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Anniversary Editions of Karol Szymanowski's Works
2012-02-22
This year marks the 130th anniversary of the birth and the 75th anniversary of the death of Karol Szymanowski (born October 3, 1882 in Tymoszówka, died March 29, 1937 in Lausanne). Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne is celebrating these anniversaries with a new critical edition of the Symphony I in F minor, Op. 15 and the Symphony II in B flat major, Op. 19 The first Symphony is one of the composer’s youthful works, clearly based on a Straussian model, sometimes very close to Wagner and Scriabin. It consists of two movements: Allegro pathétique and Allegretto. The composer himself was not completely happy with it, and in a letter he even wrote "this will be some contrapuntal-harmonic-orchestral monster, and in advance I already look forward to the thought that during playing this symphony at our concert in Berlin, the critics will be leaving the room with curses in their livid mouths."The Second Symphony was written in Tymoszówka, the composer’s home village. Its premiere took place on April 7, 1911 in the National Philharmonic. Performed in Poland and abroad, it received great critical acclaim, one of the reviews reported that “the Symphony in B flat major calls to the world in an irresistible voice that in the young Pole, Karol Szymanowski, a great hope for creative musical talent has appeared. (...) After this success, German tongues will also have to get used to his name.” The composer also referred to it sometimes even enthusiastically; in a letter he wrote "It has been a long time since I enjoyed something as much as the symphony. I feel that I have uncovered some new boxes of musical values, but not in the sense of ultra-modernism - on the contrary - this symphony is a little Zopf-Musik".
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