There are two CDs featuring Polish music among the 33 recordings, three per category.
The latest CD recorded by Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski, featuring six of the Twenty Mazurkas Op.50 by Polish composer Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937), alongside Leoš Janáček’s On an Overgrown Path, Book II, and Béla Bartók’s Fourteen Bagatelles Op.6, has been shortlisted in the Piano Category.
The recording was produced by Erato and is distributed by Warner Music Poland. In its review, the Gramophone monthly wrote:
As always, Anderszewski’s focus is astonishing. Whether it be the stinging rhythms of Bartók’s second Bagatelle or the exquisitely graded dynamics of his secretive account of Janáček’s Andante, whether it be the resilience of the quirky gestures in Janáček’s Allegro or the perfect balance of the superimposed voices that weave through the fourth of Szymanowski’s Mazurkas […] the level of detail is apt to leave you speechless.
The CD devoted exclusively to the music of Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969) has been shortlisted in the Concerto Category.
It contains her Concerto for Piano, Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, Music for Strings, Trumpets and Percussion, and Overture, recorded by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Nicholas Collon, and pianists Elisabeth Brauss and Peter Jablonski.
Peter Jablonsky/press materials
Born in 1971 to a Swedish mother and Polish father, Jablonski has been performing music by both Bacewicz and Szymanowski for many years.
The shortlisted CD was released on the Ondine label. The Gramophone monthly described Jablonski as a seasoned Bacewicz crusader. It wrote:
Elisabeth Brauss, Nicholas Collon and the Finnish RSO match him for energy and aplomb. Altogether this is a disc as thought-provoking as it is engaging.
The winners of the 2024 Gramophone Classical Music Awards will be announced on October 2.
Read more about this subject:
(mk/mp)