Karol Szymanowski

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Lore & Background

Szymanowski was born into the Korwin-Szymanowski family, wealthy Polish nobility from the Mazovia region. After the fall of the Kościuszko Uprising, his great-great grandfather Dominik was exiled to Dnieper Ukraine; his grandfather Feliks settled in Tymoszówka, then in the Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire. His mother came from a Baltic German family from Courland. He studied music privately with his father before enrolling at the Gustav Neuhaus Elisavetgrad School of Music in 1892, then at the State Conservatory in Warsaw from 1901 to 1905. He later served as its director from 1926 until retiring in 1930. In Berlin, he founded the Young Polish Composers' Publishing Company (1905–1912). During World War I, being lame in one knee made him unsuitable for military service; he composed many works and studied Islamic culture, ancient Greek drama, and philosophy. In 1918, he completed the manuscript of a two-volume novel, *Efebos*, which took homosexuality as its subject. Arthur Rubinstein recalled Szymanowski saying after visiting Sicily: 'There, I saw a few young men bathing who could be models for Antinous. I couldn't take my eyes off them.' Szymanowski settled in Warsaw in 1919.

Reader's Guide

Szymanowski's significance lies in his stylistic evolution. His early works, like the Étude Op. 4 No. 3 and first two symphonies, show late Romantic and Scriabinesque influences. His second period, represented by the Third Symphony and Violin Concerto No. 1, is impressionistic and partially atonal. His third period was influenced by the folk music of the Polish Górale people, as in the ballet *Harnasie*, the Fourth Symphony, and his Mazurkas. *King Roger*, composed between 1918 and 1924, remains his most popular opera. He was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta and the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. In the 1920s and 1930s, his music was performed worldwide by soloists like Arthur Rubinstein, Paweł Kochański, and Joseph Szigeti, and conductors like Leopold Stokowski and Willem Mengelberg. A performance of *King Roger* in Prague on 21 October 1932 was a huge success. His *Stabat Mater* was performed in Naples, Paris, New York, Chicago, and elsewhere. English conductor Sir Simon Rattle called Szymanowski 'one of the greatest composers of this [20th] century.'

Did You Know?

• Szymanowski completed a two-volume novel, *Efebos*, in 1918 that took homosexuality as its subject; the manuscript is now mostly lost.
• He was lame in one knee, which made him unsuitable for military service in World War I.
• His great-great grandfather Dominik was exiled from Poland to Dnieper Ukraine after the fall of the Kościuszko Uprising in 1794.
• Szymanowski's *Stabat Mater* was performed in Naples, Paris, Liège, New York, Chicago, and Worcester in the 1920s and 1930s.
• In 2004, Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti won the BBC Young Musician of the Year with a performance of Szymanowski's Violin Concerto No. 1.