• Not Forgetting Noskowski

As a postscript to my post Ż-z-z earlier today, I’ve just discovered a recent YouTube upload of the complete Piano Quartet op.8 (1879) by Zygmunt Noskowski (1846-1909).  And it comes with the score too, always a plus for little-known pieces.  The recording is that by the Polish Piano Quartet, released by Olympia back in 1992 on OCD 381 alongside Żeleński’s Piano Quartet.

This really is a wonderful and joyous work, and its youthful spirit never fails to brighten the day.  If I could master the piano part, I’d pay good money to find a string trio to play it with.  I hope that, like the Zarębski Piano Quintet and the Żeleński Piano Quartet, it soon percolates through to non-Polish performers, CD companies and audiences.  It is, frankly, a cultural scandal that it has been so neglected.

The upload is split into three: first movement; second and third movement (9’23” in); fourth movement.