Friedman & Różycki: Piano Quintets
Ludomir Różycki: Piano Quintet in C minor Op 35; Ignacy Friedman: Piano Quintet in C minor.
Jonathan Plowright (piano), Szymanowski Quartet
Hyperion CDA68124
Following the success of their previous chamber CD, Jonathan Plowright has again teamed up with the Polish/Ukrainian Szymanowski Quartet to record two more forgotten gems of the Romantic Polish repertoire for Hyperion Records. The piano quintets of Ludomir Rózycki and Ignacy Friedman make the perfect late-Romantic pairing, and both recieved a warm reception when the group performed them this summer at the Chopin and Husum Rarities Festivals. The CD follows hot on the heels of Jonathan’s recordings of the two Piano Concerti by Ludomir Rózycki, and as such was greeted enthusiastically by Gramophone reviewer, Jeremy Nicholas: “These were played by Jonathan Plowright (overlooked yet again by the BBC Proms this year) and it is this outstanding British pianist in whose debt we are once more for this second Różicki resurrection.”
The striking cover picture of the album is a detail from ‘Frenzy of Exultations’ (Szał uniesień), or as it has become known, ‘Ecstasy’, is an 1893 painting by Polish artist, Władysław Podkowiński, and it caused an uproar when it was first exhibited.
[Source: press release]