Ignace Paderewski was a figure who would have been well known a century ago, to Polish audiences, American ones, and quite a few in between. The great virtuoso drew huge crowds in North America as a pianist and became the first prime minister of independent modern Poland. He might or might not have played the two early works for piano and orchestra recorded on this album, but they're all but forgotten today, and they shed light on the growth of this important and interesting figure from the age of late Romantic concert life ...
Read More
Ignace Paderewski was a figure who would have been well known a century ago, to Polish audiences, American ones, and quite a few in between. The great virtuoso drew huge crowds in North America as a pianist and became the first prime minister of independent modern Poland. He might or might not have played the two early works for piano and orchestra recorded on this album, but they're all but forgotten today, and they shed light on the growth of this important and interesting figure from the age of late Romantic concert life. The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 17, was written in the 1880s, when Paderewski was a student of the Viennese pedagogue Theodor Leschetizky. The work could hardly receive a better performance than it does here from American pianist Kevin Kenner and the somewhat cumbersomely named Orchestra of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic in Bialystok. It's derivative of Chopin in many places and of other composers occasionally, yet it has a directness and a feel for the dramatic stroke that...
Read Less
