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The impressionistic Métopes was composed in 1915, following a visit to Sicily. The title refers to the spaces on a classical frieze in which a sculptor would add decorative scenes, and each section depicts a character and location from Homer‘s Odyssey. One year later came the trilogy Masques, which portrays the story-telling Shéhérazade, an episode from the legend of Tristan and Isolde and a Sérénade de Don Juan. Soon after these examples of programme music, the composer returned to pure sonata form in the Third Sonata, his last major work for solo piano. This remains based in Impressionism, but also achieves a synthesis between that and the style of earlier works
Karol Szymanowski: Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 36
Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 36
Karol Szymanowski: 20 Mazurkas, Op. 50
No. 9. Tempo moderato
No. 10. Allegramente - Vivace - Con brio
No. 11. Allegretto
No. 12. Allegro moderato
Karol Szymanowski: Maski (Masks), Op. 34
No. 1. Szecherezada (Scheherezade)
No. 2. Blazen Tantris (Tantris the Clown)
No. 3. Serenada Don Juana (Don Juan's Serenade)
Karol Szymanowski: Metopy (Metopes), Op. 29
No. 1. Wyspa syren (L'lle des Sirenes)
No. 2. Kalipso (Calypso)
No. 3. Nauzykaa (Nausicaa)
Karol Szymanowski: 2 Mazurkas, Op. 62
No. 1. Allegretto grazioso
No. 2. Moderato
April 2009
****
“Roland Pöntinen's generously filled and beautifully engineered recital features three of Szymanowski's most exotic and harmonically daring middle-period works together with a handful of Mazurkas that were composed near the end of his life. The Swedish pianist gives very persuasive accounts of these later more emotionally restrained pieces projecting their melodic lines with great sensitivity without disrupting their natural dance-like flow.”
Click on any of the works listed above for alternative recordings.
Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 36
