MIRECKI, WIENIAWSKI • POLISH ROMANTIC SYMPHONIES

[Alan Howe]

Oh, good news!

[Alan Howe]

To get some idea of how important a really good recording of little-played music is, try the anaemic performance of Mirecki's Symphony on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4w-u1b7LII&t=2143s
It's just so tentative and unexciting. In fact it's an apology for a performance - as if all concerned simply don't believe in the music. By comparison, the new Dux recording makes it sound like a minor masterpiece, with one of the most extraordinary, whirlwind finales in the whole 19th century symphonic repertoire.

[Alan Howe]

Here's a shockingly trite and inaccurate review:

Two romantic Polish symphonies are played by the Rubinstein Philharmonic from Lodz, the C minor Symphony by Francizek Mirecki (1791-1862) and the D major Symphony op. 40 by Jozef Wieniawski, a younger brother of violin virtuoso Henryk Wieniawski. It is certainly good to make such works available on a recording, but believe me, one can live reassured and without self-reproach if one has not heard the two works. They are pleasing, solidly crafted as well, but they go in one ear and out the other.  (Dux 1901) – ♪♪♪
https://www.pizzicato.lu/kurzkritiken-short-reviews-by-remy-franck-69/

Well, I don't believe him for one second! I have the opposite problem with the Mirecki - the tunes go in one ear (well both actually!) and resolutely refuse to dislodge themselves from my musical memory! So many ear-worms, it's not true!

[hyperdanny]

I could not agree more! the rewiew not only has an annoyingly snobbish tone, but it is totally off the mark: the Mirecki is excedingly memorable, so much that I had the earworm "problem" with it too, in the beginning.

[Alan Howe]

And this sort of condescending and inaccurate review is actually very damaging. People will read it and never even go near the CD.

[Gareth Vaughan]

How can you write a worthwhile review in 3 sentences? Ridiculous!

[Jonathan]

Indeed, there's short and there's too short!

[Alan Howe]

Having gorged myself for weeks on the Mirecki, I've now turned to the Wieniawski and I must say it's growing on me. Once again, the performance and recording are absolutely top-class and make the best possible case for the music.

The idiom is certainly interesting. It starts in Brahmsian mode, although some of the dissonant clashes in the first movement (as well as in the finale) are beyond anything in Brahms; the brass fanfares are also unusual and in general there's an underlying sense of inspiration derived from folk music. Wagner's definitely in there somewhere too.

Altogether it packs a lot into its 32½ minutes. I'm convinced that overall this CD will turn out to be one of the highlights of the year for us at UC; sadly it will get hardly any attention from mainstream classical music journalism. And while Hurwitz posts his umpteenth video on yet more Bruckner and Mahler which nobody needs, he'll miss this superlative release.

[eschiss1]

I don't have a score or reduction of the Wieniawski symphony so I can't confirm that hypothesis that he used some chords that Brahms never, ever touched^*, but maybe eventually...
^*"Anything in Brahms" covers a lot of territory!

[Ilja]

. And while Hurwitz posts his umpteenth video on yet more Bruckner and Mahler which nobody needs, he'll miss this superlative release.

I don't think that is entirely justified. Sure, he does Bruckner and Mahler, but his channel doesn't claim to be devoted entirely to undiscovered repertoire. Moreover, no one can claim that he ignores it; the guy has been publishing five videos about Tournemire recently and that is about as unsung as they come.

[Alan Howe]

Well, he could still lay off posting about unnecessary Mahler and Bruckner recordings and expand his 19th century horizons a bit. Partially justified, then?

The (brass) dissonances in the first and last movements of the Wieniawski are actually quite startling - I don't recall anything like them in Brahms. They're much more telling in this new Dux recording than in the earlier Acte Préalable alternative. They occur approx. 8 minutes into the first movement - and again just after 4 minutes into the finale.

[eschiss1]

the Tournemire videos- score videos? I know who "made" those (from the Gallica scores and existing recordings, and patient synchronization)- credit to Pranav Ranjit for that...

[Mark Thomas]

Despite the praise heaped upon it here I initially resisted getting this recording because I generally buy only downloads now and already had recordings of both the Mirecki (from YouTube) and the Wieniawski (Acte Prealable recording), which I thought would suffice. I was wrong. My copy arrived from jpc a couple of days ago and it's been played several times since. The Mirecki is a revelation of a performance, punchy and committed, it's difficult to imagine how the work could be more persuasively presented and what an imaginative and individual symphony it is. How anyone could say that it "goes in one ear and out the other" is quite beyond me. Did the reviewer not hear the finale? The performance on YouTube is quite bloodless in comparison. Wieniawski's Symphony is not as ear-grabbing to be sure. It's a good, solid fin de siècle work which certainly comes across here more persuasively than it did in the rather dull Acte Prealable recording, but I don't think it has the individuality which Mirecki's work has in abundance.

[Alan Howe]

Great review, Mark. And entirely correct. The Wieniawski may grow on you...