 Roman Statkowski est très certainement un nom inconnu de la plupart de nos lecteurs. Même en Pologne, son nom n’est plus guère dans les mémoires. Formé à Varsovie, puis élève de la classe d’instrumentation de Rimski-Korsakov à Saint-Petersbourg, il retourne en Pologne où il enseigne la composition, écrit de nombreux opéras, des pièces orchestrales, des miniatures pour piano, tout en restant absolument fidèle à l’esprit romantique. Le label Acte préalable avait déjà fait paraître ses oeuvres pour piano et c’est maintenant au tour des pièces pour piano et violon, un peu moins d’une heure au total. Que retenir de cet enregistrement improbable ? Et bien tout simplement que les probabilités peuvent nous étonner ! Ces miniatures sont exquises, joyeuses et raffinées, et de surcroît jouées avec goût. La Dumka, les mazurkas, les petites pièces dédiées à ses amis sont de petits prodiges d’inventivité. Si Statkowski ne gagnera sans doute jamais de place dans l’histoire de la musique, on aurait tort de laisser échapper ce disque absolument délicieux ! (Walter Appel) Roman Statkowski was a Polish composer and teacher, born to a manorial family with a strong musical tradition. At the age of 13, he began his education in composition, harmony, and counterpoint, under the guidance of Wladyslaw Zelenski at the Music Institute in Warsaw. When Zelenski moved to Kraków in 1881, Roman Statkowski began his lawyer studies at the University of Warsaw, which he finished in 1884. Between 1886–1890 he undertook further studies at the St Petersburg conservatoire, composition with Nikolai Soloviev, piano with Anton Rubinstein, and instrumentation under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. In 1890 he received his diploma with a golden medal, achieved through his cantata Balthazar’s Feast. After his studies, he lived for a while in Kiev, where he taught at a music school, then Moscow and at his estate in Volhynia. After his estate was confiscated between 1897–1899, he travelled through Europe, only to return to Moscow in 1899, where he took up the position of director of the branch of Warsaw’s piano storehouse, Herman & Grossman. In 1904 he moved back to Warsaw and becomes a professor at the Music Institute, teaching composing, diction, instrumentation, and music history. As a noted teacher, the fruits of his work at the conservatoire was illustrated in an incredible alumnus: Apolinary Szeluto, Jerzy Lefeld, Boleslaw Szabelski, Kazimierz Wilkomirski and Victor Young (film music composer who received 20 Oscar nominations, including one posthumously)...
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