Two Polish masters, Jan Wański & Wojciech Dankowski (& others)

[UnsungMasterpieces]

I haven't seen these composers yet on the forums, however, on YouTube I found some really great pieces by these two Polish composers:
Jan Wański (1756 - 1830) & Wojciech Dankowski (circa 1760 - 1836). I listened to some symphonies of them a few months ago and they sounded amazing!

But I can't find them anymore on YouTube, so I was lucky to convert the best parts to MP3.

(Some of) their works have been recorded on CD, but not much. The only recordings I know of are the following:

1. Polish Symphonies of the Eighteenth Century (featuring Wański & Dankowski), can't see what label it's released on on the cover
    Warsaw Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Mieczyslaw Nowakowski, with Artur Paciorkiewicz on the Viola d'amore
2. 18th Century Polish Symphonies, Volume 1 (featuring Dankowski & others), released on the label Olympia
    Warsaw Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Marek Sewen

These are the ones I know of. Does someone know of other recordings?

[Alan Howe]

Could we have more details of the specific works you're talking about, please?

[UnsungMasterpieces]

About the first recording:
I can try, but the place where I found it doesn't say which composers composed which works, so that's hard.

About the second recording:
That was Dankowski's Symphony in E flat.

[Alan Howe]

Here's a sample of Dankowski's Symphony in E flat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D1H9xq-lso
It's pretty standard classical fare - it certainly falls outside UC's remit (it's too early), so we really need to be talking here about much later stuff by Dankowski...

[UnsungMasterpieces]

Oh, it's a pity that he's too early. He's a very rare and long-forgotten composer. He doesn't even have a wikipedia page in English!
So, I've found another great composer, who lived from 1769 to 1854, so that will surely be within your limits of 1815 to 1918. It's Józef Elsner. He was a teacher of Frédéric Chopin and Elsner composed some nice pieces, especially the Overture to Leszek the White.

[Alan Howe]

He isn't necessarily too early. It's simply that we need to be discussing his later music to see whether his style changes; in other words, what would interest us here are works that show elements of the transition from late classicism to early romanticism.

[UnsungMasterpieces]

Ah, I understand.

Well, that will be really hard, since he has no English Wikipedia page, he has German and Polish Wikipedia pages however, but they don't say anything about his later works. I do know of a Requiem he composed as well, but I 've never heard it and I don't know when he composed that. But I'll keep an eye out for his later works.

[eschiss1]

By the criteria for "noteworthiness" that held back when I was a regular contributor to en-Wikipedia, Elsner, by dint of being Chopin's (main?) teacher, already has at least part of what's needed to justify his having a Wikipedia page there--

it's just a matter of someone actually starting the stub of (at least the stub of) one (and including the information in it that shows that noteworthiness, etc.) ... Hrm.

What might be more useful at present is a thorough dissertation on Elsner, if anyone's written one, and if it's publicly available for download (the way some others are, like that one on the music of Mihalovich I ran across awhile back- sort of thing that restores a dork like me's faith in the internet, that, incidentally...)

[Alan Howe]

Unless I've misunderstood you, Eric, we were talking about Dankowski.

[eschiss1]

Hrm. That we were. ... ... Ack.
There's some additional information about him here from PWM (Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne).

[Alan Howe]

Well sleuthed, Eric. Thanks.

[Jonathan]

Interestingly, I have just received in the post today a CD of music by Jozef Wieniawski, brother of the more famous Henryk.  I shall try to give it a spin over dinner!

[Gareth Vaughan]

Jozef Wieniawski is a very different composer from the two composers which are the subject of this thread (and don't really fall within the remit of the forum) - Romantic not Classical.

[Jonathan]

Sorry Gareth, my mistake - I just included him because of his nationality!

[Alan Howe]

I suspect this may be the CD you're talking about, Jonathan:
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,5071.msg53697.html#msg53697

And I'm sure Gareth means that Wieniawski (J) belongs here whereas Wański & Dankowski don't (unless their later music proves otherwise). So no need to hold back at all...