 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Katfish
Date: 2002-05-18 19:03
A minister friend of mine gave me a stack of music from his days as a music major at Michigan U. This piece was included. I was unfamiliar with it. The only info I can find is that Karol Kurpinski was a Polish composer, chiefly of Operas circa 1750- 1835. Anyone know anything about this piece or if there is a recording available?
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2002-05-19 01:18
There is a CD recording on Concerto 25014 (likely now out of print, but you might be able to find a copy) which is a rerelease of an earlier LP. The clarinetist is Ludwik Kurkiewicz with the Bydgosczc Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zbigniew Chwedczuk. The recording gives Kurpinski's dates as 1785-1857. The liner notes also state that Kurpinski "is generally regarded as the leader of the musical life in Poland in the first half of the 19th century." Considering how few people have heard of him and how brief the liner notes are, it must not have been much of a life! ;^) The style is late classical/early romantic, not overly difficult technically as I recall, pleasant to listen to, not particularly memorable, but useful as a study piece or perhaps for a recital. Enjoy.
Best regards,
jnk
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Author: GBK
Date: 2002-05-19 16:17
Actually, Kurpinski was quite well known in Polish musical circles as a fine composer of operettas and musicals in the first part of the 19th century.
He also was a prominent conductor in Warsaw, and had the distinction of conducting Chopin in his first performance of his Concerto No.2 for Piano and Orchestra in F Minor, Op.21 in 1830...GBK
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2002-05-20 13:59
Katfish,
If you do a Googol search on "Karol Kurpinski" (without the quotes), you will find a great deal of information on him and his work. The Polish Music Center site (the first one that turned up -- according to Googol, there are around 211):
http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/composer/kurpinski.html
has a concise biography and list of works (including a Clarinet Trio).
He has had a postage stamp issued in his commemoration and there are others commemorating his operas. You can see them at:
http://home.prcn.org/~pauld/opera/19cent22.htm
There are a couple of mp3 recordings of his works that you can download(but not the clarinet concerto) at:
http://www.geocities.com/jmpolska/pojm-en.html
Some other factoids:
There is (or at least was for many years) a Kurpinski Competition for Young Instrumentalists.
Haken Rosengren (currently Professor of Clarinet at Cal State - Fullerton with numerous recordings to his credit, including the Nielsen Concerto for Sony) includes this concerto in his list of repertoire.
Finally, the Kurpinski concerto has also been released on Olympia OCD 325. This appears to be the same performance as the one released on Concerto and might be easier to find.
Best regards,
jnk
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