Paderewski - Symphony I B Minor (polonia)

Paderewski's sole symphonic essay, completed in 1909, is one of his last works, completed before taking up the political career which culminated in his becoming Poland's Prime Minister. The Symphony is an archetypal late-Romantic specimen, strongly nationalistic in intent and expression. It's a big work in three movements, over 70 minutes in duration, and this is the first complete Western recording of it. (An earlier one available many years ago on LP was drastically cut.) The language is sombre and intense, the sonorities individual. (Paderewski asks for three sarrusophones in the first movement; they were somewhat difficult to assemble for the recording!)