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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Karlowicz - Symphonic Poems Volume 2
Mieczyslaw Karlowicz’s six symphonic poems, composed between 1904-09, are the pinnacles of a career tragically ended when he perished in an avalanche during a solitary mountain hike. His fame as one of the outstanding Polish composers of his generation rests on these highly original, lushly-scored masterpieces, the first, second and fifth of which are included on this second volume. Bitterly criticised by contemporary Polish critics as examples of ‘modernist chaos’, these splendid Neo-Romantic works show both Karlowicz’s intense admiration for Wagner, Tchaikovsky and Richard Strauss, and the scale of his own achievement. Volume 1 is available on Naxos 8570452 “Antoni Wit has an admirable track record with Naxos.” Classics Today “Wit and the orchestra are at their finest in the final movement, 'Song of Eternal Being' in which Karlowicz brings the cycle to a grandiose and optimistic close.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2009 **** | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Karlowicz - Orchestral Works Volume 3
“Magnificent accounts of Karlowicz's evocative tone poems by Noseda” BBC Music Magazine, December 2005 “It would be hard to imagine more effective treatment of this highly scented repertoire” BBC Music Magazine, August 2006 “Mieczysław Karłowicz (1876-1909)…produced some of the finest orchestral works by a Polish composer of the early 20th century. All three performances on this very well recorded CD are magnificent. In fact, it would be hard to imagine more effective treatment of this highly scented repertoire.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2005 ***** “With this third disc the BBC Philharmonic complete a fine survey of Karpowicz's orchestral music. Now we can finally enjoy this music in all its rich, velvet-draped luxury.
This instalment is, admittedly, something of a mopping-up exercise, the best of Karpowicz's output being found on the first of the BBC Philharmonic's discs (see above). The Nietzschean pessimism of Returning Waves and A Sorrowful Tale relates strongly to the Richard Strauss of Tod und Verklärung pretensions, albeit without the transfiguration.
Here the music sounds as though it has overdosed on Wagner and turned to César Franck for the antidote, compounding rather than solving its problems in finding an individual voice.
In Episode at a Masquerade – completed by Grzegorz Fitelberg following the composer's tragically early death in a skiing accident – there are attractive, though passing and presumably coincidental, affinities with the Elgar of Cockaigne.
Here, too, the overall atmosphere is far removed from the frivolity that the title (and indeed the opening pages of the score) might suggest.
The BBC Philharmonic's dynamic principal conductor, Gianandrea Noseda, took the reins from Yan Pascal Tortelier after their first Karpowicz disc. He has a sure instinct for the music's indulgent textures and melodramatic effusiveness, and orchestral playing and recording are both of the highest class. Self-recommending, then, to explorers of late-Romantic byways.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010  BBC Music Magazine
Orchestral Choice - December 2005 |
| | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Mieczyslaw Karlowicz: Symphonic Poems
Orkiestra Filharmonii Slaskiej, Jerzy Salwarowski | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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Gramophone Magazine