Juliusz Zarębski - 6 Sketches op. 27 (Sałajczyk)

Juliusz Zarębski - 6 Etrennes
Pianist - Piotr Sałajczyk
0:00 - March
2:19 - Waltz
5:19 - Menuet
8:16 - A Tale
11:34 - A Melody
14:43 - Waltz
Juliusz Zarębski (1854-1885) belongs to that unfortunate group of Polish composers who died far too early. In this, he joins geniuses like Józef Władysław Krogulski, Antoni Stolpe, Mieczysław Karłowicz and so many more. In the face of such a horrible loss to music, there is a silver lining, and that is his narrow completion of the Piano Quintet in G minor which has begun to see some very well-deserved popularity as of late.
Despite the recognition that the name "Zarębski" now has thanks to his piano quintet, not much else of his is known or played. Besides the piano quintet and the cycle "Roses and Thorns," he is still tragically underplayed and underrecognized for his compositional skill. He studied with Liszt, who endorsed his writing with such enthusiasm that he took it upon himself to orchestrate his set of Galician dances.
Stylistically, one can hear Chopin and Liszt in his output, but there is a quiet originality that carries his miniatures beyond a pale, unthinking banality. Some of them carry a forward-thinking impressionistic attitude like that of Noskowski and Liszt while others have a soft poetry that brings Faure and Chopin to mind. Whether looking at a salon piece or a loftier concert-oriented work, Zarębski's education accrued across the continent from Rome to St. Petersburg shines through these well-though-out and expertly crafted additions to the piano repertoire.