Symphony of Rituals
for String Quartet
This work is dedicated to the memory of Karol Szymanowski, as Szalonek explains: ‘The notional and musical content, with allusions to folklore, leads me to the title Hommage à Szymanowski’. Hence, for Szalonek, creative work is not just innovation, but also tradition, referring to the musical past, to the names of the great composers: Bach, Chopin, Debussy and Szymanowski.
In 1997, during the 20th Karol Szymanowski Music Days in Zakopane, the Silesian Quartet gave the first performance of the second movement of this work. The first complete performance came in 2002 at the Warsaw Autumn, where the Silesian Quartet received the prestigious Orpheus award. As the members of the ensemble declare, this is one of the greatest string quartets, in terms of duration, emotional depth, intensity, refinement and subtlety of sound. The marked unity between the performers, on one hand, and the composer and the listeners, on the other, joined in an almost mystical rapture, can be felt from the opening ritual of tuning right through to the Finale alla danza, with its distinct inspirations from Podhale folklore.
Lilianna Moll-Gerlich
translated by John Comber
- Series: Camera
- ISMN 979-0-2740-1991-4
- Language of edition: pol, eng
- Number of pages: 96+34+36+34+34
- Cover: softcover
- No. of edition: 1
- Published: 2021
- Type: score and parts
- Size: N4 vertical (235x305 mm)
