Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński: Piano Concerto in A flat major, Op. 2, Howard Shelley (rec. live)

Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński - Piano Concerto in A flat major, Op. 2 (1824, when the composer was 17), Howard Shelley (piano, conductor), Sinfonia Varsovia (live recording)
1.Allegro moderato – 0:00
2.Andante espressivo – 14:17
3.Rondo. Vivace ma non troppo – 21:19
Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński (15 February 1807 – 9 October 1867) was a Polish pianist and composer.
“Exceptionally talented musically and extremely well-educated, initially by his father [a conductor, composer and teacher] and later by Jozef Elsner, Dobrzynski embarked early on a pianistic career as a 'child prodigy' showing off his talent by performing virtuoso pieces. In 1825 he turned up in Warsaw to take private lessons with Elsner, to whom he recommended his compositional talents on grounds of earlier written works at the tender age of seventeen [1824]. The works in question were his Concert Overture in D major, Op. 1 and Piano Concerto in A flat major, Op. 2.
Such serious compositions undoubtedly made an impression on the strict and demanding Professor Elsner. A year later Dobrzynski officially became Elsner's pupil at Warsaw's Principal School of Music, that same year [1826] being joined by Fryderyk Chopin as a classmate.
Piano Concerto in A flat major, Op. 2 for piano and orchestra was composed the same year [1824] as Beethoven was completing his Symphony No. 6 in D minor. Despite the coincidental dates, it already belongs to a different era and although structured in keeping with the best Classical concerto designs, its character and exploitation of piano textures and orchestral tone-colours opens up new perspectives.
The piano which dominates is obliged to 'sing' in lyrical sections and 'shine' in virtuoso passages, scales and figurations. The orchestra is there to provide background for the soloist, only occasionally entering into dialogue with the piano or taking the lead. The work opens with an Allegro moderato movement in sonata form consisting of two subjects, development and coda. The fact that five years later Chopin would compose his Piano Concerto in F minor in a similar architectonic scheme to Dobrzynski's, gives food for thought and begs the question, was Chopin familiar with his colleague's work? There are many signs to suggest he was; therefore one can assume that even Chopin—most probably—exploited Dobrzynski's concept in a section of the second movement of his Concerto in F minor where against the background of orchestral tremolo the piano plays simultaneously in both hands recitative progressions of a dramatic character. Given the similarities between the works of the two composers we can make certain assumptions, such as for example, that Professor Elsner actually encouraged Chopin to model his concerto on Dobrzynski's composition...
The score of Dobrzyriski's Concerto in A flat major has survived almost in its entirety to this day [Warsaw Music Society Archives], barring one vandalised page containing the third movement's final tutti. In 1986 the manuscript of the work was reviewed by the composer and conductor Kazimierz Rozbicki from Koszalin who reconstructed the missing text, corrected the musical orthography and reworked the entire piece [i.a. changed the tuning of horns and trumpets to the modern pitch of today's instruments]. According to Andrzej Spoz, a researcher of Dobrzynski's compositions, the work was not performed public during the composer's lifetime. It received its premiere on 10 September 1986 at the Polish Piano Festival in Slupsk and was first recorded to CD by Jerzy Sterczynski in 1994.” (from Album notes by Stanislaw Dybowski)

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