Karol Szymanowski, born 1882, spent his childhood in Tymoszowka, Ukraine. He started to learn to play the piano in 1889, his father being his first teacher. Then he learned from Gustaw Neuhaus in the Elizawetgrad School of Music, and later became a student of Marek Zawirski (harmony) and Zygmunt Noskowski (counterpoint and composition) in Warsaw in 1901-05. At that time Szymanowski met Pawel Kochanski, Artur Rubinstein, Grzegorz Fitelberg, Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz "Witkacy" and Stefan Zeromski. In 1905, accompanied by Witkacy, he travelled to Italy for the first time. In the same year he set up a Company of Young Polish Composers together with Grzegorz Fitelberg, Ludomir Rozycki and Apolinary Szeluto. Operating under the patronage of Wladyslaw Lubomirski, the Company promoted works by contemporary Polish composers. Soon it became known as the "YOUNG POLAND" and its members had concerts of their compositions arranged in Warsaw and Berlin in 1906. In 1906-07 Szymanowski made several trips to Berlin and Leipzig, and in 1908 travelled again to Italy. Having settled down in Vienna in 1912, he established contact with Universal-Edition and signed a ten-year contract. In 1914 Szymanowski made another trip to Italy and Sicily, to South Africa, Paris and London, and in 1915-16 he travelled to Kiev, Moscow and St Petersburg. The October Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 forced Szymanowski to leave Tymoszowka. He was never to return there. The composer moved to Elizawetgrad to settle down in Warsaw in 1919. In 1921 he travelled to the United States with Pawel Kochanski and Artur Rubinstein. May 1922 saw a tremendously successful concert of his compositions in Paris. In August of the same year he came to Zakopane for the first time since the end of World War I, and made it his regular destination. Szymanowski's artistic interests started to veer more and more towards Polish folk music, especially that of Podhale and Kurpie regions. Refusing to accept the position of Director of the Cairo Conservatory in 1926, Szymanowski was appointed Master of the Warsaw Conservatory, a post he held from 22 February 1927 to 31 August 1929. In 1929 he went for a treatment to a sanatorium in Edlach , Austria , and then to Davos , Switzerland. He was the Master of the Higher School of Music in Warsaw (now the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music) from 1 September 1930 to 30 April 1932 . Since 1930 he settled down in Zakopane, in the Villa Atma. Concerts of his own compositions took him to France in 1933-36. 1935 was marked by the only meeting of Szymanowski and Witold Lutoslawski, Poland 's other greatest twentieth century composer. In November 1935 Szymanowski left the Atma forever. Throughout 1937 he stayed a few times at a sanatorium in Grasse, France. In March 1937 he arrived at a sanatorium in Lausanne, where he died. In 1994 EMI launched a recording of three compositions by Szymanowski: LITANIA DO MARII PANNY / LITANY TO VIRGIN MARY, STABAT MATER and III SYMFONIA / SYMPHONY NO. 3 with Elzbieta Szmytka, Florence Quivar, John Connell, Jon Garrison and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Simon Rattle, whose brilliant world-wide career was just starting, was the conductor. Asked about Szymanowski's music, Simon Rattle said: "I cannot talk objectively about Szymanowski, for you cannot expect objectivity or reasonability from someone in love. And reasonability is out of place when this music is concerned, anyway." Another world-famous director, Charles Dutoit, recorded both of Szymanowski's violin concertos with his Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal and with Chantal Juillet, the Canadian violinist, as the soloist. The recording was launched by Decca in 1994. This is what Dutoit says about Szymanowski's music: "We are very fond of Szymanowski's music. It is so extraordinarily vivid, full of wonderful colours and, in this sense, seems rather unlike Central European music. I think we play it quite well. We have already performed a number of works by Szymanowski, not only the violin concertos with Madame Juillet. We take this music all over the world, have played it in places like Buenos Aires and Tokyo . We have also played 'Symphony No. 3' and 4, the 'Concert Overture', the 'Stabat Mater'. There are not many orchestra pieces left. This music may not be very popular, but its time is coming. It has fascinated me for long. I have performed works by Szymanowski with all major American orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra. As a violinist I used to play the 'Fountain of Arethusa' from the 'Myths'. It is a piece every violinist should play."
