Press reviews:    RUCH MUZYCZNY NR 15 2005

About the Szymanowski CD
This is an important disc as it features works by Szymanowski, a composer who is still insufficiently known and promoted too rarely, recorded by means of modern technology in the interpretation of outstanding Polish musicians… The youthful Concert Overture is a curiosity... .Maksymiuk and Sinfonia Varsovia bring to the fore all the merits of the piece and are able to prove by their interpretation that it is not a copy of Richard Strauss’s music... but the work of a composer of great individuality… Jakub Jakowicz approaches the Violin Concerto Op.35 differently than his predecessors... he articulates each motif with incredible precision, draws out the high cantilenas and provokes the listener with cascades of double notes. He is very consistent in this type of narration and has found excellent partners in Jerzy Maksymiuk and members of Sinfonia Varsovia. The Fourth Symphony is treated by the pianist Piotr Paleczny andi Maksymiuk as a symphony without the hallmarks of an instrumental concerto. The fantastic rapport between these two musicians was evident in their previous BeArTon recordings of works by Paderewski and Chopin’s Concertos; in this CD – in view of the character of the composition – the unanimity of the soloist and conductor is even more valuable… The sound engineers - Zbigniew Kusiak, Andrzej Lupa and Julita Emanuilov – also deserve words of recognition. Listening to this disc in SACD stereo format demonstrates the beautiful sound of the piano while the meticulously reconstructed space helps one to hear the piano in the polyphonic thicket of the orchestra…

Kacper Miklaszewski