Pianist Daniel Wnukowski Performs Works By Handel, Chopin, And Karol Rathaus At Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall

Polish-Canadian pianist Daniel Wnukowski (vnoo-koff'-skee) makes his New York solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall performing Handel's Keyboard Suite Vol. 1, No. 7 in G minor, HWV 432; Chopin's 24 Preludes, Op. 28; and Karol Rathaus's Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 20 on Friday, May 3 at 8:00 p.m.

All three works are by migr composers who were also virtuoso performers and improvisers at the keyboard. Least known is Jewish composer Karol Rathaus (1895 1954), whose music Mr. Wnukowski has championed in concert and on record. Recently, he performed the composer's music with The Orchestra Now under Leon Botstein and launched a recording cycle of the composer's complete piano works on Toccata Classics. Mr. Wnukowski said:

While Handel and Chopin left their homelands in search of greater success, Rathaus left under much different circumstances, fleeing Berlin due to the looming specter of fascism. Unlike Handel and Chopin, who saw their popularity soar in London and Paris, respectively, Rathaus fell into obscurity after arriving New York, having left behind a successful career in Europe in which he was championed by luminaries like Furtw ngler and Szell. I hope that concertgoers leave the recital curious to learn more about Rathaus and with new insights into the more familiar works on the program.

Karol Rathaus was born in Austria-Hungary, and though little-known today, he was a precocious student and prot g of Franz Schreker. After leaving Berlin in 1932 due to the deteriorating political situation, he migrated to Paris, then to London in 1934, before settling in New York in 1938. He joined the music faculty of Queens College two years later as its first professor of composition.

Mr. Wnukowski is a devoted advocate of the composer's music, which he has performed around the world, including in New York, Los Angeles, Vienna, and Toronto. In February 2019, he appeared at Queens College's Karol Rathaus Festival performing the composer's Piano Concerto, Op. 45 (with Mr. Botstein and T N) and the U.S. premiere of his recently rediscovered Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 8, which appears on Volume 1 of his Rathaus recording cycle, released March 15 (click here to learn more). Piano Sonata No. 3 was composed in 1927 and premiered by Bruno Eisner. Among the pianists to subsequently take up the work was Walter Gieseking, who gave the U.S. premiere in 1929 at New York's Town Hall.

Mr. Wnukowski's interest in works by interwar Jewish composers overlaps with the mission of The OREL Foundation, which presents the recital and was founded by James Conlon in 2008 to encourage research on and performance of music suppressed as a result of Nazi policies from 1933 to 1945. The recital is also presented in partnership with the USC Thornton School of Music's Polish Music Center, one of the most extensive resources outside of Poland for research in Polish music and culture; the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, a diplomatic mission of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland; Canada Council for the Arts, Canada's public arts funder; and Vienna University's exil.arte Center, dedicated to the reception, preservation, and research of Austrian musical figures who were branded as degenerate by the Third Reich. The exil.arte Center, which has collaborated with Mr. Wnukowski for years in his exploration of this repertoire, was responsible for introducing him to the music of Rathaus and many other composers a key factor in his decision to return to music. (Mr. Wnukowski writes about his personal journey here.