Szymanowski: Symphony No. 4 Op. 60 (CD)

Gramophone Magazine
April 2026
Editor's Choice

Szymon Nehring (piano), Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop

Szymanowski: Symphony No. 4, Op. 60 (Sinfonia Concertante)
Szymanowski: Mazurkas, Op. 50 Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 11, 13, 16, 17 & 18

Karol Szymanowski, often cited as Poland’s greatest composer after Chopin, reached a creative peak with his Fourth Symphony—a 20th-century "Sinfonia Concertante" featuring a prominent, virtuoso piano part. This program pairs that symphonic masterpiece with a selection of his Mazurkas, which fuse the composer's late impressionistic style with the rugged folk music of the Polish Highlanders from the Tatra Mountains. The album features Szymon Nehring, the first Polish winner of the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition, supported by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop.

"I admire the restraint, elegance and bravura of the orchestral playing under Alsop's baton. She finds a new way of reading this Dionysian score with much focus on detail, thus creating an orchestral backdrop for the soloist that allows him to shine." — Gramophone Magazine, April 2026