Description
This new release from DUX presents world premiere recordings of Artur Malawski's chamber works for Piano. Sylwia Michalik can be heard here on the piano, alongside Matgorzata Wasiucionek-Potera (violin), Kamila Wasik-Janiak (violin), Adam Krzeszowiec (cello), Inga Poskute (soprano) and Ia Polonska (mezzo-soprano).
The Trio for piano, violin, and cello crowns Artur Malawski's piano chamber oeuvre. It was created in 1951–1953; the whole piece was premiered on 16 December 1953 in Warsaw. It is the most stylistically mature piece Malawski achieved therein mastery in terms of form, sound, and texture. The Trio is referred to as the most outstanding work of this genre in the 20th-century Polish music.
The Fairy Tale for violin and piano is a miniature consisting of two movements combined attacca, with a melancholy, lyrical character, the unique sound aura of which is provided by extremely interestingly saturated harmonies, typical of Malawski.
The Mazurka for violin and piano is a folk dance stylisation, the material of which is based on the highlander scale, enriched with Malawski's individual harmonic solutions. The miniature's Podhale sound aesthetics could have been inspired by the oeuvre of Karol Szymanowski.
To Mother for voice and piano – a song composed in 1950 to the text of a poem by Juliusz Slowacki. It is likely that it was the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the poet's death in 1949 that inspired Malawski to write this piece.
Nike of Chaeronea for voice and piano – a dramatic song composed by Malawski during the Nazi occupation of Lublin in 1943. The words were written by the composer's friend, an artistic Lublin pharmacist and chemist, Stanislaw Magierski.
The Sonata on the Themes of Feliks Janiewicz (1951) and the Siciliana and Rondo on the Themes of Feliks Janiewicz (1952) for violin and piano are detached from the actual sound language of Artur Malawski, but they remain in the circle of the popular trend of post-war Polish music consisting in arranging earlier Polish music.
