It’s good to see some neglected music by this Polish master taken out and given a fresh airing now and again, and three quarters of this disc makes splendid listening indeed. The Concert Overture must surely be the finest piece of its type that Richard Strauss never wrote. The music is wholly derivative but great fun nevertheless. The two song cycles, beautifully rendered by Zofia Kilanowicz, really ought to be standard concert fare by now. They feature haunting, exotic melodies and the most delicate, highly colored accompaniments, and what a marvelous complement they would make to yet another performance of, say, Strauss’ Four Last Songs or similar repertoire. Conductor Leon Botstein’s performance of the Second Symphony comes into direct competition with Antal Dorati’s more disciplined (strings especially), shapely, and rhythmically taut version on Decca. Inspired by Beethoven’s last piano sonata (as was Prokofiev’s formally identical Second Symphony), this work consists of an introductory quick (-ish) movement followed by an extensive theme and variations finale, in this case topped off by a whopper of an orchestral fugue. Not only do Dorati and the Detroit Symphony outplay Botstein and the London Philharmonic, but they’re better recorded too. Telarc’s sonics have an “empty hall” quality that sacrifices clarity in favor of a reverberant, artificially deep sound stage. Don’t get me wrong: the performance of the symphony isn’t bad, and neither is the sound as such. However, if the Second Symphony offers the principal attraction, then you’d do well to seek out Dorati (last available on a Decca Double). For the other works, this disc will do nicely.
