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It's Forgotten Masterpiece Friday!
The Polish pianist and composer Juliusz Zarębski (1854-1885) is a tragic what-if story: he was a late-bloomer who died young yet managed to leave a few masterful compositions to posterity. He was known throughout Europe as a virtuoso pianist and was said to be Franz Liszt's favorite pupil, but had a late start to composing (his earliest published composition being completed when he was 25) and composed only occasionally until the last two years of his life. It was only in 1883, when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and became too ill to tour as a pianist, that he began to focus on composition, and as a result, fully two-thirds of his compositions date from his last two years.
Zarębski's Piano Quintet, regarded in Poland as his finest work, was both his last composition and his only one that was not for either solo piano or piano four-hands. Zarębski knew even when he began composing it that it would be his last piece, and consciously aimed to make it the capstone of his musical career. Unfortunately it was not to be, at least not for over a century. Much of the music composed in the Russian-occupied part of Poland in the late 19th century was lost in the political turmoil of the era. Zarębski died shortly after completing his Piano Quintet, and it would not be published until 1931. Even after being published, the quintet was not publicly performed for decades. Its earliest known public performance was on Polish radio in 1989, more than a century after its composition. Most performances and recordings have occurred since 2011, the year the quintet was first performed outside Poland.
Since its revival, critics have attempted to compare the Zarębski piano quintet to his contemporaries: Brahms or Liszt or even César Franck. But the piece speaks with Zarębski's own voice throughout, adventurous both in form and harmonic language, from its passionate-yet-subtle opening to its exhilarating finish. The opening movement, lyrical and slightly melancholic, pushes the sonata form almost to its breaking point. After a propulsive first-movement coda, the atmospheric introduction to the slow movement immediately wrong-foots the listener with an unexpected change of key. This material both begins and ends the second movement, as if setting apart the song-like main body as a sort of dream. The third movement is a scherzo in every sense, playing both rhythmically and texturally with a folk-like theme. The last movement starts with an imaginative twist, its opening measures sounding like a repeat of the scherzo that quickly loses momentum. From there, the finale brings the whole piece together, touching on themes from all three previous movements in a kaleidoscopic, exuberant style.
Movements:
I. Allegro
II. Adagio (10:14)
III. Scherzo: Presto (20:31)
IV. Finale: Presto - Allegretto (26:21)
The Polish pianist and composer Juliusz Zarębski (1854-1885) is a tragic what-if story: he was a late-bloomer who died young yet managed to leave a few masterful compositions to posterity. He was known throughout Europe as a virtuoso pianist and was said to be Franz Liszt's favorite pupil, but had a late start to composing (his earliest published composition being completed when he was 25) and composed only occasionally until the last two years of his life. It was only in 1883, when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and became too ill to tour as a pianist, that he began to focus on composition, and as a result, fully two-thirds of his compositions date from his last two years.
Zarębski's Piano Quintet, regarded in Poland as his finest work, was both his last composition and his only one that was not for either solo piano or piano four-hands. Zarębski knew even when he began composing it that it would be his last piece, and consciously aimed to make it the capstone of his musical career. Unfortunately it was not to be, at least not for over a century. Much of the music composed in the Russian-occupied part of Poland in the late 19th century was lost in the political turmoil of the era. Zarębski died shortly after completing his Piano Quintet, and it would not be published until 1931. Even after being published, the quintet was not publicly performed for decades. Its earliest known public performance was on Polish radio in 1989, more than a century after its composition. Most performances and recordings have occurred since 2011, the year the quintet was first performed outside Poland.
Since its revival, critics have attempted to compare the Zarębski piano quintet to his contemporaries: Brahms or Liszt or even César Franck. But the piece speaks with Zarębski's own voice throughout, adventurous both in form and harmonic language, from its passionate-yet-subtle opening to its exhilarating finish. The opening movement, lyrical and slightly melancholic, pushes the sonata form almost to its breaking point. After a propulsive first-movement coda, the atmospheric introduction to the slow movement immediately wrong-foots the listener with an unexpected change of key. This material both begins and ends the second movement, as if setting apart the song-like main body as a sort of dream. The third movement is a scherzo in every sense, playing both rhythmically and texturally with a folk-like theme. The last movement starts with an imaginative twist, its opening measures sounding like a repeat of the scherzo that quickly loses momentum. From there, the finale brings the whole piece together, touching on themes from all three previous movements in a kaleidoscopic, exuberant style.
Movements:
I. Allegro
II. Adagio (10:14)
III. Scherzo: Presto (20:31)
IV. Finale: Presto - Allegretto (26:21)