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Who is Maryla Jonas, the subject of this four-CD set from Sony Classical? Born in Warsaw in 1911, her teachers included Paderewski, whose legendary charisma was surely dented when Jonas [...]

This article focuses on mazurkas music records. An outstanding chamber-music release is the English Decca recording of beautiful Octet Opus 166 for strings and winds played by the Vienna Octet. The Columbia has issued a number of Chopin's Mazurkas, including some of the best, played by artist Maryla Jonas with her usual extremes of tempo and dynamics. The sound comes off the standard records with metallic brightness and insufficient bass, and with noise from the surfaces, it is more solid and less metallic.

In the article, the author presents his views on the musical program presented by pianist Maryla Jonas in Carnegie Hall in Orono, Maine. The program was commented as the work of a poet and master of her instrument. It was a bold announcement of the subject, the clearness, and energy, and power of its development. Among the other comments were that Jonas is a pure musician and a selfless interpreter, completely submerging her own personality in an uncompromising devotion to the music in hand. Her work is of fine quality of tone, dynamic variety, shape, breadth, and profound understanding in her performance.