchaikovsky group in the middle of each half. She was accompanied, efficiently but unexcitingly, by Christopher Glynn.

I have never taken to Szymanowski's earlier German settings and these ripe Buntelieder, followed by a Tchaikovsky group, 'luscious' as one audience member enthused, were put over with conviction, though not greatly to my taste. The recital came to life with the quirky Word Songs (Op 46b, 1921) to untranslatable texts by Julian Tuwim; sparer, focused accompaniments. Seven Joyce songs (Op 54, 1926) likewise - eight were printed in the programme. They should feature more often in Britain's song recitals. The last group included a rarity in French, and Joan Rodgers finished with two of the Kurpie Songs (1932) which are idiomatically close to that of the delightful Twenty Children's Rhymes, the first recording of which was made by my son with Steuart Bedford (Unicorn RHS 316).

The programme book carried translations by courtesy of Channel Classics; strange that their recent boxed set of Szymanowski's Complete Songs was not on sale at the Hall (see my review).