Joanna Madroszkiewicz, Paul Gulda - Szymanowski: Complete Works for Violin and Piano (2009)

Listeners who love the nearly indescribable music of Karol Szymanowski will surely enjoy this disc collecting his complete works for violin and piano. Everything is here: his Sonata, Op. 9 (which sounds like Debussy with more passion); his Romance, Op. 23 (Scriabin with more sensuality); his Mythes, Op. 30 (Bartók with more tonality); plus his three other violin and piano works. Played with power and sensitivity by violinist Joanna Madroszkiewcis and pianist Paul Gulda, Szymanowski's music comes off as deeply idiosyncratic and totally persuasive. With her formidable technique, intense expressivity, and lively sense of rhythm, Madroszkiewcis is an ideal violinist for this music, while Gulda, with his as accomplished technique and lively sense of rhythm plus his unfailing feel for form, is her ideal partner. Not every listener, not even those already in love with fin de siècle European art music, will go for this disc. For some, the composer's aching sensuality and intense emotionality may be too much. But for listeners who revel in precisely those qualities, this disc will be compulsory listening. Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm's digital sound is clean but evocative, clear but warm, and close but vivid.