Paderewski’s Symphony, a full instrumentation!

The monumental Symphony in B minor by Ignacy Jan Paderewski, created in 1908,

used to be a success in the USA and later in Europe for a short time. After that, it was forgotten for many years.

Some philharmonic orchestras started to play the Symphony in the second half of the twentieth century. Two long play records were created. They were not perfect though, because the recordings didn’t include bass sarrusophones, as conceived by the composer. Sarrusophones are wind instruments and couldn’t be found in Europe then, as far as we know.

Just a couple of years ago, a prominent conductor and teacher, Professor Bohdan Boguszewski from Szczecin in Poland, when preparing to record the Symphony in B minor for DUX recording company, in the wake of the „Sacrum Non Profanum” festival he had organized before, found out that the American musical instruments collector Richard Meek owned a sarrusophone. After that, he found an American fagottist Richard Bobo, playing in two symphonic orchestras, who agreed to record all three sarrusophone parts. The wise specialists from DUX Records put these parts together with the recording of the whole Symphony, as performed by the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra under Professor Boguszewski. It’s worth noting that Lviv is the first place where the Symphony was performed for a Polish audience. The organ part was recorded using the famous organ in Oliwa, since the Lviv Philharmony only has an electric organ.

The result is exceptional music, and an incredible recording. The Lviv Phipharmonic Orchestra plays wonderfully, and the conductor is in full control of the thick fabric of sound. He also succeeds in keeping the sound narration fluent and in providing great expression to the tragical violent theme, which is represented by the sarrusophones, and to the happy theme of hope and victory, echoing the Polish national anthem. This theme gave the Symphony its title, Polonia.

This recording shows that the colorful and  meaningful Symphony in B minor by Paderewski deserves a prominent place in the musical literature of its era, and the CD itself is exceptional in Polish or even world discography.