Mateusz Smoczyński: Adam's Apple

Polish violinist Mateusz Smoczyński has long slipped effortlessly between the worlds of jazz and classical music, flitting between his own small jazz combos and contemporary string ensembles. Albums such as Confetti Man (Azica records, 2014) with The Turtle Island Quartet, Penderecki (Universal Music Poland, 2019) with Atom String Quartet, and the duo albums Speaking Sound (ACT Music, 2020) with Joachim Kühn and Keep On Turnin' (Seifert Records, 2020) with Stephan Braun have marked Smoczyński out as one of the most exciting and versatile of contemporary violinists. With Adam's Apple Smoczyński harnesses the 47-piece Chopin University Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Rafał Janiak, to pay homage to two important influences—jazz violinist Zbigniew Seifert and contemporary classical composer John Adams.

Seifert has been a major influence on Smoczyński, who fell under his spell early on in his career. In 2016 Smoczyński won the top prize at the International Zbigniew Seifert Jazz Violin Competition (held in Luslawice, Poland), the same year, in fact, that he first encountered John Adams's music. Smocynski may have come to Adams relatively late, but the American composer's impact has been substantial, as "Adam's Apple Concerto" demonstrates in abundance.

This 28-minute concerto is a marvel of unfolding drama and textural contrasts. Divided into five segments, Smoczyński 's score covers undulating terrain that is caressing and lyrical at one pole, stormy and passionate at the other. The ascending strings in "Part i: Genesis" seem to pay overt homage to Adams' "Concerto for Violin" from 1993, a launching pad for Smoczyński 's vision. In the space between the main melody passing from harp to violin there is a quasi-Hitchcockian tension in the strings. At various points reed instruments, brass and percussion leave their indelible marks, but it is perhaps no coincidence that the music's most invigorating and uplifting passages are led by violins, cellos, violas and double basses—24 instruments combined.

On "Part ii: Eden" Smoczyński switches between violin and baritone violin to striking effect. In this section Smoczyński is at his most thrilling as he tears free from the pack, his bounding improvisation tinged with Slavic folk colors. The heady mixture of classical folk and jazz vernacular was already evident in Smoczynski's solo album Metamorphoses (Zbigniew Seifert Foundation, 2017), but there are minimalist leanings—arguably more Philip Glass than John Adams—in the rhythmic mantras carried by woodblock and riffing strings that populate "Eden" and "Part iii: Temptation." Lyrical passages of pronounced beauty also emerge, not least when the leader wields the darker-toned baritone violin.

The orchestra sits out while Smoczyński goes it alone on "Part iv: Cadenza" in an exhilarating display of rhythmic panache and rootsy lyricism. The concerto concludes with "Part v: Apocalypse," where Smoczyński summons the orchestra's full might to meet his compositional vision. Urgently sawing strings, bold brass and strong percussive pulses underpin Smoczyński's fleet improvisations before the leader's pizzicato dance concludes a riveting concerto on surprisingly intimate and playful note.

Seifert's "Jazz Concerto For Violin, Rhythm section And Symphony Orchestra," is, by comparison, a little underwhelming. Written over several months in 1974, the concerto was recorded with the NDR Rundfunkorchester Hannover for radio broadcast. At 20 minutes, Smoczyński's version is five minutes shorter than the original. Of the four parts it is the first that offers the greatest reward. Pianist Dominik Wania, bassist Sławomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miskiewicz reprise the roles originally played by Joachim Kühn, Eberhard Weber and Daniel Humair, but the separation of orchestra and jazz ensemble (for the most part) begs the question as to why Seifert thought to bring them together in the first place.

The third part features the jazz quartet for fully four minutes before the orchestra enters. In that time Smoczyński probes feverishly over restless rhythmic currents. In the final part lead violin soars melodiously against lush orchestral strings and brass drone in a handsome coda. Yet if the concerto feels piecemeal, lacking in persuasive narrative arc or indeed satisfactory resolution, then this is probably because Seifert had intended the entire piece to be the first part of a longer work. Sadly, that never transpired.

Smoczyński has honored the legacy of Seifert to much more satisfactory effect with Atom String Quartet's quite brilliant Seifert (Zbigniew Seifert Foundation, 2017) and his presence will no doubt continue to inspire Smoczyński's playing. Compositionally, however, it is Adams who now exerts the greater pull over Smoczyński. Still, Adam's Apple serves up an abundance of riches, with the scintillating "Adam's Apple Concerto For Violin and Orchestra" a signpost to potentially greater orchestral adventures to come.