Szymanowski's

Szymanowski's "Variations" don't completely fit, either, but, under the circumstances, it's notable how the end of the piece suddenly turns towards what, in pop music, is fertile defiant break-up territory.

Archive 2009-04-01 Matthew Guerrieri 2009

Szymanowski's "Variations" don't completely fit, either, but, under the circumstances, it's notable how the end of the piece suddenly turns towards what, in pop music, is fertile defiant break-up territory.

I would've made you leave your key Matthew Guerrieri 2009

Staging in the final act takes some bizarre turns, but anything less would hardly flatter Szymanowski's legacy.

Passion and Pyrotechnics Fit for a King Jonathan Blitzer 2011

Madrid: In the final scene of "King Roger," Karol Szymanowski's enchanting if sometimes befuddling masterpiece, the eponymous king stands half-naked, heaving with cathartic sobs, as he sings the opera's final lines.

Passion and Pyrotechnics Fit for a King Jonathan Blitzer 2011

It is Polish composer Karol Szymanowski's birthday and I wanted to appear very erudite by starting off the morning with an aria.

Morning music: Bodies in urban spaces Melissa Bell 2010

Kraggerud's fabulous playing in Janácek's Sonata made Szymanowski's set of Myths for violin and piano seem decorative and lightweight, while Sobotka was impressive in the song cycle Slopiewnie, but much less so in the better-known Songs of a Fairy Princess, where she could not disguise the sameness of the settings.

Szymanowski Focus 2010

Szymanowski's musical personality refused to come into focus here, though had the programme included something placing these works in the context of his whole output, some in the audience at least might have gone away more enlightened.

Szymanowski Focus 2010

The lineup of soloists was impressive: the programmes had been planned by the pianist Piotr Anderszewski, who, as well as playing solo piano works, accompanied the violinist Henning Kraggerud and the soprano Iwona Sobotka, while the Belcea Quartet gave typically accomplished performances of Szymanowski's two string quartets and Bartók's First Quartet.

Szymanowski Focus 2010

It ought to have been a feast of sensually textured and richly coloured music, especially as most of the pieces were from the second decade of the 20th century, when Szymanowski's style was at its most opulent and adventurous.

Szymanowski Focus 2010

Janác˘ek's In the Mists, given a vivid, highly wrought performance by Anderszewski, proved far more compelling than his equally fine account of Szymanowski's Metopes.

Szymanowski Focus 2010