Topic: Paderewski's Manru

[Maciek]

Well, I think it's about time we brought some life into the Opera and Vocal room.

I'm planning on purchasing Ignacy Jan Paderewski's opera Manru. There's only one recording in existence, AFAIK (please correct me if I'm wrong):



Has anyone heard this? What do you think of it?

I generally like Paderewski as a composer (his songs, miniatures, the Piano Concerto and Polish Fantasy; I'm not much of a fan of the Symphony though) and the snippets I've heard of Manru were quite interesting...

Maciek

[knight66]

Much as I would like to contribute to this first thread in my favourite room, the opera is a new one on me and I know nothing of it other than what you write.

I had a friend, now dead, whose father was a Polish diplomat and Paderewski sat her on his knee as a little girl and helped her to play the piano. But this bit of information does not take us far with the thread I am afraid.

Mike

[Maciek]

Not true. It simply means we should take the topic in a different direction.

I once met his granddaughter. Or someone else somehow closely related to him. The lady was over 90 years old and that was about 10 years ago. Well, maybe met is too strong a word. I saw her from a relatively close distance and heard her speak (my school was named after Paderewski and they invited her over for the naming ceremony).

Maciek

[knight66]

Clearly he was a remarkable man....compare his education and broad cultural background and achievements to the sort of politicos we endure now.

Mike

[carlos]

I've a polish CD with all his violin and piano works,
including a beautiful full sonata op.13 (nobody ever plays
it) plus his Allegro de concerto for piano and orch. Also
have an awfully difficult piano sonata. All is very good stuff.

[Maciek]

Who is playing the Sonata, Carlos? I think I need to get that disc!

[carlos]

It's from an old LP. Player was Andrei Stefanski and it's
from 1960. I don't know if it is on CD. Also have a short
Krakovian Phantasy. The sonata op.21 is a big,romantic
piece and I doubt anybody plays it outside Poland. As I've
said, is terribly hard.

[Maciek]

Actually, there's this this recording by Barbara Trojanowska (violin) and Elzbieta Tyszecka (piano) but I've heard them play other stuff and they were really unexceptional (and the reviews were bad too). And the running time of the disc is only 39 minutes! I'm attaching the (unattractive) CD cover (sorry for the quality - I "stole" it from an auction site).

So too bad the recording you mentioned is probably hard to get...

But right now I've discovered that Konstanty Andrzej Kulka has also recorded it (on CD). Now, as I've said before, I find Kulka's playing too automatic - his intonation is perfect but I think he just doesn't care for color at all (or maybe he has a bad violin?). But I'd be willing to try this one out. I don't mind his colorless playing when he's doing virtuoso repertoire (he is usually so fast I don't notice the things that usually irritate me). Here's the cover:


DUX Warszawa 2002 [DUX0363A05053]
Sonata in a minor op. 13, Allegro de concert, Melody op. 16 no. 2
Konstanty Andrzej Kulka (violin), Waldemar Malicki (piano)

Maciek

[Maciek]

(In the meantime, I've learned of even more Paderewski's violin music recordings but I'll leave that for another time...)

Interesting bit of trivia I learned this weekend: Manru is (so far) the only Polish opera to have ever been staged at the MET.

Maciek