Szymanovski - Symphonies 2 and 3, Bartok - Two pictures, Detroit Symphony Orchestra -Antal Dorati

Symphony no. 2
Symphony no. 2 op. 19 is considered the greatest orchestral work of Karol Szymanowski's early period (1899-1913) and one of the most important Polish symphonic compositions. Together with Piano Sonata no. 2 it concludes the first phase of the development of Szymanowski's composing technique and anticipates his mature, individually styled works.
The intention to write Symphony no. 2 appeared right after Szymanowski had completed his first symphony, feeling dissatisfied. The first sketches were made in April 1909 and an overview of the whole was ready by September. Work on the orchestration continued until the end of 1910. Symphony no. 2 was first performed at Grzegorz Fitelberg*'s benefit concert at the Warsaw Philharmonic on 7th April 1911. Szymanowski would, however, revisit the Symphony in the years to come, making changes in the first movement from 1927 onwards (chiefly in 1930-32) and having his friend Fitelberg, the established conductor and composer to whom he had dedicated the Symphony, alter the instrumentation of the second movement in 1934-36.

The work has two movements incorporating the four traditional symphony building blocks. The first movement is a sonata allegro with an introduction, and the second movement includes the theme with variations containing the slow passage (the theme and the first two variations), scherzo (scherzo-like third variation and the subsequent two a la gavotte and minuet) and finale (the last variation with a fugue). The Symphony is consolidated by common motifs and emotions. While the style is still akin to the late Romantic,
"you can clearly hear Szymanowski - in the specific 'wandering' of the line of strings in the high register, in the ecstatic explosions, in the enormous swaying of emotions, in the rapid moves from lyricism to rapture, from drama to a sudden becalming".1
Szymanowski himself thought very highly of his second Symphony. This is what he wrote in his August 1911 letter to Zdzisław Jachimecki:
"How happy I am that this Symphony impressed you as I had wanted. I will frankly admit that I feel somewhat proud about its value. In some miraculous way I have managed during my work on it to resist all those garish phantoms which seduce 'young and inexperienced' artists and to produce pure and uncompromising beauty in the way I personally understand it. And so when it was being played in Warsaw I was delighted to notice that some more sensitive people had difficulty breathing in this pure and cold atmosphere in which everything takes place, like mountain air".2

Symphony no. 3 ("Song of the Night")
Szymanowski started drafting his Symphony no. 3 ("Song of the Night"), a work dedicated to his mother, Anna Szymanowska nee Taube, in Tymoszówka in the summer and autumn of 1914. He continued working on it in the spring and summer of 1916, to complete it by the end of July of that year. Symphony no. 3 sets Tadeusz Miciński's (one of Szymanowski's favoured poets') translation published in the arts and literary journal "Chimera" in 1905 of the poem Song of the Night by the 13th century Persian poet, Jalaluddin Rumi.

Szymanowski uses highly emotional, sensuous, at times even ecstatic music to convey the poem’s vision of the night, with its unravelling of the mystery of God and supernatural atmosphere. Numerous Oriental elements - special (falling) melodic turns, rhythmic (dance) formulas, melismas and embellishments - create a unique flavour. The melodious, emotional tunes are intended not only for the singers but also for violin, and then they run in very high registers. Wrote Tadeusz A. Zieliński, the acclaimed researcher of Szymanowski's music:
"Besides the sphere of expression, the novel style of the 3rd Symphony manifests itself in the sound aspect. Here Szymanowski proves a master of extraordinarily subtle and sophisticated orchestral colour ideas whose boldness at times surpasses those of Ravel's and Stravinsky's; certain 'fantastic' sound effects (such as accumulations of glissandos) were a complete novelty at the time.
Symphony no. 3 is also a product of Szymanowski's search for new dramatic effects in a symphonic cycle. The single movement is broken down into three phases, the first one (for tenor solo, chorus and orchestra) standing for an introduction, the middle (orchestral) one composed in the style of an Oriental, colourful dance and scherzo, and the last one (orchestral again) having the characteristics of an adagio with a culmination (mystery) and coda. The whole work is more similar to a symphonic poem than to a conventional symphony, an observation made by Szymanowski himself in a letter to Aleksander Siloti, pianist and conductor who planned to do the first performance of the 3rd Symphony with his orchestra in Petersburg on 19th November 1916 (nota bene the event did not take place, even though the preparations were quite advanced):
"The Symphony lasts 20-22 m. and it could be called a symphonic poem. (Its other title is Chant de la Nuit […]). However, as I am organically averse to 'Symphonic poems' (as a title), it had better stayed a symphony (the third one in order). […] The tenor's solo in the symph. is very significant and lasts for a little less than half of the symphony's duration. It seems a very satisfying material for a singer; it is more melodic than declamatory and takes quite a big and graceful, lyrically coloured voice. The choir is rather episodic, except for the initial part, where it has a major role; the style is more harmon[ic] than polyphon[ic]; there is no text in several places".

Tracklist
symphony no.3:
1-moderato assai
2-Vivace scherzando
3-Largo

symphony no.2
4-Allegro moderato grzioso
5-Tema-Variazione-Fuga

Bartok: two pictures
6- in full flower
7- village dance

http://rapidshare.com/files/254464591/szyman_bartok.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/254468172/szyman_bartok.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/254472064/szyman_bartok.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/254473467/szyman_bartok.part4.rar
incl Booklet (Eng)