Liliana Stawarz presents a program of Bach’s French Suites. Liliana graduated in 1988 from the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw (the harpsichord class of Władysław Kłosiewicz). Two years later she gained a diploma from the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Rue-il-Malmaison, where she studied with Huguette Dreyfus. In 2012–2016 she served as Deputy Dean of the Department of Instrumental Studies and Musical Education and as a coordinator of the Concert Bureau at the Białystok branch of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. She is currently a Professor at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music and Head of its Interdepartmental Faculty of Early Music. For twenty years she was a member of the Il Tempo Early Music Ensemble which focused on instrumental and vocal-instrumental music from early Baroque to the Classical period. She made numerous recordings for radio, recorded five albums and participated in prestigious early music festivals with Il Tempo, in Poland and abroad (Bruges, Brussels, Utrecht, Moscow, New York, New Brunswick, Rome, Berlin). In 2018 she received the Fryderyk Award of the Polish recording industry in the category ‘CD of the Year – Early Music’ for a live recording of Antonio Caldara’s oratorioMaddalena ai piedi di Cristo, released by Polish Radio.

REVIEW:

From the outset, you can hear Lilianna Stawarz seeking out the poetic in this fine recording of Bach’s French Suites. Tempi are judged nicely but tend towards measured consideration rather than helter-skelter drama, and slower movements such as the opening Allemande and that gorgeous Sarabande in the Suite No 1 are given plenty of expressive touches. Rubato flexibility is a feature of the playing here, but while it may take a moment to acclimatise in terms of style Stawarz’s sensitivity and skill is what makes this, to my ears at least, a recording to which one warms.

The recording itself is nicely balanced, the instrument placed in an ideal acoustic and with plenty of brightness and detail, but by no means in a sound that is fatiguing to the ear. Christopher Hogwood’s Decca recording is rightly held up as something of a classic in harpsichord versions of this music, but his instrument is more needle-bright and has been recorded in a relatively small, dry acoustic. If you prefer something a bit more lush and luxurious, then Lilianna Stawarz’s very personal accounts may do you very well indeed.

– MusicWeb International