Józef Władysław Krogulski: Piano Octet in D-Minor op. 6

0:00 - Adagio - Allegro 9:28 - Adagio 14:54 - Menuetto - Trio Allegretto 19:05 - Finale (A la Bohemienne) Flute - Jan Krzeszowiec Clarinet - Radoslaw Soroka Violin I - Lena Neudauer Violin II - Erzhan Kulibaev Viola - Artur Rozmyslowicz Cello - Marcin Zdunik Double Bass - Slawomir Rozlach Piano - Nelson Goerner In November, 1830, the Poles rose up against their Russian occupiers. This act of bravery did, however, leave Poland in a dire economic position. This economic pressure affected Poles of all walks of life, but it hit a young pianist named Józef Krogulski particularly hard. In 1831, Krogulski's everyday financial frustrations and hardships were compounded by the death of his mother, causing him to take a serious step back from his career as a performer. Krogulski took up some work as a private piano teacher to pay the bills. Over the course of the uprising, he began to focus more on his duties as a member of a church choir and on composing. Throughout these difficult years, he almost exclusively performed at home (in part because of health problems), focusing much of his attention on his new creations. When he finally arose from his seclusion in 1832, he premiered his 2nd Piano Concerto, and two years later, he premiered this work - the Octet in D-Minor. Krogulski has a reputation as a "Polish Mozart." We can see some of that influence here, but the work certainly stands on its own. The piece begins with the foreboding pulsation of the strings giving way to slow woodwind descent. The lighter tone of the first movement cuts through the dense atmosphere of the opening to recite the first theme. This first movement is a microcosm of the Octet as a whole. The adagio moves between a beautiful, glowing theme and creepy tremolos that interrupt the serenity. The rondo is lively and the finale is joyously vibrant. You can detect that hint of conflict in each of the movements. The work as a whole is well balanced and varied. As I was dissecting it, I encountered a lot that surprised me given the time period. Note: There are a lot of repeats in this octet. Where it started getting hard to follow, I started inverting sections that were not being played on that page because of the repeats. That is why several passages have those black sections. https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Krogu....