Download Karol Szymanowski Polish composer Born: October

Karol Szymanowski
Polish composer
Born: October 6, 1882, Timoshovka, Ukraine
Died: March 29 1937, Lausanne, Switzerland
Concert Overture in E major
These are the first performances of this work on the Classics series; duration 13 minutes
Karol Szymanowski was the foremost Polish composer of the early years of the 20th century. His
experience with music began with piano lessons at an early age with his father, followed by
advanced study in composition in Warsaw with the composer Zygmunt Noskowski. From 1911
through the beginning of World War I, Szymanowski made a personal pilgrimage of a kind,
seeking to define his own musical identity, and hopefully one which would lead to the signature
style for a new Polish national school. He invested about two years in Vienna and Berlin, and
followed with a long itinerary through the Mediterranean, with stops in North Africa, Italy, Sicily
and Greece. In several ways, the journey served to solidify the reverence he already had for
Wagner and Richard Strauss, the new Russian school represented by Stravinsky and Scriabin,
and in particular, the Impressionist styles of Debussy and Ravel. Beyond his personal effort, like
all of the Polish composers of the era (Winiawski, Paderewski, Karlowicz, among others),
Szymanowski felt deeply obliged to find a truly unique national voice, as Frederic Chopin had
achieved more than half a century earlier.
In sum, Szymanowski dedicated his life to define a genuine Polish school of composition in the
20th century. He welcomed the role as emissary to the musical world, bringing the wealth of
national traditions to the fore whenever possible. With this he enjoyed support from some very
high places: among his supporters was Artur Rubinstein, the great pianist who added
Szymanowski's piano works to many of his recitals around the world. Even as his health began to
fail, Szymanowski later served as the director of the Warsaw Conservatory of Music.
Szymanowski's full catalog includes four symphonies, tone poems, many songs, and a small
wealth of chamber music, including many settings for piano. The youthful Concert Overture was
completed in 1905, a work which displays the composer's virtuosity as an orchestrator. While the
adventurous themes and harmonies are clearly original, the style of the Overture resonates with
symphonic effects in the manner of German romanticism, with a direct tip of the hat to Richard
Strauss. The score is graphic, even pictorial in the manner and mode of a grand tone poem. Yet
Szymanowski left no clue as to a storyline, drama or image behind his pen.
As a dashing concert prelude, the music opens the curtain straight-away with high-flown
exuberance at the very downbeat. With emotive force on the wing, the music soars with E-major
flares from the orchestra en masse - wailing horns, lofty strings and filigree of every kind. In a
few moments, the tempo subsides as a lush and poetic love scene worthy of Hollywood offers an
idyllic intermezzo. In measured turns, the dramatic energy swings first brightly, then darkly, as if
tone painting an opera or ballet scene. Again, the composer took care not to say, but surely a
story is at hand, presumably with a triumphant ending.
----------------------------------------------------------------------Frederic Chopin
Polish-French composer and pianist
Born: March 1 1810, near Warsaw
Died: October 17, 1849, Paris
Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor, Op.21
Maestoso
Larghetto
Allegro vivace
First Classics performance: March 5, 1946, conducted by William Steinberg, with pianist Artur
Rubinstein; most recent performance: November 13, 1999, conducted duration 30 minutes
Born near Warsaw of a Polish mother and a French father, Chopin's exceptional gifts were
spotted very early on. However, his family and teachers decided that the young genius would not
be exploited in the manner of the child Mozart, to whom he was often compared. Yet all of
Warsaw understood that its enfant cherie would one day have no choice but to leave for the
exciting milieus of the artistic capitols of Europe. For his part, Frederic also knew it would not be
enough to reach out as a keyboard virtuoso - he would also be expected to present new music by
his own hand, like Mozart and Beethoven before him. In relatively short order, he scored and
premiered two piano concertos during 1829-30, his final year at home. And at the age of nineteen
they would be the only concertos to energe from his lyrical pen. (A curious detail, as in the case
of Beethoven's first two piano concertos: the numbering of the concertos was inverted because
they were published in reverse order.)
But with regard to the real purpose behind the new concertos, cherchez la femme: Chopin had
fallen hopelessly in love with a beautiful and gifted young soprano, Constantia Gladowska, a
fellow student at the Warsaw Conservatory. In letters to his friends the composer later admitted
that the concertos were scored as secret valentines for his desiderata - as he had yet to find the
courage to present himself to her in person. He wrote:
"Perhaps to my own misfortune I have already found my ideal, whom I worship faithfully
and sincerely. Six months have elapsed, and I haven't yet exchanged a syllable with her of
whom I dream every night - she who was doubly in mind when I composed the second
movement Larghetto."
Most historians infer that Chopin never returned to the concerto form because he found his
preferred style in works for solo piano - the Nocturnes, Ballades, Mazurkas, Waltzes, etc. But
given the composer's Byronic disposition, this is far from likely. In the very least we must
acknowledge the possibility that Chopin never returned to the concerto form just as he never
returned to his beloved Poland - just as he could never return to his beloved Constantia. The pair
eventually became friends, although - with her feet on the ground - the young woman married a
Warsaw businessman not long after. But until his untimely death Frederic kept her letters hidden
among his personal effects. Bundled in a small packet, they were found neatly tied with a ribbon,
in his own hand titled - 'My Sorrow.'
But as for the music of Op.21 one finds nothing sorrowful in the least. The orchestra raises the
curtain with a fully symphonic introduction, beautifully scored with lush resonance in the strings
and eloquent lyrics in the woodwinds. With a striking peal the soloist enters proudly, like a
Cavalier with a lofty mission - to ride the winds of rhapsody and desire. And of course, Chopin's
poetic turn of phrase sparkles through every bar, poised over the orchestral mist.
The second movement Larghetto offers a sublime balance, standing in as the slow interlude of a
classical concerto. But listeners often sense this reverie in A-flat major is really a kind of prelude
to Chopin's later Nocturnes - tender and soulful - midnight jasmine in the concert air. Music
more lovely has never been scored.
Stand by for the bright-hearted third movement - the Allegro vivace hits the ground in a mazurkalike scamper. Carefree in breezy F major, the movement dances with joyful folk-like turns,
complete with a pastoral horn fanfare later on. In addition to all the fun, the pianist gets a
virtuoso workout to the max, with lightning cascades and ornaments unlimited. Simply
wonderful.
----------------------------------------------------------------------Mieczyslaw Karlowicz
Polish composer and conductor
Born: December 11, 1876, Wiszniewo, Lithuania
Died: February 8, 1909, Tatra Mountains
Symphonic Poem "A Sad Tale"
These are the first performances of this work on the Classics series; duration 18 minutes
Born in Lithuania, Mieczyslaw Karlowicz began his musical life with violin lessons at age seven.
His formative education initiated in Germany, and concluded at the Gorki School in Warsaw.
Karlowicz then returned to Germany where he pursued advanced instruction at the University of
Berlin, studying violin with Florian Zajic and composition with Heinrich Urban. During that
time, Karlowicz found a deep affinity to the fables and legends in the operas of Richard Wagner,
and to the symbolic tone poems of Tchaikovsky and Richard Strauss. Consistent with the spirit of
his own place and time, Karlowicz likewise scored a series of six tone poems, including the
current work A Sad Tale, which he completed just a few weeks before his passing in a mountain
climbing accident. His catalog also includes a collection of about twenty songs, the Renaissance
Symphony of 1901, and a violin concerto in 1902.
About the nature and style of Karlowicz's settings, a brief digression is worthy: The artistic
heritage of Eastern Europe has two distinct and very opposite sides - one marked by sheer joy
and exalted beauty, the other replete with regret and sorrow, even remorse. The dichotomy can be
found everywhere - in legends, painting, literature, ballet and music. On the lighter side, there are
many national legends, folk songs and dances that are full of zest and bright energy. But
sometimes the darker side gets prime time. For example, Liszt described the inscrutable Zal of
the Polish spirit, where even the happiest and most lovely moments are tempered by a sense of
'the inevitable.'
Likewise, the heart-strong scores of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff contain many such
references, i.e. the former's Pathétique symphony, and the many 'Day of Wrath' fragments by
Rachmaninoff. Other poignant examples include a few deep shadows from Chopin, as well as a
gallery of soul-searching expressions from Vienna, e.g. Mahler, Schönberg and Webern. (Yet, for
their part, the Viennese try to keep perspective with a droll quip: "The situation is hopeless - but
not serious.")
In sum, from the inertia of time and tradition, Karlowicz's A Sad Tale finds a deserved place in
the genre. Without divulging a storyline per se, the composer noted the piece was intended to
convey a profound sorrow, and even contains a symbolic percussion "shot" near the close,
perhaps in memoriam - he never explained.
A Sad Tale begins darkly in low strings, with mysterious plaints in the clarinet and flutes. An
expansive tonal canvas conveys the mournful message in a continuing evolution of effects, with
many chromatic progressions and colors worthy of the Impressionist masters from Paris just a
few hundred kilometers to the west. In slow and steady turns, the story gathers momentum, rising
mid-way to a point of effervescent color, but only to recede again into the earth-bound darkness.
----------------------------------------------------------------------Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994)
Polish composer and conductor
Born: January 25, 1913, Warsaw
Died: February 9, 1994, Warsaw
Concerto for Orchestra
I Intrada:
Allegro maestoso
II Capriccio Notturno e Arioso:
Vivace, stesso movimento
III Passacaglia, Toccata e Corale:
Andante con moto
First Classics performance: February 15, 1976, conducted by Jorge Mester; most recent
performance: December 1, 1990, conducted by Gregory Nowak; duration 29 minutes
Lutoslawski enjoys a permanent place among 20th century composers. With Krzystof Penderecki
he shares the credit for reestablishing Poland's esteem in the world of serious music.
Witold's musical life began with piano lessons at age six in his native Warsaw. He later
continued with advanced instruction at the Warsaw Conservatory where he studied composition
with Karol Szymanowski and Witold Maliszewski, the latter a pupil of Nikolai RimskyKorsakov. However, in the course of his formal development, political pressures from Russia and
Germany created many personal hardships. While serving in the Polish army as a radio operator,
he was taken prisoner during the Nazi invasion in 1939. A similar fate befell his brother, who
died in a Nazi prison camp. For his part, Witold managed a risky escape - through many perilous
nights he walked 400 kilometers back to Warsaw. He was bold enough to hide in plain sight,
playing popular music and his own folk arrangements in Warsaw's cafés and cabarets. But during
the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, he managed to escape once again, this time with his future bride,
as more than 90% of Warsaw was destroyed by the Nazi bombardments.
Fortunately, the post-war period enabled Lutoslawski to resume his long-delayed work as a
composer. His full catalog comprises two symphonies, a variety of chamber music based on
Polish motifs. and many smaller works with French derivations. He was also fascinated by
aleatoric techniques (chance music), and devised his own method of 12-tone composition as an
alternative to the Viennese school. With regard to style, Lutoslawski was influenced by Debussy,
Stravinsky and Béla Bartók, whose Concerto for Orchestra of 1943 provided keen inspiration.
Lutoslawski's own Concerto for Orchestra of 1954 reflects tunes and fragments borrowed from
Polish folk music, although many of the references are subtle and coy. The Intrada opens with
an intense melodic fragment which serves as well as the musical DNA for the movements which
follow.
Capriccio Notturno is a scherzo which opens with flying strings and high woodwinds, with
darting articulations in a kind of rhythmic Pointillism. In turn, heralding brass and percussion
mark the volcanic Arioso. But in a moment the rhythmic figurines return, heard in the lower
strings over restless percussion.
A classic Passacaglia is conjured in the opening statement of the third movement: a theme in the
lower registers of the orchestra, followed by variations. The low pulsing of the primary motif
continues its long trek through the movement, until the full brass picks up the tune with lava-melt
sonorities. But the eruption blends into the clouds of unison strings just prior to the daunting
Tocatta, marked with repeating chords. In turn follows a prelude to the Corale and its fugue,
with fragments from the earlier Capriccio. In a moment the brass choir translates the scene into a
recap of the Corale through to the final flourish.
P.S. Your devoted annotator had the immense pleasure of meeting Lutoslawski some years ago in
Warsaw at the Autumn Festival. Genial and modest, Lutoslawski confirmed his reputation as an
erudite and deeply circumspect composer. He noted that his musical ideas reached fruition only
after a long period of emotional and mental editing. He also revealed a deep respect for the music
of the past, and observed that he generally composed with one eye on history and the other on
posterity - a view altogether consistent with his Concerto for Orchestra.
----------------------------------------------------------------------Program Notes by Edward Yadzinski