Zarebski : Intégrale de l'œuvre

Description

Juliusz Zarebski achieved a certain posthumous recognition through an absolute masterpiece, the vast Quintet for Piano and Strings, which he completed in 1885. He barely had time to premiere it in Brussels before death took him in his thirty-second year, three years less of earthly life than Mozart had. Born four years after Chopin closed his eyes, trained in Vienna where he discovered Mozart, Beethoven, and especially Brahms, his piano is infinitely open to the West; his status as a virtuoso compels him to write pieces for the salon or the stage, but soon the bellicose harmony, a diabolical fantasy that comes from Liszt, whom he admired, frequented, and impressed, changed his keyboard, the most modern known in the 70s and 80s in Europe, precisely with that of Liszt in his final years, who would survive him by just a few months. For beneath the seemingly anecdotal, benign appearance of these brief pieces, one of the most singular geniuses of Romanticism at its peak weaves a sumptuous work, revolutionary in its own way more through discourse than harmony. Behind these virtuosic, brilliant but especially acerbic and mocking pieces, which play the ingenues to better grate, Zarebski invents a new pianistic language of which Szymanowski will make good use. We finally grasp the full measure thanks to the dazzling and informed playing of Piotr Salajczyk, who is joined for the four-hand pieces by the ten fingers of Maria Szwajger-Kulakowsa, and by the perfect edition from Dux, which presents the entirety of the keyboard works in chronological order of composition. Thus, we see Zarebski's art form, grow, and assert itself, and when the Tale of Opus 27 resonates, where the shadow of a polonaise haunts the horizon, when all of Poland resonates in Opus 23, we suddenly grasp the unique stature of this genius (Discophilia - Artalinna.com). (Jean-Charles Hoffelé)