Music
Sinae Lee
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow
Michael Tumelty
four stars
WHAT is the problem with Szymanowski’s music? Despite consistent championship of the Polish composer’s music, not least by musicians of the calibre and persuasive power of Nicola Benedetti and others in Szymanowski’s Violin Concertos, numerous conductors who have devoted attention to his motley symphonies, groups such as the Royal Quartet who have searched deep into his string quartets, and the magnificent Korean pianist Sinae Lee, who has recorded his entire output for piano on four CDs and who, on Friday, gave an astounding account of a ripe selection of his piano music in the Royal Conservatoire, fame, the real fame that is signalled by a constant presence in the mainstream repertoire, continues frustratingly to elude the music and the man who is, arguably, Poland’s greatest composer since Chopin.
True, the music can be harmonically rich and complex in its textures, but as Sinae Lee demonstrated in four of Szymanowski’s late Mazurkas, the roots of the dance form are there to be heard, providing a link to the familiar. And Lee’s glittering account of the 12 opus 3 Studies, despite the fantastic embroidering of melodic lines and the blurring of some of the boundaries between individual numbers, was no more forbidding than any other high-speed musical portraiture that might usefully bear the name of Impressionism. The brilliant Korean’s big-boned, red-blooded and rafter-raising performance of Szymanowski’s Second Sonata was quite simply a stonking version of a good old-fashioned Romantic warhorse. I’m not entirely convinced by the dramatic fugue in the finale, which barges into the proceedings, but it doesn’t half sweep you along.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here