| Szymanowski | N |
Demeter,Op. 37b - Litany to the Virgin Mary,Op. 59 - Penthesilea,Op. 18
- Stabat Mater,Op. 53 - Veni creator,Op. 57
Barbara Zogórzanka , Jadwiga Gadulanka , Roma Owsinska sops Krystyna
Szostek-Radkowa mez Anna Malewicz-Madej cont Andrzej Hiolski
bar
Polish State Philharmonic Chorus (Katowice); Polish State Philharmonic Orchestra
(Katowice)/Karol Stryja
Naxos 
8
553687 (62 minutes : DDD)
From (Marco Polo) 8 223293(NR)
Reviewed: Gramophone (7/1997)
| A very tempting bargain. The Stabat mater receives a very fine performance,
spaciously recorded, with an excellent chorus and a touchingly pure-voiced soprano
soloist. The unnamed soprano in the Litany to the Virgin Mary is good, if not quite so
ideal, but Stryja's performance here is particularly successful at pointing up
Szymanowski's harmonic adventurousness in this late work. As a strong further
recommendation the three other pieces in this collection are not otherwise available, and
they provide an absorbing overview of the composer's changes of style: Penthesilea almost
lushly voluptuous, with a wonderfully sensuous, intimate close; Demeter richly colourful,
approaching the world of the opera King Roger; the Veni creator bold, even barbarous in
its jubilance. All are well done, and no admirer of Szymanowski's music, having heard them
once, will want to be without them. Crucially, however, no texts are provided, and of course all five works are sung in Polish. Any vocal work is a composer's response to words, and cannot be fully appreciated without understanding those words. Any recording of a vocal work in a foreign tongue that does not provide text and translation is an incomplete recording which, however tempting, cannot be recommended." |
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