Pöntinen plays SZYMANOWSKI

Roland Pöntinen’s recital illustrates graphically three distinct sides of Szymanowski’s multifaceted genius. First, a selection from the 22 Mazurkas which are like Chopin seen through a distorting mirror while at the same time reflecting the composer’s love of the Tatra district of his native Poland. Second, his turning away from heavy German influences to an ornate impressionism capturing his devotion to Mediterranean myths and legends (Métopes and Masques). And finally, in the Third Sonata, a close amalgam of influences, notably Scriabin (the more problematic Sonatas Nos 6-10) and Stravinsky. All this is a far cry from Szymanowski’s first style in, say, his Op 1 Preludes or Op 4 Etudes, or in the massive Second Sonata (sufficiently daunting to have alarmed Arthur Rubinstein who gave its world premiere). Here the influences remain but are fragmented into a kaleidoscope of glancing lights and colours, creating ferocious aural and technical demands. Certainly it needs a very special pianist to embrace fully such intricacy, and Pöntinen is more than equal to his task. He is as memorably lucid and evocative in the Sonata’s central Adagio mesto as he is commanding in the finale’s formidably long fugal subject. Try the concluding Vivace assai in Masques and you will hear a total assurance repeated in the Mazurkas – never more so than in the other-wordly quality of Op 62. Piotr Anderszewski’s Award-winning disc of much of the same repertoire (Virgin, 9/05) and Marc-André Hamelin’s complete set of the Mazurkas (Hyperion, 9/03) provide dazzling competition and if Pöntinen is not quite their equal he runs them remarkably close on this finely recorded album. (Bryce Morrison / Gramophone)