Download Sunset in Stary Myszyniec Lullaby Melodie, Ein Böckchen

DUX 0866-7 / 2011
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Bronisław Kazimierz PRZYBYLSKI
My Home - Orchestral Works
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* Four Nocturnes from Kurpie for guitar and orchestra
Sunset in Stary Myszyniec
* In honorem Nicolai Copernici
* Four Nocturnes from Kurpie for guitar and orchestra
Lullaby
* Concerto polacco for accordion and orchestra
* Four Nocturnes from Kurpie for guitar and orchestra
* Sinfonia da Requiem for voice and orchestra
* Four Nocturnes from Kurpie for guitar and orchestra
* A Varsovie for orchestra
* Folklore – suite for string orchestra
Melodie, Ein Böckchen, Hirtenlied , Tanz
* Sinfonia polacca for orchestra
* Return for orchestra
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Jan Oberbek – guitar
Paweł Paluch – accordion
Jadwiga Gadulanka – soprano
Polish Radio and Television Orchestra in Cracow
National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Bogusław Dawidow – conductor
Zdzisław Szostak – conductor
Szymon Kawalla – conductor
Jerzy Katlewicz – conductor
Antoni Wit – conductor
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DUX Małgorzata Polańska & Lech Tołwiński ul. Morskie Oko 2, 02-511 Warszawa
tel./fax (48 22) 849-11-31, (48 22) 849-18-59
e-mail: [email protected], www.dux.pl
Aleksandra Kitka-Coutellier – International Relations [email protected]
In Polish symphonic music of the 1970s and 80s, the orchestral works by Bronisław Kazimierz Przybylski (1941-2011)
stand out for their ideological message, their deep roots in tradition, history and culture. These manifest themselves in
references to Polish folklore and the use of folk melodies in various musical contexts, as well as in taking up the subjects
of particular relevance for the time and place in which the composer lived and worked. Przybylski’s symphonic
compositions contain references to tragic chapters of 20th-century history – the war, martyrdom, the Holocaust (A
Varsovie, Sinfonia da Requiem, Lacrimosa 2000) as well as to patriotic and social themes (Sinfonia polacca dedicated to
‘Poles who fell for their Homeland’, Sinfonia-Affresco – a large-scale fresco dedicated to workers). Also present in
Przybylski’s music are a broader cultural perspective (Guernica – Pablo Picasso in memoriam) and eschatological threads
(ballet score Miriam – Misterio di morte, Concerto della morte e della vita), as well as a cosmological theme (In honorem
Nicolai Copernici).
The diversity of themes, which reflects the composer’s faith in music’s ability to communicate extra-musical content, is
coupled with a stylistic diversity, which stems from the conviction that the selection of compositional techniques is always
secondary, remaining in the service of a supreme idea or the destination of a given piece. The present recording
therefore contains examples of tonal language, with traditional types of textures and a wide range of genres (Concerto
polacco) and of tonal clashes (as explored by Chopin in his Mazurka in C sharp minor Op.6 No.2), alongside the sonorism
of A Varsovie and the profusely dissonant harmonic writing of In honorem Nicolai Copernici.
Four Nocturnes from Kurpie (1973) – colourful images for solo instrument (harp or guitar), with a discreet, subtle
orchestral background – draws on Polish folklore. The three subtitles – Zachód słońca w Starym Myszyńcu (Sunset in
Stary Myszyniec), Ciemna noc nad Charcibałdą (Dark Night over Charcibałda) and KsięŜyc w Puszczy Zielonej (The Moon
in Green Forest) – clearly show that the composer was inspired not only by the music of the region of Kurpie but also by
its special atmosphere and character. Przybylski also employed folklore in Concerto polacco for accordion and orchestra.
Written specially for young performers, it combines folk rhythms and melodies using traditional textures and genres.
In Folklore (1983), a suite for string orchestra, Przybylski incorporates Taniec (Dance), composed eleven years earlier, as
its last movement. Its combination of simple, diatonic folk melodies with chromaticism and the sonoristic devices was
adopted by the composer as the structural pattern for the remaining movements: Melodia (Melodie, Melody), Koziołek
(Ein Böckchen, Billy Goat) and Pastuszek (Hirtenlied, Shepherd Boy). The folk material is subjected to a far greater
transformation in Return (1984), whose title points not only to the composer’s return to his folk roots but also to the
presence of an evolutionally treated recapitulation.
In honorem Nicolai Copernici was written in 1972 as a tribute to the great astronomer on the 500th anniversary of his
birth. Almagest, the first of the work’s four atmospheric movements, presents the Prolemaic theory of the universe and
refers to the rich tradition of the musical illustration of the concept of the spheres. ‘What is this sound that fills my ears,
so loud and sweet? This is that sound, which divided in intervals, unequal, indeed, yet still exactly measured in their fixed
proportion, is produced by the impetus and movement of the spheres themselves, and blending sharp tones with grave,
therewith makes changing symphonies in unvarying harmony. For not only is it impossible that such vast movements
should sweep on in silence; but, by a natural law, the outermost parts on the one side give a grave, and on the other a
sharp sound. Wherefore the highest of all, the celestial zone equipped with stars, whose revolution is more swift, moves
with a sharp, high note; while this one of the moon, as it is the lowest, with the deepest tone of all’. (Cicero, The Dream
of Scipio, trans. W.D. Pearman). In the first movement, this harmony of the spheres is created by suspended notes in the
parts of wind instruments against a background of a perfect fifth played by the double-basses throughout the first
movement. The fifth-based patterns, coupled with the sound of the organ which realizes a chorale melody, imbues
Almagest with an archaic flavour, which is not evident in the last movement, despite far-reaching similarities between the
two.
The second movement – Planetarium – reflects the richness and complexity of the universe, whereas the last two
movements, Commentariolus and De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, whose titles have been taken from the
astronomer’s own titles, correspond to the two phases, an early and advanced phase of perceiving and describing the
new order in the outer space. The solemn and ceremonial atmosphere of the last movement, introduced by the
triumphant sound of the trumpet intoning the first notes of the chorale, does not last long, giving way to sinister sounds
of the tuba, with its distant echo of the Dies irae sequence.
During his postgraduate studies in Vienna in 1975, Przybylski wrote an hour-long monumental Requiem ‘To the memory
of children – war victims’ for solo voices, choir and symphony orchestra. In it, he used shocking texts from two books
published in the early 1960s: Dzieci polskie oskarŜają (Polish Children Accuse) by Józef Wnuk and Helena RadomskaStrzemęcka and Za drutami (Behind Barbed Wire), edited by Ludwik Rajewski. The texts from the requiem mass –
Requiem aeternam, Dies irae, Tuba mirum, Lacrimosa – are placed alongside fragments of accounts by the victims of
war, recited in Polish. The depth of emotional expression in the work and its formal design may be seen as the
composer’s reference to Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem (1961) and to Arnold Schönberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw
(1947).
The Requiem ‘To the memory of children – war victims’ has never been performed, a fact which prompted the composer
to combine three of its sections: III Lamentatio, V Dramatico, and VII Finale into Sinfonia da Requiem (with the solo part
in Lamentatio scored for soprano or oboe and the choral part by a group of violins con sordino). Even though the
instrumental forces employed by Przybylski are enriched by a soprano vocalize. Sinfonia da Requiem is permeated by a
mood of tragedy, of suffering and poignant expression.
Return for orchestra, inspired by folk music, was described by the composer as a ‘quasi symphonic poem’. In A Varsovie,
Przybylski also harks back to the tradition of this romantic genre of programme music. Completed in January 1981, the
work had its premiere on 4 November 1982 at the festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music in Graz. In
a commentary to the piece published in the programme book of the Warsaw Autumn Festival in 1984, the composer
wrote: ‘the idea of the composition is linked to the reflections on the history of this heroic city, which has gone through
many tragic experiences’. He stressed the symbolic meaning of the eight-bar quotation from Chopin’s Mazurka in C sharp
minor, Op.6 No.2. Repeated many times, it creates a kind of ‘loop’, which plays a background role to the dramatic action
unfolding elsewhere in the piece.
What we are confronted with, therefore, is a postmodernist ‘play’ between tradition and modernity, with the composer
creating tension between the old and the new. The sounds of the mazurka reach the listener from beneath the orchestral
layer, as it were, showing through in places where the sound material is thinnest. Przybylski also attempts to blend
stylistically diverse elements into a qualitatively new whole (the heterophonic fragment which opens and rounds off A
Varsovie is a ‘synthetic’ treatment of the Mazurka). A similar structural pattern can be seen in Sinfonia polacca, a work in
which its climax (Festivo), which is the crowning of the sequence Subito, Lamentoso, Deciso, Animato, combines a
chorale-like harmonization of the medieval song Bogurodzica (Mother of God) with a dramatic, sonoristic context.
The overall idea of the CD My Home, which contains Przybylski’s most important orchestral pieces, came from the
composer himself. Sadly, the project came to fruition only after his death. With its well-thought-out concept, the selection
of the pieces and their ordering, the recording gives good insights into the composer’s musical poetics and, for all the
diversity of the devices employed, shows his clearly recognizable idiom, at the same time introducing an artist who did
not remain indifferent to the problems and issues which he deemed to be of importance.
Ewa Kowalska-Zając
Translated by Michał Kubicki
Bronisław Kazimierz PRZYBYLSKI was born on 11 December 1941 in Łódź. He was a prominent composer and a
highly respected teacher and organizer of musical life in his native town. He graduated from the State Higher School of
Music in Łodź (now the Music Academy), where he studied music theory with Franciszek Wesołowski (diploma in 1964)
and composition with Tomasz Kiesewetter (diploma in 1969). He continued his compositional studies with Bolesław
Szabelski in Katowice (1965-67) and Roman Haubenstock-Ramati at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in
Vienna (1975-77).
From 1963 till the end of his life, he served as a member of faculty of his Alma Mater (from 1992 as Professor). He was
Deputy Rector for academic affairs (1978-81), Dean of the Department of Composition and Music Theory (1987-90) and
Head of the Faculty of Composition (from 1991). For over twenty years (from 1987) he led a composition class, also
lecturing in Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. He was the initiator of the bi-annual ‘Musica moderna’ sessions
at the Academy. Launched in 1982, they featured a wide range of concerts and lectures on contemporary music.
Bronisław Kazimierz Przybylski was a prizewinner of numerous competitions, including two major international events:
the UNESCO International Composers’ Rostrum in Paris (1984, Fourth Prize for A Varsovie for orchestra) and Premio di
Composizione per letteratura pedagogica CEMEX Opere segnalate, Castelfidardo (1995, for Maskerade for accordion
solo). His honours included the award from the Minister of Culture and Art (1974, 1980, 1991), the Honorary Badge of
Merit of the City of Łódź, the Gold and Silver Crosses of Merit, the medal of the Commission for National Education, the
Prime Minister’s Award for his achievements in the art for children, the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Reborn Poland and
the awards from the Rector of the Music Academy in Łódź. He was a member of the ZAiKS Authors and Composers
Association (from 1971) and the Polish Composers’ Union (from 1975, also Chairman of its Łódź Branch from 1986).
B.K. Przybylski’s works were featured at many prestigious festivals in Poland and abroad, including the Warsaw Autumn,
Poznań Musical Spring, Musica Polonica Nova in Wrocław, the Festival of Premieres in Katowice, the World Music Days in
Tel-Aviv, Musikprotokoll in Graz and the Composers’ Rostrum in Paris. They were also performed in many European
countries, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, the South African Republic and New Zealand.
B.K. Przybylski died in his home town of Łódź on 4 April 2011, after a long and serious illness.
Principal compositions: Quattro studi (1970), Suite of Polish dances (1971), In honorem Nicolai Copernici (1972), Scherzi
musicali for string orchestra (1973), Memento (1973), Concerto polacco for accordion and orchestra (1973), Four
Nocturnes from Kurpie for harp (guitar) and string orchestra (1973), Guernica – Pablo Picasso in memoriam (1974),
Sinfonia polacca (1974, 1978), Capriccio for violin (1976), Requiem for soprano, 2 reciters, children’s choir and orchestra
(1976), Sinfonia da Requiem (1976), Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra (1976), Arnold Schönberg in memoriam for
string quartet (1977), Asteroeides I – V for accordion quintet (1978), A Varsovie (1980), Sinfonia-Corale (1981), SinfoniaAffresco (1982), Programme ‘S’ – hommage a Karol Szymanowski for piano and string orchestra (1982), In memoriam, 4
songs for voice and chamber ensemble to texts by Polish poets dedicated to the memory of Karol Szymanowski (1982),
Folklore for string orchestra (1983), Sinfonia-Anniversario (1983, 1995), Concerto per clavicembalo e archi (1983), Return
– quasi symphonic poem (1984), Miriam – Misterio di morte, ballet music (1985), Midnight Echoes Music for string
orchestra (1985), Concerto classico for accordion and orchestra (1986), Musica concertante for organ and percussion
(1986), Summer-Multiplay (1990), Six For Six – Six Phases for Six Instruments (1990), Lacrimosa 2000 for string
orchestra (1991), Scherzi-Trio for violin, cello and piano (1992), Winter-Multiplay (1993), Biblical Scenes for voice and
string orchestra, with words by R. M. Rilke, trans. by M. Jastrun (1995), Tableaux – hommage a Vincent van Gogh for
piano/harpsichord (1995), Cadenza for accordion (1996), 24 Capricci for accordion (1996-97), Inscription au PèreLachaise (1998), Missa Papae Joannis Pauli Secundi for soprano, mixed choir and symphony orchestra (1998), Metal
Construction – Katarzyna Kobro in memoriam for percussion ensemble (1998), Atma-Multiplay for oboe, piano and
chamber string orchestra (1998, 2004), Déja vu quintette for piano and string quartet (2000), WybrzeŜa pełne ciszy (The
Seaside Full of Silence) for soprano, vibraphone, 3 tam-tams and string quartet, with words by Karol Wojtyła (2003),
Sinfonia-Cantata ‘Myśląc Ojczyzna’ (Thinking about Homeland) for mezzo-soprano, bass, mixed choir and symphony
orchestra, with words by Karol Wojtyła (2004), On the Way for string quartet (2004), A-na-Capri for accordion quintet
(2005), Masurian Lakes for accordion quintet (2005), Feelings for chamber ensemble (2006), Misterium Fidei for string
quartet and percussion (2007), Dobro i zło (Good and Evil), cantata for children’s choir, reciter and string orchestra
(2008), The Night Flight for string/accordion ensemble (2008), The Sleep of Reason for chamber ensemble (2008), Tutto
é sciolto for soprano and chamber orchestra (2010), Erlkönig for accordion ensemble (2010), North for alto saxophone in
E flat and symphony orchestra (2011).