This second Warner Classics album from the Polish Orchestra Sinfonia Iuventus sheds light on two of Poland’s greatest composers: Ignacy Jan Paderewski (with a high-energy performance of his famed Piano Concerto in A Minor Op.17 featuring British pianist Jonathan Plowright) and the lesser-known Zygmu
This second Warner Classics album from the Polish Orchestra Sinfonia Iuventus sheds light on two of Poland’s greatest composers: Ignacy Jan Paderewski (with a high-energy performance of his famed Piano Concerto in A Minor Op.17 featuring British pianist Jonathan Plowright) and the lesser-known Zygmunt Stojowski (with the world-premiere recording of his Symphony Rhapsody for piano and orchestra Op. 23).
“Jonathan Plowright shines a powerful light on Paderewski,” Gramophone has enthused of the soloist on this album.
“Paderewski has always fascinated me, not just as a pianist and composer, but also as a humanitarian and great statesman,” says Plowright, who has earned a reputation as a specialist in the music of this dynamic composer-pianist and one-time Polish Prime Minister. “I have loved his music ever since I was a child when I first heard him playing on a recording of piano virtuosi my parents had, and his Nocturne was one of the very first pieces I performed in public.
“His concerto is superbly crafted and deserves to be a regular fixture on the international stage, whilst Stojowski’s music, unjustly neglected these days, is also wonderfully Romantic, influenced as it was by his life long friend, Paderewski.