Chopin Mazurkas from Maryla Jonas

This recording was the subject of a discussion on one of the classical sharing sites, which motivated me to transfer my very good copy of the LP, which contains an exceptional performance of 18 Chopin mazurkas by the neglected Polish pianist Maryla Jonas.

My friend Fred of the Random Classics blog also offered this album some time ago, but the links are now dead. I hope he doesn’t mind if I quote some of his description of the performance, because my reaction is the same: “This is not the Chopin that you are used to hearing and it is a polar opposite from the elegant, aristocratic approach of Rubinstein.” Fred’s response on first hearing the record: “Never had I heard such melancholy, such world weariness, from these brilliant miniatures. Indeed, Chopin had painted, below the surface, a sadness of seeing his Polish nation subjected to rule and desecration by others.”

Post-war promotional leaflet

Jonas herself had a most difficult life, and was the victim of Nazi persecution, which may have contributed to her early death at the age of 48. Her small discography, made in the US for Columbia in the post-war years, centers on Chopin but also includes a smattering of other composers. This particular LP reissue from 1956 combines two sets of mazurkas, which Jonas inscribed in September 1947 (set M-810) and September 1949 (set M-897), both of which also came out on 10-inch LPs. Sessions for the latter set were in Columbia’s 30th Street studios in New York. No location is listed for the 1947 dates in Michael Gray’s discography, but since that predates Columbia’s use of the 30th Street location, the site may have been Liederkranz Hall. The sound is quite good.

A note about the cover: Columbia had engaged the relatively new design firm Push Pin Studios to prepare a series of covers for its Entré reissue series. Push Pin had been founded by Seymour Chwast and Edward Sorel, who both were to become noted graphic artists. Sorel, soon to leave Push Pin, designed the cover of the Jonas LP in a style far removed from the biting political caricatures that he is known for today.

I plan to transfer another Jonas Chopin set at a later date.