Anna Radziejewska - Paderewski: Songs

Title: Paderewski: Songs Artist: Anna Radziejewska Release Date: 2007 Label: Dux Records Duration: 58:22 Album Type(s): composition (work) description, lyrics/libretto UPCs: 675754003654, 5902547005850 Genre: Vocal Music Total Copies: 0 Members Wishing: 0 Number of Discs/SwapaCD Credits: 1

1. Songs (4) Op. 7
   - Gdy ostatnia róza zwiedla (The Days of Roses)
2. Songs (4) Op. 7
   - Siwy koniu (To My Faithful Steed)
3. Songs (4) Op. 7
   - Szumi w gaju brzezina (The Birch Tree and the Maiden)
4. Songs (4) Op. 7
   - Chlopca mego mi zabrali (My Love is Sent Away)
5. Nie Bede Cie Rwala (Little Lily of the Valley), for voice & piano
6. Songs (6), for voice & piano, Op. 18
   - Polaly sie lzy (My Tears...)
7. Songs (6), for voice & piano, Op. 18
   - Piosnka dudarza (The Piper's Song)
8. Songs (6), for voice & piano, Op. 18
   - Moja pieszczotka (My Own Sweet Maiden)
9. Songs (6), for voice & piano, Op. 18
   - Nad woda wielka i czysta (Above the Vast Clear Waterspace)
10. Songs (6), for voice & piano, Op. 18
    - Tylem wytrwal (So much I've Suffered)
11. Songs (6), for voice & piano, Op. 18
    - Gdybym sie zmienil (Could I Be Changed)
12. Dans le désert, musical tableau in toccata form for piano, Op. 15
13. Songs (12) of Catulle Mendès, for voice & piano, Op. 22
    - Dans la forêt
14. Songs (12) of Catulle Mendès, for voice & piano, Op. 22
    - Ton coeur est d'or pur
15. Songs (12) of Catulle Mendès, for voice & piano, Op. 22
    - Le ciel est très bas
16. Songs (12) of Catulle Mendès, for voice & piano, Op. 22
    - Naguère
17. Songs (12) of Catulle Mendès, for voice & piano, Op. 22
    - Le jeune pâtre
18. Songs (12) of Catulle Mendès, for voice & piano, Op. 22
    - Elle marche d'un pas distrait
19. Songs (12) of Catulle Mendès, for voice & piano, Op. 22
    - La jeune nonne
20. Songs (12) of Catulle Mendès, for voice & piano, Op. 22
    - Viduité
21. Songs (12) of Catulle Mendès, for voice & piano, Op. 22
    - Lune froide
22. Songs (12) of Catulle Mendès, for voice & piano, Op. 22
    - Querelleuse
23. Songs (12) of Catulle Mendès, for voice & piano, Op. 22
    - L'amour fatal
24. Songs (12) of Catulle Mendès, for voice & piano, Op. 22
    - L'ennemie

Under the category of composers that would have been familiar to our grandparents (or great-grandparents) but are mostly forgotten today falls Ignace Jan Paderewski, touring virtuoso, Polish political activist, and composer of moderate gifts. The varied origins of the old editions used in these performances attest to Paderewski's international popularity; they came from Berlin, Paris, and New York, but not from Poland, where Paderewski was ironically not so well known, at least as a musician. Despite his nationalist orientation, the songs of Paderewski collected here (dating from the early 1880s to the early 1900s) do not have a strongly Polish flavor. Indeed, not all of them are in the Polish language; half the album consists of settings of French texts, and most of those are by one Catulle Mendès, who set himself the task of imitating other authors such as Germany's Heinrich Heine (which works pretty well) and England's Algernon Charles Swinburne (which is less successful). The songs are a very mixed bag, but they're worth hearing for devotees of the national schools for the hints of contemporary styles that seep through, and they're given performances of absolute conviction by mezzo-soprano Anna Radziejewska. Of the earlier group, the most successful are the Six Songs, Op. 18, to texts by Polish Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz, where Paderewski's active piano accompaniments (these are very much songs by a piano virtuoso) fit the sweeping lyrics ("My tears dropt, pure and profuse/I wept.../Over my youth, mountain-minded, fountaining folly/Over my mature years, beaten years, years of defeat"). As a song composer, Paderewski seems to have gained the confidence that leads to formal freedom in his later years, and the selection of poets in the French-language songs, including Baudelaire, is intriguing in itself. Those who do not speak French or Polish should note that texts for the French-language songs are given only in those two languages; the Polish-language songs are translated into English in the booklet (but not French). Especially with the Mendès text experiment, the album is worthwhile as a lens on interntional musico-poetic tastes at the end of the nineteenth century. ~ James Manheim, All Music Guide

Name Credits Adam Asnyk Text Anna Radziejewska Mezzo-Soprano (Vocal) Constance Bache Text Translation Dorota Tarnowska-Antosik Digital Editing Malgorzata Polanska Recording Supervision, Engineer Marcin Targonski Consultant Mariusz Rutkowski Piano Michal Kubicki Liner Note Translation Rafal Dymerski Layout Design Tadeusz Malachowski Cover Art Tomasz Jez Liner Notes