Search - Sinae Lee :: Karol Szymanowski: The Complete Piano Music (Box Set)

A complete set of Szymanowski's piano music

Amy | 08/04/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Szymanowski himself was evidently aware of the difficulties involved in playing his music, as he tolerated simplifications in performances by Artur Rubinstein. There are no simplifications in Miss Lee's recordings. In the Divine Art set there is no suspicion of this, as each work is presented as a individual musical experience, and there is no doubt that each piece has been as carefully prepared as it would have been had Miss Lee been recording that single work alone. Given the complexity of much of the music, the amount of preparation time which this would have required is daunting to me. Lee deserves our respect for having shown the integrity to approach her Szymanowski project with such painstaking effort and attention to detail. Those unfamiliar with Szymanowski may wonder whether the music will appeal to them and will want to know what his music sounds like. Szymanowski's music is too individual to really sound like that of any other composer, it's hard to try to compare his style to those of other composers. The ones I can compare are Chopin in his early works, Scriabin, in his middle period pieces, with occasional suggestions of the tough, abrasive folk quality of Bartok in his late mazurkas. The nature of the virtuosity required reminds me of the demands of some of Ravel's piano music Gaspard de la Nuit in particular, but these vague comparisons are merely to give readers a sense of the music. Szymanowski's style is unique. If you like to listen to late Romantic piano music or to French composers at the start of the 20th century I think you would enjoy this set."