Józef Wieniawski (1837-1912)
Piano Works
rec. 2023/24, Beall Concert Hall, University of Oregon School of Music and Dance, USA
Naxos 8.574583 [71]

I am thrilled that Naxos have chosen to dedicate a series to romantic piano music, more specifically 19^th century music that has fallen by the wayside though its creators were among the great and good of music at their time. Their downfall was perhaps that final spark of originality that set their contemporaries, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Schumann and perhaps a handful of others in the piano world, apart. The series has so far featured Julius Benedict, Wilhelm Taubert, Friedrich Kiel and Charles Gounod; the latter is hardly forgotten but his piano works are barely known; perhaps his funeral march for a marionette appears as an encore occasionally – accompanied by the obligatory whispered ooh that’s Hitchcock – but the rest is shrouded in the mists of time. Naxos and some excellent pianists are pulling back that curtain and I think this fifth volume is a very good a place to start the exploration. During his lifetime Józef Wieniawski was almost as fêted as his violinist brother Henri and he toured very successfully as a soloist as well as alongside his brother. His pedigree is undeniable; Charles-Valentin Alkan was a tutor according to the booklet as well as two giants of the Paris Conservatoire, Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann and Antoine François Marmontel. Alkan may have thought little of Marmontel but he taught a veritable who’s who of the French piano world. Wieniawski spent some time with Liszt and was only the second pianist after Liszt to play the complete études of Chopin in recital. He travelled widely but Poland remained his spiritual home and he became director of the Warsaw Music Society in 1875 and was given awards for his contributions to Polish musical life. He died in Brussels.

I have been enjoying Acte Préalable’s complete series of Wieniawski’s piano works but at the time of writing there is little crossover with Andrew Cannestra’s fine collection. Newly recorded are the barcarolle, polonaises in G sharp minor and G major and the polka brilliant. Possibly also the three movement version of the Sonata recorded here as I can only find recordings of the earlier four movement version. As the titles suggest, barcarolles, polonaises, there is an element of Chopin in Wieniawski’s music but it is more in the spirit of the techniques that Chopin, Liszt and a host of others had developed. Wieniawski was possibly brave in taking up a Sonata in B minor, almost inviting comparisons to the great sonatas by Chopin and Liszt but listening to the Sonata one doesn’t necessarily think of them other than in its fiery technique and some of the figuration. He manages to create a fine sonata that doesn’t imitate previous models. It originally appeared as a four movement sonata in the late 1850s but Wieniawski returned to it some thirty years later in 1890 and completely revised it, losing the scherzo completely and rewriting much of the first movement and bits of the finale. The dramatic opening, a grand and pompous fanfare, does not reappear in the recapitulation in this version; it is the lyrical second theme that opens the recapitulation after the extended development. The development section itself is rewritten with more interest while basic figurations in the first version are given more interest with other keyboard lines and a more contrapuntal feel. The slow movement is a haven of calm after the stormy opening movement with a lovely melody that becomes a duet after a few bars. There is a more melodramatic middle section but its tumult is more restrained compared to its neighbouring movements. Wieniawski seems to have been happy with this movement and left it unchanged but for the odd note here and there. The finale is powerfully energetic and a glorious example of romanticism at its best. It is full of restlessly virtuosic writing contrasting with a second theme that provides a good dose of lyricism but still holds that bubbling energy within. Once again the composer salvages most of the material intact except for one utterly magical transition just before the end, a keyboard encompassing build-up of arpeggios and runs that is in the home key in the earlier version but which here takes a sideways step into C minor for nine bars before returning to B minor for the grand peroration. This is a very strong sonata and deserves a place in today’s repertoire.

I could say the same for much of the music here; the Barcarolle for instance is wonderfully evocative and within its romantic model quite far reaching harmonically. It has a gorgeous cantilena  over a characteristically lilting accompaniment with some of the kind of decoration that would have made Chopin proud. There are even hints of early impressionism along the way. The ballade was written at around the same time and its elegiac opening may indeed relate to the death of his brother some four years earlier as the booklet suggests though the barcarolle betrays no hint of that. It strays into heroic and stirring music along that way, occasionally reminding me of Tchaikowsky and it reaches quite a dramatic climax before the elegiac music of the opening returns alongside some eerie chord changes to bring the ballade to a quiet conclusion.

There is nothing shy and retiring about the three polonaises played here, three of four he wrote. All are concert pieces through and through. The second is the most extrovert and while there are similarities to Chopin famous polonaise in the same key it is the flamboyance of Liszt’s E major polonaise that strikes me most in this triumphal work. The recurring main theme of the minor key third polonaise is sombre though one of its contrasting sections is a overtly passionate as one could wish for. The fourth, dating from the early 1890s is among Wieniawski’s final works. Echoes of Chopin and Liszt are much fainter in this almost fantasy like polonaise. The main theme, which enters after a florid introductory section, does not have the declamatory mood that many polonaises adopt – think Chopin A major op.40 no.1, A flat major op.53 or Liszt E major. Instead it opens on the secondary dominant giving it a much more relaxed and restrained feel though it retains all of the imagination and flair of its companions. The first polonaise does not appear on the disc but is available as a digital single recorded by the same pianist (Naxos 9.70388). The final piece, the utterly charming polka brilliante has an encore like feel to it. It develops more decoration as it progresses and ends in dazzling fashion; I was reminded of Gottschalk’s Pasquinade in some of the later decoration.

Andrew Cannestra is a new name to me but I was thrilled and beguiled by his vivid playing. His bold playing is perfect for the grandeur of the sonata and the brilliance of the dances while finding delicacy and a fluent singing line in the barcarolle. This is a lovely disc in this enterprising series.

Rob Challinor

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Contents
Barcarolle in B flat major Op.29 (1884)
Ballade in E minor Op.31 (1884)
Piano Sonata in B minor Op.22 (1858 rev. c.1890)
Polonaise No.2 in A flat major polonaise triomphale (publ.1862)
Polonaise No.3 in G sharp minor Op.27 (publ.1881)
Polonaise No.4 in G major Op.48 (publ.1892)
Polka brilliante Op.11 (publ.1852)