Stanislaw Moniuszko - Overtures

Stanislaw MONIUSZKO (1819-1872)

Overtures

1. Halka
  2. Hrabina
  3. Verbum Bonile
  4. Bajka-Winter's Tale
  5. Jawnuta
  6. Flis
  7. Paria

Filharmonia Pomorska Bydgoszcz
Robert Satanowski

Stanislaw Moniuszko is the major figure in Polish music between Chopin and Szymanowski, but he hardly compares in stature with either of those giants. His music is a standard product of provincial mid-Romanticism: tuneful, workmanlike, often charming - and rarely inspired. His considerable standing in Poland owes much to political factors: with the first performance of his opera Halka in 1858, he made his mark as a patriot at a time when Polish culture had been thoroughly suppressed by the occupying Russians - even the language was banned.

The form of the typical Moniuszko operatic overture is a simple patchwork of dance-tunes and marches. Some of them rise above this mundanity: the overture to Jawnuta, for example, shows an orchestral imagination that owes something to the welcome influence of Berlioz; and the Halka Overture features music of genuine dramatic punch.