The newest record by Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra, this time featuring Symphony in C minor, Op. 60, and Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 32 by Franz Xaver Scharwenka is about to hit the musical shelves. The album was recorded by the Poznań ensemble under Łukasz Borowicz with Jonathan Powell, the British virtuoso renowned for unconventional repertoire, both Romantic, and contemporary. It was released by the German label cpo, a few months prior to the centenary of Franz Xaver Scharwenka’s death, which falls on 8 December 2024.

It is yet another monographic album prepared by the Poznań Philharmonic that contains works by the Szamotuły-born composer. The first, recorded by pianist Francois Xavier Poizat with the same ensemble conducted by Łukasz Borowicz, and published by Naxos, was released in 2011. It contained Piano Concerto No. 4 in F minor, Op. 82, Overture to the opera Mataswintha, Cello Sonata in E minor, Op. 46 (mov. 2 Andante religioso), as well as a selection of Tańce polskie (Polish Dances).

Franz Xaver Scharwenka was born to a Polish-German family in Szamotuły, where he spent the first years of his life. This is also where he took his first musical steps. When he was fifteen, the Scharwenkas moved to Berlin, where Franz Xaver completed middle school and began musical studies. He went down in history not only as an illustrious composer and pianist, but also as educator and organiser of musical life. In 1881, he founded Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin, and between 1891 and 1898 ran Scharwenka Music School in New York City. Revered throughout America, he had his only opera, Mataswintha, staged at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. He also wrote Methodik des Klavierspiels, which was published in Leipzig in 1907. A friend of Franz Liszt’s (to whom he dedicated the very Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor just recorded by the Poznań musicians), he also enjoyed recognition from Johannes Brahms.

Even though Scharwenka completed work on Symphony in C minor, Op. 60 in the early-1882, it was only almost two years later, on 1 December 1883, that the work had its premiere at the Königlichen Akademie der Künste in Copenhagen. Signale für Musikalische Welt wrote at the time: … in general, the piece was received favourably. In particular, the beautiful Scherzo and Adagio.

Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor was the composition to have paved the way for Scharwenka to world recognition. Initially, a two-movement fantasia, it sounded in its present, three-movement form for the first time on 24 April 1877 in Bremen. After the premiere performance, a reviewer wrote that the piece, “just like Chopin’s works, possesses the virtue of pure piano quality, while being splendidly instrumented to boot (…).”