Kletzki / Szymanowski / Lutosławski: Music for Violin and Orchestra
Paul Kletzki: Violin Concerto (World Premiere Recording); Karol Szymanowski: Violin Concerto no 2; Witold Lutosławski: Partita
Robert Davidovici, violin; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Grzegorz Nowak, cond.
RPO
The latest recording by Maestro Grzegorz Nowak and the Royal Philharmonic was declared “CD of the week” by The Guardian. Below is an excerpt of the review by Graham Rickson of the www.theartsdesk.com:
The Polish composer and conductor Paul Kletzki’s flourishing career in 1920s Germany came to an abrupt halt in the 1930s. He moved initially to Italy, fleeing to Switzerland in 1941. Before leaving, he packed his manuscripts into a chest which was left in the basement of a Milan hotel. Which was subsequently bombed. Kletzki also assumed that his German publishers had destroyed his scores. He became a well-known conductor in the post-war era, fondly remembered for his work with the Philharmonia in the 1950s. Excavations in Milan in 1965 uncovered the chest containing Kletzki’s scores – he, sadly, was afraid to open it, fearing that that the contents would have turned to dust. Kletzki’s widow Yvonne had a peek after her husband’s death in 1973, and found the scores to be perfectly preserved. One of them, the 1928 Violin Concerto, receives its first recording here. It’s a ripe, confident piece; Kletzki’s luminous, extravagant scoring and his flexible use of tonality give the work a unique and highly individual flavour. It receives a fantastic performance here; Robert Davidovici’s full-blooded tone is just what the work deserves, and Grzegorz Nowak’s Royal Philharmonic are fearlessly accurate – listen to those the upper strings at the start of the Allegro giocoso.
[Source: theartsdesk.com]