This recording of orchestral works by Karol Szymanowski form part of the Polish Music series on Chandos, and is performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Edward Gardner. These performers have impressed in their Lutoslawski survey, which is part of the same series; in a review of volume 1, Gramophone described them as a veritable ‘dream team’.
　　
　　Symphony No. 2 by Szymanowski is a work of great power and ingenuity, with many passionate and varied contrasts in its use of solo instruments. Composed in 1909 – 10, it is widely considered the greatest orchestral work of the composer’s early period, not to mention one of the most important Polish symphonic compositions to date. Szymanowski himself thought very highly of it, and in August 1911 wrote in a letter to his fellow Polish composer Zdzislaw Jachimecki: ‘How happy I am that this Symphony impressed you as I had wanted. I will frankly admit that I feel somewhat proud about its value. In some miraculous way I have managed during my work on it to resist all those garish phantoms which seduce “young and inexperienced” artists and to produce pure and uncompromising beauty in the way I personally understand it.’
　　
　　
曲目
01 – Concert Overture, Op. 12
02 – I. Moderato – Tempo comodo
03 – II. Andante molto sostenuto
04 – III. Allegro non troppo, ma agitato ed ansioso
05 – I. Allegro moderato – Grazioso
06 – II. Theme. Lento –
07 – II. Variation 1_ L’istesso tempo –
08 – II. Variation 2_ L’istesso tempo –
09 – II. Variation 3_ Scherzando. Molto vivace –
10 – II. Variation 4_ Tempo di gavotte –
11 – II. Variation 5_ Tempo di minuetto –
12 – II. Variation 6_ Vivace e capriccioso –
13 – II. Fuga