The distinguished Swedish pianist of Polish descent, Peter Jablonski, has for many years been a highly successful champion of Polish music on the international stage. He is particularly associated with the world premiere of Wojciech Kilar’s Piano Concerto in 1997, a work dedicated to him by the composer. Having in his extensive repertoire works by Fryderyk Chopin, Karol Szymanowski, Grażyna Bacewicz, Witold Lutosławski and André Tchaikowsky, whose music has only recently been brought back from oblivion, Jablonski now turns to a work that is rarely performed: Henryk Melcer-Szczawiński’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor (1894). The work, which won a prize at the Anton Rubinstein International Composition Competition in Berlin in 1895, having been submitted under the title Concertstück, presents the soloist with formidable technical challenges. The introduction of quasi-folk motifs, together with a majestic monumentality radiating strength and optimism, lends the Concerto a distinctly national character. It may therefore be assumed that, much like the works of Henryk Sienkiewicz, it was written “to lift the nation’s spirit”. Melcer's work, together with the concertos of Aleksander Zarzycki, Władysław Żeleński, Zygmunt Stojowski and Ignacy Jan Paderewski, appears to bridge Chopin’s legacy and the pianistic style of Karol Szymanowski.
Melcer’s Piano Concerto will be preceded by the overture to Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La forza del destino (1862). The second half of the concert will feature Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 3 in E flat major ‘Rhenish’, Op. 97 (1850). Inspired by the beauty of the Rhineland, this five-movement work combines nobility of expression with a joyful spirit. Owing to its vigorous, almost euphoric optimism, Schumann’s symphonic language may be seen as kindred in spirit to the musical rhetoric of Melcer’s Piano Concerto.
Grzegorz Zieziula
