Wanda Wilkomirska, David Oistrach, Arthur Rubinstein - Szymanowski: Concerto pour violon n° 1 - Symphonie n° 4 - Mythes - Mazurkas (2021)

« Paul and I initiated in Myths and the Concerto a new style, a new way of playing the violin. » Without Paul Kochanski, one of the greatest violinists of his time, Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) would he have written for the instrument, daring these escapes in the high-pitched, these well-known sound effects but which he was the first to use for expressive purposes and integrates in a form as free as it is rigorous? His “impressionism” would then have been limited to the orchestra and the piano, depriving us of these “three poems” (1915) and of this Concerto (1916) which, breaking with traditional virtuosity, is no less a poem - "Symphonic work with solo violin, which has the effect of a concerto". Two incandescent works, Dionysiac or opalescent, of a heady sensuality, inspired by ancient myths and, undoubtedly, by The Night of May, pantheist poem of Tadeusz Micinski where "ignites the fire of love". As war sets Europe ablaze, reclusive in his native Ukrainian mansion, Szymanowski relives his Mediterranean dazzles and remembers all that Diaghilev's musicians revealed to him.

Wanda Wilkomirska, violon
David Oistrakh, violon
Valdimir Yampolski, piano
Arthur Rubinstein, piano
Orchestre Philharmonique de Varsovie
Witold Rowicki, direction
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
Alfred Wallenstein, direction