Andrei Ionita, Vanessa Szigeti, Amaury Coeytaux, Oliver Triendl - Papandopulo: Works for Piano & Strings (2021)

With this fourth publication, this CPO series offers listeners the opportunity to enjoy chamber music for piano and strings by Boris Papandopulo. The recording premiere of his Concertino in modo antico presents a little masterpiece of Croatian Neoclassicism. As the title itself indicates, here the composer draws on historical models both in form and content. For example, the Overture, a free rendering of the sonata form, recalls similar forms from the Late Baroque and Early Classical periods. It pulsates in a lively motoric rhythm and is based on the polyphonic imitation of numerous short motifs running through the entire movement and reaching their end in a little Fugato. Masterful motivic work, brilliance, and verve as well as real and true joy of performance distinguish this composition, which easily finds its way into the hearts of musicians and audiences alike – and the same is true of the other chamber pieces heard here.

The Rapsodia concertante, to name one example, is not only a highly effective and attractive composition in which three contrasting movements are skillfully linked together; it is also a virtuoso piece representing the summit of technique and worked out to perfection.