Ewa Demarczyk Sings Zygmunt Konieczny's Songs

★★★★✰

   The modern song genre has its roots in romantic culture. The song, as a dramatic narrative blending lyrics and music into a complete theatrical spectacle, became a new type of performing art. This was both a continuation of folk narrative traditions and the establishment of new directions in national musical culture. The era of national schools encompassed all kinds of music, from orchestral to stage, but it was the song that remained the most popular Romantic means of artistic expression. Romanticism in Poland was closely related to the aspirations of rebuilding an independent state. While in many European cultures much of Romantic songwriting focused on sentimental subjects, Polish poems and songs dealt with the most serious existential and social issues. This profound approach remained a permanent feature of many Polish songwriters well into the 20th century.
   This phenomenon also influenced popular songs with artistic ambitions. For this reason, what corresponded to the genre of the French chanson or the Russian romance was defined in Polish culture during the second half of the 20th century as "sung poetry" (poezja śpiewana). As a result, the Polish equivalent of the chanson genre spans three distinct categories: songs performed by bards, sometimes referred to as piosenka autorska (author's song); songs composed to existing poetic works, known as poezja śpiewana (sung poetry) or piosenka poetycka (poetic song); and piosenka aktorska (acting song), performed as a short dramatic act. In the 1960s, sung poetry became a fully-fledged field of artistic expression which, thanks to its symbolic and metaphorical content, could bypass the restrictions of political censorship. This also applied to other genres where a poetic text allowed a certain freedom of expression; similar mechanisms operated in many autocracies. Polish culture produced many extraordinary performers of this genre, including Czesław Niemen and Marek Grechuta, alongside the most revered and iconic figure of the movement, Ewa Demarczyk.

Ewa Demarczyk sings Zygmunt Konieczny's songs (1967)

   Ewa Demarczyk was an actress and a singer, a performer of an artistically demanding repertoire based on a selection of the finest Polish and European poetry. Her name became famous through a series of songs written by Zygmunt Konieczny to the words of 20th-century Polish poets. The performances of these songs won awards at the most significant festivals in Poland, paving the way for her debut album—an emblematic and radiant artistic statement. Released in 1967, Ewa Demarczyk śpiewa piosenki Zygmunta Koniecznego (Ewa Demarczyk Sings Zygmunt Konieczny's Songs) brought her instant success. The album's black-and-white, posterized cover photo initiated a series of records that unified popular music with deeper existential, moral, and historiosophic themes. As Juliusz Kydryński stated in the sleeve notes, her position as a truly great artist “is confirmed by her inability to make compromises, to do things the easy way. She is demanding of herself and the public as well.” The critic then added: “She always takes the risk: reaches for the top. She is audacious and at the same time extremely hard-working. Perhaps this is why she always wins.”
   Her debut LP was a significant and complex recital of songs based on poems by Miron Białoszewski, Bolesław Leśmian, Julian Tuwim, Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, and others. The accompaniments were recorded by Zygmunt Konieczny's instrumental ensemble and the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Stefan Rachoń.
   Brave, dramatic interpretations turn these songs into modernistic mini-theatrical performances rather than typical popular music. The distinct sound of her voice and her unique means of interpretation turned these recordings into a benchmark for many subsequent albums, extending well beyond her immediate genre. Within Polish musical culture, the release became a momentous event; it has been reissued at least 11 times, bridging the generation gap and defining the context for the poetic song movement. While four stars would be objective from a purely technical standpoint, from the perspective of Polish culture, the album undoubtedly deserves a full five stars. Ultimately, I propose a rating of four and a half stars, acknowledging that even such a score cannot fully capture the monumental importance of this album at that specific historical moment and place on the European map.

Maurice Ravel plays and conducts his own works

★★★✰

   Maurice Ravel's Bolero occupies an unquestionable place in the history of music as the most famous and indeed one of the most outstanding works of the early twentieth century. Despite the apparent simplicity of form and content, this work has everything that characterizes the final break with 19th-century music and sets new directions in symphonic music. The Bolero effect, as well as the music for Daphnis and Chloe, were the result of the composer's talent and sonic sensitivity. His achievements in the field of orchestration, however, changed the approach to instrumentation and harmonics, and as a result had an impact on later symphonic music, and indirectly also on the shaping of modern jazz harmonics. Ravel's Bolero is in the repertoire of every symphony orchestra, not to mention hundreds of more or less simplified or complicated popular, rock and jazz arrangements, to mention the excellent recording by Jacques Loussier, a pianist known for his jazz remakes of Bach's music, but also many other composers. Therefore, it is particularly important to know Ravel's interpretation of this work.

   Bolero was Ravel’s last ballet music. It was commissioned by famous dancer Ida Rubinstein who premiered this ballet November 22, 1928 in Paris Opéra in choreography by Bronislava Nijinska. The conductor of the first performance was Walter Straram. After the premiere Ravel was informed about an unknown woman, who was heard screaming Au fou, Au fou! (Madman! Madman!), Ravel replied: That lady… she understood. The idea of this work was unusual. First, whom Ravel revealed it was his friend and music critic Gustave Samazeuilh.  Composer said he promised ballet music for Ida Rubinstein. Playing melody with one finger Ravel asked: Don’t you think that has an insistent quality?And then he said about the idea of a new work: I’m going to try to repeat it a number of times without any development, gradually increasing the orchestra as best I can. He composed this work in a considerably short four months period July through October 1928.
 

Maurice Ravel – Bolero (1930)

   First working title of the new work was Fandango, but when composer realized that fandango's characteristic acceleration would be contradictory to his idea, he changed the title to Bolero. As consequently this was made, the work is a magnificent orchestral crescendo increasing tension only through orchestration. Bolero shortly became the most famous of his works. Ravel was not convinced about the value and musical potential of this “experiment”. In an interview for The Daily Telegraph he stated: I am particularly desirous there should be no misunderstanding about this work. It constitutes an experiment in a very special and limited direction and should not be suspected of aiming at achieving other or more than it actually does. Nevertheless, Bolero is his most frequently performed composition.
   Almost immediately Bolero appeared in the symphonic repertoire. Less than a year after the ballet premiere, November 14, 1929 Bolero was played as a concert performance by the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Two months later, on January 11, 1939 Orchester des Concerts Lamoureux conducted by composer gave Bolero the European concert premiere in Paris. And two days after this premiere Piero Coppola recorded a World premiere recording of Bolero with Grand Orchestre Symphonique du Gramophone. This recording was made onstage at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. Later, but still in January 1930 Ravel recorded his Bolero for Polydor conducting the same Orchester des Concerts Lamoureux. Three months later, on April 30, Serge Koussevitzky recorded Bolero with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. With these renditions, the position of Bolero as concert work was firmly established.

Maurice Ravel — Bolero (rec.1930)

   Ravel’s recording shows some significant features we have to consider trying to catch the composer's idea. First of all he is executing the whole performance almost in metronomic steady tempo. General change of dynamics works as a wide growing crescendo built by volume of sound and articulation but the main factor of change is timbre of instruments, which is also connected with articulation and sound expression. There were some doubts if Ravel was the only conductor and interpreter of his work. It is true Ravel called for some help from conductor Albert Wolff, but this was only technical assistance as rehearsal conductor. In spite of some writers looking for sensation, Ravel was a competent conductor, and pianist. Pressed by Turnabout album of Ravels historic performances includes orchestral recording of Bolero conducted by Ravel and three piano works played by composer: La Vallee Des Cloches, Chansons Madecasses with singer Madeleine Grey and Pavane Pour pour une infante defunte. Despite some technical imperfections, this recording can be confidently recommended to anyone, and for those interested in Ravel's work, it is a must-have.

Silbermann Organ of Dresden Cathedral

★★★★✰

   Dresden is a city of radiating artistic culture, literature and music. Among many cultural achievements, the city on the Elbe could boast of an extraordinary organ tradition. It is worth remembering that Dresden, as the capital of Saxony, was one of the most important musical centers of its time. Heinrich Schütz spent his entire creative life in Dresden - from 1615 to 1672, educating many generations of composers who had a significant impact on the development of the musical culture of the 17th century. One who created strong base for musical culture of this city was organ builder Gottfried Silbermann, who was eminent organ masters of the late Baroque. He built in Dresden four instruments: the Sophienkirche, Hofkapelle des Residenzschlosses, Frauenkirche and unexampled organ in Katholische Hofkirche, which was the last instrument designed by the master. 
   The construction of Silberman’s last instrument was completed in 1755, two years after his death by his students and associates Zacharias Hildebrandt and his son Johann Gottfried Hildebrandt. Originally, Silbermann planned 66 registers, eventually the instrument had 47 registers on 3 manuals and pedal and 3000 pipes. In 1944, the organ was hidden in the monastery of St. Marienstern, thanks to which the pipework, the action and the console survived the British bombing of Dresden on February 13, 1945. The organ case was destroyed, carved wood prospectus and big parts of wind supply were lost. In 1963-1971, this monument of organ building has been restored by Jehmlich Company.

Herbert Tachezi an der Silbermannorgel vol.1 (1986)

   Exceptional instrument requires great artist who is able not only to present the instrument's unique features, but also can create  interpretations of the best works of the era and build a recital adequate to the quality of unique instrument. The Dresden Cathedral Silbermanorgan was recorded many times. One of most significant session took place a year before the 300th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach's birth. The Viennese organist Herbert Tachezi (1930-2016), who has  recorded a set of works by the great composer on the organ of the Dresden Cathedral. The session was co-produced by two labels from the western and eastern parts of the then divided Germany - Teldec and Eterna. As a result, two albums in Direct Metal Mastering technology were published: in 1985 two LPs were released under the label Teldec (BRD) and a year later under the label Eterna (GDR). Both labels also released CDs - Teldec in 1985 and Eterna in 1989.

   The program included a selection of Bach's most famous organ compositions, from the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor BWV 565 to the Passacaglia in C Minor BWV 582. Between these two pillars of the repertoire of each organist, Tachezi placed the Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major BWV 552 and Prelude (Fantasy) and Fugue in G Minor BWV 542. This choice may seem too obvious - it contains the most appreciated, most spectacular works in organ literature, but after listening to the album, it turns out to be extremely accurate from an artistic point of view. By linking these works, Tachezi was able to demonstrate the depth and space of the sound of the instrument and the resonance interior in which it was built, while creating a philosophically and aesthetically coherent program. The majestic Prelude in E-flat Major, which, according to Schweitzer, is an image of divine power, and the corresponding triple Fugue, which is a representation of the Holy Trinity, are the only prelude and fugue for organ published by Bach during his lifetime. They form the frame for the third issue of Clavier-Übung - a collection with a clear religious and semantic plan, which is recognized by all significant musicologists writing on Bach's organ literature. As a result, this program allowed Herbert Tachezi to build a narrative presenting a close relationship between the top-class organ building achievement and the metaphysical content of Bach's work. It is hard to imagine a better tribute to the music of the great Leipzig cantor.