Karol Szymanowski - Biography
Karol Szymanowski who is generally regarded as the most important Polish composer after Chopin was born on his family estate in Timschovka now in the Ukraine on October 6th 1882 and died on March 28th 1937 in Lausanne Switzerland. The son of a wealthy landowning family he was instructed in music at an early age first by the eminent Russian pedagogue Gustav Neuhaus. When he was eighteen he was sent to Warsaw where he studied privately for three years under the well known teachers Zawinski and Noskowski, besides his compositional skills Szymanowski was a pianist of concert caliber. He already by this time composed a number of piano pieces including a set of Etudes and Preludes. One of his Etudes was incorporated into the world famous Polish pianist Paderewski’s repertoire. In these early years he formed a relationship with three young musicians the conductor Gregor Fitelberg, the great violinist Paul Kochanski and Artur Rubinstein that would have a great effect on 20th Century Polish music. Warsaw at the time was a provincial city in terms of music and Szymanowski felt that he needed to move to Berlin to mature as a musician. In 1909 while in Berlin he composed his First Symphony a work musically indebted to Richard Strauss which he eventually was to disown (He composed a Second Symphony a few years later that he was happier with). At the time he also composed a Second Piano Sonata a work which was far more successful and was performed often by his friend Rubinstein. His first opera Hagith brought him to Vienna where hi friend Fitelberg was now a conductor of the Vienna Opera At this point Szymanowski was highly influenced by Richard Strauss but encounters with Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Debussy’s Pelleas und Melisande changed his musical direction. Another new influence was the mystical Russian composer Scriabin. Before the outbreak of the First World War he was to travel all over Europe and North Africa absorbing the musical cultural currents particularly in Paris where he discovered Ravel .He also composed his two sets of Love Songs of Hafiz, the piece for soprano and orchestra Songs of the Fairy Tale Princess and the violin pieces Myths for Kochanski.
At the outbreak of the war Szymanowski moved back to the Ukraine. While at his estate at Timschovka during the war years he wrote his Symphony no. 3 ‘Song of the Night’ the piano pieces Masques and Metopes along with a number of songs and a Third Piano Sonata. As a consequence of the Russian Revolution the Szymanowski lost their Ukrainian estate and moved to Poland. During this period Szymanowski turned to literary pursuits he wrote a novel Efebos much of which was destroyed during the battle for Warsaw during the Second World. The theme of the novel is homoerotic Szymanowski was openly gay but at the same time devoutly Catholic and mystical in nature. His intensive studies of Greek, Roman and North African cultural history led him to believe being gay was not sinful something that was a natural sexual option an opinion not easily expressed in religiously conservative Poland without stern reaction. He was after the war to write a beautiful Opera King Roger that would have a gay subtext to the plot. It was not performed until 1926 and he extracted Roxane’s Song from it and arranged it as a violin piece for Kochanski.
Szymanowski was to go on a concert tour of America with Kochanski in 1920 which helped spread his name there Szymanowski upon his return to Poland became absorbed in the folk music of Tatras Mountains in southwest Poland where he spent time in a health resort to treat the early stages of tuberculosis. The outcome of this was to be his brilliant Ballet Harnasie. During this phase of his career he continued to write more songs which eventually were to catalogue of nearly 100 songs.
Szymanowski was now to enter a phase where he dedicated himself to sacred choral works. Perhaps his greatest work the Stabat Mater was wriiten in 1926. He also wrote Veni Creator, Demeter and Kurpie Songs for chorus. Another work from 1926 is the superb Polish Dances for Piano and fine set of 20 Mazurkas. The Polish Ministry of Education offered him the post of Director of the Warsaw Conservatory in 1926. He accepted but a combination of poor health and his aristocratic nature making him unable to cope with the usual academic intrigues forced him to resign within a few years. He wrote his Symphonie Concertante for piano and orchestra which he considered his Fourth Symphony a work Rubinstein performed regularly. He wrote the Second of his two fine Violin Concertos in 1933 along with another set of Mazurkas the following year. Szymanowski’s health was beginning to breakdown. The tuberculosis was spreading friends helped him to raise the money to go to a sanatorium in Lausanne but the disease was to far advanced and he was to die on March 28TH 1937.
Szymanowski was for many years a highly respected name but one that was relatively little known outside of Poland. He is a case similar to Bartok where a composer of an aristocratic nature was to balance being a national composer but at the same time compose music of universal significance. Bartok music was a more cutting edge composer and he lived the last years in wartime America which exposed him to a larger public. Due to recordings and particularly the high profile advocacy of conductor Sir Simon Rattle along with a ongoing series of his music in Naxos more people are beginning to realize what a master Szymanowski is.