RGG - Unfinished Story (Ecnalubma, 2007)

RGG (band)

Przemyslaw Raminiak - piano

Maciej Garbowski - bass

Krzysztof Gradziuk - drums

Unfinished Story (Ecnalubma, 2007)


“(...) his life was like Ikar’s flight (...)”

Unfinished Story – Remembering Kosz commemorates Mieczysław Kosz, a young, already forgotten pianist, who died in 1973 at the mere age of 29.

His pianism had affinities to the traditions of romantic music and characteristic melodic references to Polish folklore. The concept of his play, extremely impressionistic and falling outside any criteria, was unambiguously linked with the fact that more often than not his compositions sounded like pieces in the “free” style. That is why his artistic works always called for much attention and concentration. The paraphrases played by Kosz, such as Summertime, Prelude c-minor, or those contained on the record “Polovitzan Dances” were the pieces that especially arrested the listener’s attention. Their clear-cut structure and lucidly emphasized melody allowed the audience to always feel “safe and comfortable”. However, it was much more difficult for the audience to grasp the poetic mood of his original compositions due to the fact that they sounded more like fragments of impressionistic improvisation than transparent phrases, which almost made it impossible for them to be grasped and sink in the memory. Many Kosz’s compositions, besides those that are contained on this record “Signals” and “Reminiscence”, more markedly remind of “free” style pieces, which is what plenty of them actually are.

That is why among those contained on the record the “Unfinished Story...”, only two pieces are composed by Mieczysław Kosz. However, the whole closely refers to himself and his life. Starting with “Sunrise” – and that is when the young Kosz comes into the world, through his first steps made within the area of expressing himself through jazz (compositions “Reminiscence” and “Signs”) and the first manifestations of unrestrained treatment of music – the pieces that are sheer improvisation (“Travels” and “Ikar’s Flight” – the one that symbolizes his tragic death). The piece “Lonelines” is particular – its overtone is simply triple: the title itself indicates that both in the world of music and his own life he felt lonely and alienated; this piece of music is treated very freely (despite the highlighted team and legible harmony, this composition is deprived of timing); the theme melody deliberately and consciously refers to Frederic Chopin (Prelude a-minor), and Kosz willingly paraphrased his themes. The last two pieces which come already after portraying his tragedy, show the Kosz that was remembered by the people, i.e. Kosz – the Improvisor (“Unfinished Story”) and Kosz – the Soloist (one of his favourite paraphrases “Polovitzan Dances” for piano solo).

Kosz used to emphasise: “Only Sadness Is Beautiful”.

source: link