Stojowski, Sigismond

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Stojowski, Sigismond

Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 3

SKU: 1999 Category:

28,00 

Sigismond (Zygmunt) Stojowski

(b. Strzelce, 14 May 1870 – d. New York City, 6 November 1946)

Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 3
(1890)

I Andante poco mosso (p. 3) – Allegro un poco maestoso (p. 6) – Lento, poco a poco animato (p. 22) –
Doppio movimento (Allegro, p. 27) – Allegro molto (p. 41)
II Romanza. Andante sostenuto e molto cantabile (p. 47) – Più mosso (p. 50) – Più animato (p. 52) –
Sostenuto (p. 53) – Tempo primo ma pochissimo più animato (p. 54)
III Allegro con fuoco (p. 59) – Presto (p. 96) – Più presto (p. 100)

 

Preface
Born in Strzelce near Kielce in the Russian part of Poland, Stojowski became famous already as a young man and was held in high esteem as a pianist and composer. In 1905 settled in the US where he worked as a legendary piano teacher. As a composer he was a brazen romantic, and his virtuosic and excellently crafted works became increasingly neglected. After his death the composer Stojowski was buried in oblivion.

Stojowski studied in Cracow with Wladyslaw Zelenski (1837-1921), the preeminent Polish master of his time. 17-year-old Stojowski made his debut as a concert pianist in Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto with his own solo cadenzas that were printed later by Heugel in Paris. When he was 18 years old he migrated to Paris where he studied piano with Louis Diémer and composition with Léo Delibes at the Conservatoire. Apart from that he took lessons with Camille Saint-Saëns, Jules Massenet, and his famous compatriot Ignace Paderewski. In an interview in 1901 he mentioned his compatriots, the violinist-composer Wladyslaw Górsky and the pianist-composer Oaerewski, as the strongest influences on him.

In its manuscript score Stojowski’s First Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor Op.3 is dated from 1890. It was premièred in Paris, Salle Érard, in 1891 by the Orchestre Colonne under Benjamin Godard, with the composer as soloist. On 9 February 1892 Stojowski played the Berlin première with the Berlin Philharmonic. The First Piano Concerto is dedicated to Anton Rubinstein. Full score and piano score were printed by Stanley Lucas, Weber, Pitt & Hatzfeld Ltd. in London in 1893. Before the coda of the final movement the main themes of the first two movements reappear to give it the impression of a coherent unity.

Stojowski’s Second Piano Concerto in A-flat major Op. 32, alternatively entitled as ’Prologue, Scherzo and Variations’, was written in the summers of 1909 and 1910 in Chamonix. The composer gave its first performance on 23 June 1913 in London’s Queen’s Hall with the London Symphony Orchestra condcuted by Arthur Nikisch, and the American première on 1 March 1915 in New York’s Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic under Josef Stransky. But it was the concerto’s dedicatee Ignace Paderewski who made this work an even greater success than the First Concerto. The Second Concerto was printed in paris by Heugel. Herewith we present the full score of the First Concerto Op. 3 in a faithful reproduction of its original first print. Stojowski’s two piano concertos were first recorded by Jonathan Plowright and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins and released in 2002 on the Hyperion label.

C.S., July 2017

Performance materials are available from Schott Music (schott-music.com)

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