|
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. "
|
