Rajski

Two musical orders meet in the programme of this album, both with reference to the most broadly conceived music history and to the universe of Krzysztof Pendereckis output. Apart from the opera, which holds its own separate place, they are the two largest-scale formal orders in the musical art: those of the symphony and the concerto, which represent two fundamental ideas: respectively, those of co-operation and of competition. Krzysztof Pendereckis symphonic writing is one of the most important elements of his output as a composer, and possibly the most fascinating one.

Get yourself vaccinated in time! The rococo red Mozart flood is looming on the horizon. In jubilee year it will bring us a plague of catchy tunes, also known as earworms, which you are advised to immunise yourself against to save your ear passages from clogging up. Particular risk of infection is expected from Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik K 525. It is as if the veins of a well-preserved mummy long frozen in glacier ice were to be refilled with living blood and spirits and return to life from eternal cryofication. At one point Mozart jumps so cheekily from G major to E flat major that one cannot help laughing.

Violinist/composer Karol Lipinski (1790-1861) has been dubbed the “Polish Paganini”. Is that nickname a compliment or something of a slight? The two men were contemporaries who at first meeting were mutual admirers and even colleagues in presenting double concerts; later, their partnership soured, and now Lipinski’s soubriquet might sound more like second-best than a mark of distinction. And although Lipinski’s contemporaries left records of their admiration for his performing skills (among his fans were Berlioz, Schumann, and Wagner), we can only directly judge his merit by his compositions.