Karol Szymanowski

Donald Macleod explores the myriad influences on the life’s work of Karol Szymanowski.

The reshaping of Europe at the end of the First World War had a defining effect on Polish composer Karol Szymanowski. As Europe was being reapportioned, the comfortable world he’d known up to that point disappeared for good. His family’s comfortable and cultured life disappeared, their assets wiped out by the October Revolution. From that point on, Szymanowski ceased to be a man of some privilege, able to compose in the relative seclusion of his family’s estate in what was then part of Ukraine. He needed to support himself and his mother and sisters but he found himself ill-equipped temperamentally to deal with this dramatic change in his lifestyle. He became increasingly weighed down by illness, quite probably tuberculosis. That, coupled with a chain-smoking habit and struggles with alcoholism, were to take their toll. He died in poverty at the age of just 54 in 1937.

Across the week, Donald Macleod explores five distinct influences on Szymanowski’s music, starting with his formative years growing up in a family with a passion for the arts. As a young student, his studies in Warsaw led him towards the language of Richard Strauss and Max Reger, while his love of travel directed him towards impressionism, the ancient world and the Orient. Meeting Stravinsky in Paris and hearing the Ballets Russe was another turning point, as was in his later years in particular, his commitment to establishing a national musical voice for the newly formed country of Poland.

Music featured: Study in G flat major, Op 4 No 2 The Swan, Op 7 L’île des sirènes (Métopes, Op 29) Violin Concerto No 1, Op 35 Songs of a Fairytale Princess, Op 31 Mazurka, Op 50 No 11 Desires; The infatuated east wind; Dance (Love Songs of Hafiz, Op 26) Concert Overture in E major, Op 12 Piano Sonata No 2 in A major, Op 21 (2nd movement) Symphony No 2 in B flat, Op 19 (1st movement) La fontaine d’Aréthuse (Mythes, Op 30) Sérénade de Don Juan (Masques, Op 34) Demeter, Op 37b String Quartet No 1 in C major, Op 37 (3rd movement) Symphony No 3, Op 27: The Song of the Night Study in B flat minor, Op 4 No 3 Penthesilea, Op 18 Thème varié 'Caprice No 24' (Three Paganini Caprices, Op 40) King Roger, Act 1 (excerpt) King Roger Act 2 (excerpt) Mazurkas, Op 50 Nos 1, 3, 6 Wanda, Op 46b No 5 Whip on the horse, Op 58 No 4 String Quartet No 2 (2nd movement) Harnasie, Op 55 (Tableau 1: In the mountain pasture) Symphony No 4, Op 60, 'Sinfonie concertante' (1st movement) Stabat Mater (excerpt) Mazurka, Op 62 No 1

Presented by Donald Macleod Produced by Johannah Smith for BBC Wales

For full tracklistings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for Karol Szymanowski https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dj02

And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z