Irena Kalinowska-Grohs, Barbara Pakura - Brzeziński, Szulc: Violin Sonatas (2013) CD-Rip

Brzezinski's best work is undoubtedly his violin sonata - a work of searing expressiveness and emotional turbulence, especially in the central adagio which, towards the end, seems to paraphrase the lovely cantilena of Max Bruch's Adagio Appassionato op.57.

The sonata by Brzezinski's contemporary and friend Józef Szulc (the Polish spelling of the German name 'Schultz') is his only known work in this or any genre. According to the booklet notes, it "lies on the border of light music and classical" (sic), but a rather sniffy view like this does not stand up well to scrutiny, even if the second half of the work does not quite replicate the poetic heights of the first. A piano pupil of Paderewski and Moszkowski, not to mention a composition student of Noskowski and Massenet, Szulc was, despite his neglect, well trained. Indeed, the passion and imagination, breadth and depth of the sonata betoken a musical mind of definite originality - one that is moreover simply too tunefully approachable for some academics who write liner-notes.

Both sonatas call for a violinist who has sensitivity and technical prowess in equal measure, and Irena Kalinowska-Grohs fits the bill nicely. Barbara Pakura has a little less work to do in the Szulc, but her delivery of the piano contribution to the two sonatas seems to feed off Kalinowska-Grohs, although in the solo piano recital she does seem a little more reticent.