Polish Romantic Symphonies
Franciszek Mirecki (1791-1862)
Symphony in C minor (1855)
Józef Wieniawski (1837-1912)
Symphony in D major, op. 49 (1890)
Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic Orchestra/Pawel Przytocki
rec. 2022, Evangelical Lutheran Church of St Matthew, Łódź, Poland
DUX 1901 [66]
This is probably not a recording I would have requested had I not read some glowing comments elsewhere, in particular with regard to the Mirecki. When none of my colleagues offered to review it, I took the plunge. I’m glad I did, though I wasn’t quite as impressed as those whose comments I had read.
This is the only recording of a work by Mirecki on Presto Classical’s database. Wieniawski, the younger brother of the violin virtuoso Henryk, is better served, with a number of recordings, including an entry in Hyperion’s Romantic Piano Concerto series (Volume 52 – review), and a recording of this symphony on Acte Préalable from 2014 (review). You can get some biographical information about him in that review, but a few words about Mirecki are definitely in order. He was born in Krakow in an artistic family, and received not only musical training in the city but also a degree in Classical Philology. This took him to Vienna where he was librarian to Count Ossoliński. Here he studied with Hummel and Salieri, and was an acquaintance of Beethoven. He spent a year in Venice at Teatro La Fenice, gaining knowledge in opera, which became his main area of composition. He returned to Krakow with a considerable reputation and helped found a school for music education. He came to non-stage music late, writing his only symphony and sacred choral music in the last decade of his life.
Mirecki’s symphony, written seven years before his death, reveals some of his operatic background, but is structured as one would expect for a symphony of its time. Despite the key signature of the work and the first movement tempo marking of Allegro (vivace) con brio (my brackets), there is no discernible Beethoven influence. I have no reason to imagine that Mirecki knew of Schubert’s symphonies, but if you wanted a signpost to guide in this music, that’s where it might point (though certainly more richly and heavily scored). The notes suggest that the slow second movement derives from ballet, of which Mirecki wrote a number, but for me, Haydn’s London symphonies seemed an inspiration. Indeed, it is the Scherzo that follows which is more redolent of ballet. The final movement is marvellously propulsive with a cracking ending.
The Wieniawski symphony, written in the last decade of the nineteenth century, is not as memorable as the Mirecki. A lot of time, one can play “spot the influence”, the answer often being Brahms or Mendelssohn. The eleven-minute opening movement struggles to keep going at times, and is probably the least interesting of the eight movements on the disc. There is a lovely singing quality in the slow movement, with some very appealing writing for the woodwinds. The Scherzo is very much out of the Mendelssohn playbook, though more heavily scored (and of course lacking that level of genius). There are echoes of the Handel “He shall reign” fanfares from the final movements of Mahler’s First Symphony in Wieniawski’s finale as well, and I am surprised the notes do not mention this.
It is hard to judge the performance by the orchestra, given the lack of comparisons, but they sounded committed and well-rehearsed. Sound is perhaps a little recessed. The booklet notes begin “What remarkable works have been registered on this album!”, which is rather overstating matters. Fortunately, the style soon settles down (to paraphrase Douglas Adams), and the information about both composers and the two works is comprehensive, though it does have its moments (I am assuming it is the responsibility of the translation into English). What, for instance, does the description “prisoner of lexicons” mean in reference to Wieniawski’s inability to have his music played? The rest of the paragraph seems to suggest that his career as pianist prevented his compositions from being taken seriously. Surely not – this is, after all, the era of the performer-composer.
I have enjoyed each work without ever considering them “remarkable”. Each is a little over thirty minutes, but it was only rarely that I felt the composer (mostly Wieniawski) had resorted to note spinning in the absence of inspiration. Interesting, the more times I played the disc, the better the Mirecki became, but sadly the converse applied to the Wieniawski.
David Barker
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