Szymanowski - Nocturne And Tarantella [Krysa/ Tchekina]
Here's a nice disc i picked up, representing most of Szymanowski's works for violin and piano, it's amazing how many similar discs like this are around, and Szymanowski has a certain way with 'ghostly' melodies, tunes that come back to haunt you, very exotic in many ways, sort of like Scriabin but with more dissonance.
Oleh Krysa is Ukrainian, and is 69 years old, he made this recording in 1995, the Pianist on this recording, Tatiana Tchekina is his wife, the recording is quite reverberant, it somewhat gets on your nerves in fortissimos, too bassy and warm, needs to be more clinical, the front cover photo is a pleasing enough picture.
Ever since i first heard the Three Myths Op30, i was hooked on Szymanowski's soundworld, especially the opening 'The Fountain Of Arethusa', but on this listen it's the Nocturne & Tarantella that i was gripped by, the opening Nocturne is similar in nature to 'The Fountain Of Arethusa', probably why i like it so much, it has the Pianist at extremes of the keyboard, bass rumblings with the left hand, punctuated with odd treble tolling in the right [0:00-0:49], while at the same time the violin has a ghostly and eerie sliding around on the strings, a really lovely opening ethereal effect, and right after the violin plays high in the treble [0:53-1:46], very exotic, later the piano clanging in the treble is so effective, while the violin plays lazily [2:32-3:00], love the excellent hard pizzicato strumming from the violin [3:25-3:34], with the piano also playing loud and clangorous in the treble, the opening returns to some degree [4:04+], and the very closing pages are superb, with the violin sounding like pan pipes or something, [5:10-5:33], Szymanowski's a phenomenal master of the mood, and would have made a great film Composer, the following Tarantella is a tour de force, and as the name suggests is a demented dance, lots of squeaks, shrieks, and stamping pizzicato moments, i like the way the violin plays these loud pizzicato outbursts [3:45-3:58], very pointedly done, and again later sounding like some demented lazy woodwind instrument [4:33-4:45], right at the very end the violin slides down the strings to die [5:31-5:38], a clever ending, and a superb piece of music.
Here's the Nocturne & Tarantella played on YouTube by Anita Wasik.
