The Romantic Piano Concerto - 67

LUDOMIR RÓŻYCKI (1883-1953): Piano Concertos No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 43 and No. 2, Ballade for Piano and Orchestra in G, Op. 18.

Description: The first concerto of 1918 is a full-bodied, heaven-storming Romantic Concerto of the old-fashioned late 19th-century type while the early Ballade (1904) shows the young composer trying on various styles from Liszt and Tchaikovsky to Paderewski. While recordings from radio archives in 1984 and 1990 appeared some years ago on Acte Préalable, the Second appears to be a First Recording. Written in 1941-42 while Polish artists and intellectuals were being suppressed and murdered by Nazis, it has only two movements and begins with a gloomy theme not unlike the Volga Boatmen’s Song but a simple theme taken from a no longer extant song of Różycki’s brightens the mood and eventually leads to an Allegro giocoso finale fueled by a krakowiak-type rhythmic zest and sparkle. Jonathan Plowright (piano), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; Łukasz Borowicz.