Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Polish Composer

Witold Lutoslawski A 20th Century Giant

He was regarded by some as the greatest Polish composer since Chopin. He certainly made his mark on music of the 20th century.

Witold Lutoslawski’s early works were influenced by Polish folk music, but as he matured, he began to experiment with twelve-tone and aleatoric techniques. (Aleatoric, broadly speaking, describes a kind of music in which certain aspects of a performance are left to chance.) However, he never wholly abandoned the traditional melodic and harmonic signposts that allowed his music to remain comprehensible to a broader audience.

Several of Lutoslawski’s major works were played in Philadelphia during my peak concertgoing years, back in the ‘80s and ‘90s. I remember seeing Lynn Harrell play the Cello Concerto there. However, I was shut out of the old Academy of Music when the composer himself came to conduct a complete program of his own music. Disappointing, to be sure, but also heartening that so many listeners cared enough to attend a concert of contemporary music by a living composer.

A most enjoyable introduction to Lutoslawski is his “Variations on a Theme by Paganini” (1941). This is a surviving relic of the war years, during which public gatherings in Warsaw were banned by the Nazis. The composer was able to get around it by forming a piano duo with Andrjez Panufnik that played in the local cafes. Here, Princeton’s own Christina and Michelle Naughton perform:

Of the orchestral works, this one is easy enough to follow – the Symphonic Variations (1939):

Then give a listen to the Concerto for Orchestra (1950-54). Just don’t go into it expecting anything like Béla Bartók’s late masterpiece!

Also folk-inflected is “Dance Preludes” for clarinet and piano (1954):

More challenging is the Cello Concerto (1970), with the introduction of chance elements:

Another one of his more frequently performed works – the Symphony No. 3 (1973-83):

And a documentary that begins with a man-on-the-street segment, “Do you know, who is Witold Lutoslawski?”

Happy birthday, W.L.!

PHOTO: The composer at the keyboard in 1952-53

January 25, 2022
Discover Grazyna Bacewicz Polish Composer

“I believe this is the most brilliant woman composer who ever was,” conductor Mariusz Smolij once said to me, concerning Grazyna Bacewicz.

And he should know. Smolij, music director of the Riverside Symphonia, based in Lambertville, has an intimate familiarity with the music of his compatriot, having recorded her works for the Naxos label.

But don’t take his word for it. Join me this afternoon on The Classical Network, as we’ll have a chance to sample some of it on the occasion of her birthday anniversary.

Bacewicz, who lived from 1909 to 1969, studied at the Warsaw Conservatory and then in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. She is a most interesting, almost paradoxical figure, in that her music embraces a kind of cosmopolitan neo-classicism, but not at the expense of the folk inflections of her native Poland.

She was an adept violinist and pianist, who survived a serious automobile accident. It ended her career as a performer, but allowed her to concentrate wholly on composition for the last 15 years of her life. She remained an energetic and prolific presence, also writing novels, short stories and memoirs.

Though she is sometimes classified as a musical conservative, she retained her curiosity, in regard to all the most recent developments, and was always on the lookout for ways to expand her horizons as an artist. She composed four symphonies, 12 concertos, chamber and instrumental works, opera and ballet, incidental music and film scores.

Smolij’s recording of Bacewicz’s Concerto for String Orchestra, of 1948, will be among my featured works, between 4 and 6 p.m. EST.

Stick around – we’ll also salute the late pianist Peter Serkin, with performances of music by Max Reger and Mozart, on “Music from Marlboro,” beginning at 5:55. Note the special start time!

Best just to tune in by 4:00 and let it go at that, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

February 5, 2020
New Chopin Photo Discovered Rare Portrait Found

For those of you creepy Chopin stalkers looking to add to your Chopin shrines (we’re looking at you, George Sand), here’s a newly discovered photographic portrait of the great Polish pianist and composer.

Until now, there were only two Chopin photos known to be in existence. The second was rediscovered in 1936.

http://jackgibbons.blogspot.com/2010/03/chopins-photograph.html

Now pardon me while I do my Buffalo Bill dance.

January 17, 2017
Grazyna Bacewicz Polish Composer Spotlight

“I believe this is the most brilliant woman composer who ever was.” So says conductor Mariusz Smolij about Grazyna Bacewicz.

Smolij, known in the Greater Delaware Valley as Music Director of the Riverside Symphonia, based in Lambertville, NJ, joins me this week on “The Lost Chord,” for the second installment in a two-part series, to talk about his recording projects for the Naxos label. His recorded repertoire focuses on neglected music by Eastern European composers, from Hungary, from his native Poland, and, in the case of Ernest Bloch, from Jewish tradition.

Bacewicz, who lived from 1909 to 1969, studied at the Warsaw Conservatory and then in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. She is a most interesting, Janus-like figure, her music embracing a kind of cosmopolitan neo-classicism, but not at the expense of her Polish heritage. She was an adept violinist and pianist, who survived a serious automobile accident that allowed her to concentrate wholly on composition for the last 15 years of her life. She remained energetic and prolific, also writing novels, short stories and memoirs. Though she is sometimes classified as a musical conservative, she retained her curiosity in regard to new developments in composition and was always on the lookout for ways to expand her horizons as an artist. She composed four symphonies, 12 concertos, chamber and instrumental works, opera and ballet, incidental music and film scores.

Smolij, who has directed the Riverside Symphonia for over 20 years, is also music director of the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra and Conservatory of Music in Lafayette, LA, and formerly associated with the Houston Symphony Orchestra and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. He has taught conducting at the School of Music at Northwestern University and was a founding violinist of the internationally acclaimed Penderecki String Quartet.

Only I would elect to highlight music by a great woman composer on Father’s Day. Consider it payback for the year I did an Odysseus show on Mother’s Day!

I hope you’ll join me for “Topping the Poles” – Mariusz Smolij’s recordings of Grazyna Bacewicz, first lady of Polish music – this Sunday night at 10 EDT, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6; or listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

PHOTOS: Mariusz Smolij (left) and Grazyna Bacewicz

June 19, 2016
Karol Szymanowski: Seductive & Dangerous Music

Arguably the most important Polish composer of his generation, Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) absorbed the musical influences of Richard Strauss, Alexander Scriabin and Claude Debussy, and then put them through his own creative refinery. Listening to Szymanowski can be a bit like submerging oneself too long in a hot bath – the same low blood-pressure, the increased heart rate, the wooziness. Though the harmonies and melodies suggest the familiar patterns of tonality, the traditional framework has been almost wholly eaten away by the hothouse atmosphere. The music is seductive and dangerous, and one risks being overcome by languor, even as one is overrun by fast-growing vegetation. It may be in poor taste to suggest that so much humidity was bad for the acute tuberculosis that eventually claimed him at the age 55.

Even so, happy birthday, Karol Szymanowski!

Symphony No. 2 (1910):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OMjbIdQBjc

Symphony No. 3 “Song of the Night” (1914):

PHOTO: Languid Szymanowski

October 6, 2015

Tag Cloud

RECENT POSTS