Na Mej Duszy Strunach - On The Strings Of My Soul

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Young Poland in music The composers of "Young Poland" rebelled against positivism, not trusting the belief that reason would explain and help solve the problems of man at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Various phenomena tumbled in the cultural melting pot, lined with the philosophical concept of Friedrich Nietzsche, with his ideas of Apollonian and Dionysian beauty, or fed by the pessimistic thought of Arthur Schopenhauer. Creators of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries sought a new kind of expression - also in the song genre, which became representative still of the Romantic era, with it's idea of feeling and believing. After all, in song, as in a drop of water, it is possible to express the universe of human emotions - both from the perspective of "I" (Ich-Lieder) and "YOU" (Du-Lieder), as one of the researchers of lyric, Mieczyslaw Tomaszewski, wrote about in his book From Confession to Crying. Studies on Romantic Song (Academy of Music in Krakow, 1997). For the composers chosen to be the protagonists of this album, song became an expression of deep feelings, referring both to the heritage of Culture and the Nature experienced, giving the internally shattered individual a state of solace and fulfilment, albeit temporary. The tone of poignant loneliness is shown in essence, among other things, by the opening stanza from the poem Zale ('Regrets') of Lucjan Rydel, set to music by Boleslaw Raczynski: "May I not stand so alone / With my sorrow and despair, / May the stars at least weep / Looking into my window". At the same time, the lyrical subject externalizes the desire to unite his existential pain with Nature, thus opening up a cosmological space. Karol Szymanowski significantly referred to the Young Poland formation - he was it's co-founder, along with Ludomir Rozycki, Apolinary Szeluto and Grzegorz Fitelberg. In an interview in "Kurier Poznanski" in 1932, he noted: "It brought, as it were, a protest against academism, and established contact with what was happening in the wide world: the main vertical of contemporary music. What we were going for (there were several of us [... ]) was to acquire a contemporary technique of composition: contemporary means of expression. We learned wherever we could learn something, and we carried it home. "1 In the poetics of grief, longing and nostalgia The composers immortalized on the album were Young Poland or modernist lyricists - their music was tinged with a longing and reflective note of nostalgia. A tone of sorrow, well known from the works of Fryderyk Chopin, is found in many of them. Henryk Opienski (1870-1942) in his Piesn majowa ('May Song') musicalized a poem by Marian Gawalewicz (1852-1910), a writer and publicist associated with Lviv. The final stanza sets a lyrical mood: "Let thecharm of spring surround you, / let your heart dream / Songs, lights, and scents / flow through the green grove". Boleslaw Raczynski (1879-1937), on the other hand, drew on the poetic texts of Lucjan Rydel. The message of the poetry brings an oneiric mood: "Later, earlier / The dream will shine through / And I will stop loving... / Under my eyelid / Tears are burning me, / Tears unbidden!" (Hania IX: Wiatry zwialy ten kwiat bialy /'The winds blew away... '). Jadwiga Sarnecka (1877-1913) selected stanzas with a transcendent dimension from poetry of Rydel: "Noisy whirlwind of deaf fields / Fly as far as possible, / Take with you the bitter pain, / What burns me in my heart". Juliusz Wertheim (1880-1928) also touched on the theme of nostalgia, drawing on the poem Wszystkich kwiatow mi nie trzeba ('I do not need all the flowers') by Wincenty Rapacki (1865-1943). One of the figures rightfully restored to musical culture is Jerzy Gablenz (1888-1937) - a musician and lawyer in one person (interestingly: the owner of a vinegar and mustard factory, later also a pickle factory). He had the personality of a songwriter: he composed more than eighty songs. Two of this rich collection are recorded on disc: Cudna promienna ('Wonderful radiant') and Snia mi sie cudne twe oczy ('I dream of your wonderful eyes') - both to words by Antoni Waskowski (1885-1966). Waskowski was a versatile figure: painter (he developed his style under the influence of his cousin Stanislaw Wyspianski), poet and writer, playwright, journalist and art critic, with a life integrally tied to Krakow. In the recalled songs - by Opienski, Raczynski, Sarnecka, Wertheim or Gablenz - word and sound form one coherent whole. Music flows, in melodic and sensual phrases, from the poetic text, it's intonation and key mood. It is not against, but enters into a harmonious relationship, consistent with the structure and meaning of the poems. It highlights meanings and senses, whether it becomes, according to Mieczyslaw Tomaszewski's classification, a lapidary lyric ("topos of a drop of water") or an ephemeral lyric ("topos of a starry sky"). Therefore, in songs composed in the "impressionistic" mode, the loosening of major-minor tonal rigor towards sensitivity to timbre, the creation of iridescent harmonies or the development of color sensualism is evident. On the other hand, in songs written in the "expressive" mode, tonal clarity and contrasts come to the fore, dynamizing the flow of music. As Kazimierz Wyka wrote: "Before 1900 [... ] lyrical impressionism was generally sufficient. But already at the peak of Young Poland [... ] the consequences of actual symbolism and expressionist tendencies make themselves known [... ]. "2 The phenomenon of Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer's poetry Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer (1865-1940) became the personification of Young Poland - he was called "the first Polish decadent" or "a born pessimist", whose attitudes became characterized by melancholy and unreconciliation with the world. He practiced mood and symbolist lyricism; Stanislaw Wyspianski cast him as a poet in his Wesele ('The Wedding'). In his poem-manifesto Koniec wieku XIX ('The End of the Nineteenth Century'), searching for ideals and values, Tetmajer stated: "But in the soul there is always something at the bottom / that among use desires, among pleasures demands. " His poetry combined contrasts and contradictions: sensuality with spirituality, the struggle for noble ideals with a sense of hopelessness, and what distinguishes it"musically" is the variability of moods. The tone of Tetmajer's poetry resonates in the songs of Wladyslaw Zelenski (1837-1921) - Blada roza ('Pale Rose'), Juliusz Wertheim (1880-1928) - Na mej duszy strunach ('On the strings of my soul'), Mieczyslaw Karlowicz (1876-1909) - Idzie na pola ('He goes to the fields'), and Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) - Daleko zostal caly swiat ('The whole world is far away'). It is worth mentioning that Karlowicz composed almost all of his lyric poems in one year - 1896, in his youthful style. At that time, among other things, he wrote ten compositions to the words of precisely Przerwa-Tetmajer; they belong to the so-called personal lyric: the composer identified himself with the lyrical subject. Karol Szymanowski is an example of an artist who wrote songs all his life. And it was in his song lyricism that changes in musical language took place, which then permeated into other genres - piano sonatas, violin concertos or symphonies. The essence of the composer's attitude is perfectly reflected in the title of Tadeusz A. Zielinski's book - Szymanowski. Lyric and Ecstasy (Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne, Krakow 1997). It focuses, as if through a lens, those qualities that, for the author of Stabat Mater and Harnasie, determine the essence of his individual style: the lyrical character of the statement, and at the same time the tendency to strong and expressive climaxes in the shaping of the sound narrative. Szymanowski's songs, like those of other Young Poland artists, became a record in sound of the artist's biography, a textualization of personal experiences and fascinations. Composing a lyric is first and foremost "writing yourself". Piano interludes in the garden of song Among the works on this album are piano compositions by a trinity of Young Poland composers. Szymanowski's Etude in B-flat minor was written in 1900-1902, as part of opus four, which the composer dedicated to Natalia (Tala) Neuhaus. It is the most famous of the etude four: it was even described in terms of the "Ninth Symphony. " It represents melodicism of a melancholic nature: Szymanowski reiterated that melodic ideas are always at the core of his works. The composition takes the form, as is common with the composer, of a dramaturgy of purpose: a sound narrative directed to a strong climax. Manual "etude" is subordinated here to intense expression. The figure of Jadwiga Sarnecka, composer and pianist - a pupil of Wladyslaw Zelenski (composition) and Theodor Leschetizky , among others - has been restored to culture, for years, by Marek Szlezer. Impression in C minor (Vivo. Con sentimento e passione) was lined with the style of Fryderyk Chopin. In 1910, Sarnecka was awarded second prize for her Fourth Ballade in a composer's competition held in Lviv to celebrate the centennial of Chopin's birth; the first prize was won by Szymanowski. The unique color of the Impression is created by the "obliquely" sounding chromaticism. Ludomir Rozycki (1884-1953) composed the 3 Polish Dances, Op. 37, in 1915. In these three piano miniatures - although not named as specific dances, but defined in a conventional way (Allegro moderato molto espressivo - Presto - Allegro con fuoco) - a danceability straight out of Fryderyk Chopin's mazurkas resonates and virtuosity in stylizing native folklore comes to thefore. In the first of the dances, for example, the imitation of a folk band (bourdon on an empty fifth) resounds. The dances, often performed in the interwar period, were very popular. We are, after all, not only from the tree of song, but also from the tree of dance. * Ignacy Matuszewski, characterizing modernism, wrote, citing music as a pattern: "modern art seeks to express, first of all, those inner things, which, while not capable of being put into words, that is, real-plastic and logical form, are capable of being sung in free musical form... "3 Just listen to the recorded songs, intended for voice and piano, conducting a dialogue, which is a speech of sounds. "The lyricism of the bizarre. / The lyricism of moments. / Css... The soul waits for an event, / For an elusive something" (emotion / And style of feeling, tone and style... )"4 - Julian Tuwim wrote in 1918. How important these words are. And how much we need, here and now, lyricism. Malgorzata Janicka-Slysz Katarzyna Wiwer, singer, promoter of culture, translator of the book A History of Singing, is a vocal pedagogue and a graduate of the Vocal and Acting Department at the Academy of Music in Krakow. Her musical interests are remarkably comprehensive, spanning from medieval monody (Hildegard of Bingen) and Gregorian chant, through Renaissance and Baroque works, to the classical cantata and oratorio repertoire. Her repertoire includes works by Dowland, Zielenski, and Monteverdi; songs by Purcell and other English Baroque composers; a wide selection of cantatas by Buxtehude and Bach; oratorios by Handel, Mozart, Haydn, and many others. She has participated in numerous premieres, including both new compositions and rediscovered performances of early music, such as works from the archives of Jasna Gora, Podoliniec, Staniatki, Wawel, and other sources. Katarzyna Wiwer is also passionate about the art of songs. Beyond the standard repertoire of Schubert, Chopin, Szymanowski, and Rodrigo, she explores lesser-known works, uncovering forgotten gems like the songs of Michal Kleofas Oginski, Jerzy Sztwiertnia, "Young Poland" composers such as Juliusz Wertheim, Boleslaw Raczynski, and Jerzy Gablenz, arrangements of traditional Scottish songs, and even pieces written specifically for her. Her portfolio features numerous original recitals and concert programs, which intricately combine music and literature into compelling artistic narratives. In these programs, she collaborates with renowned chamber musicians, including Irena Davidson, Joanna Solecka, Agnieszka Kaczmarek-Bialic, Andrzej Zawisza, Henryk Kasperczak, Marek Szlezer, and Michal Rot. A noteworthy recent project was her collaboration with The Time Quartet on a program featuring songs by Waclaw Geiger, set to poetry in the Podhale dialect, resulting in a CD released in the summer of 2022. The current recording project, undertaken with Marek Szlezer, explores music of "Young Poland" artists mostly from Krakow. Katarzyna Wiwer has worked with many ensembles, including Lute Duo, Flores Rosarum, Gusto NON Barbaro, the Polish Orchestra of the 18th Century, The Time Quartet, Celtic Triangle, Capella Cracoviensis. She is also the founder of the ensembles Donne Armoniche and Scepus Baroque, with which she realizes numerous musical ideas and original concert programs. In 2020, with support from a creative grant from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, she studied texts from the hymnals of the Staniatki Monastery. In 2021, the Polish edition of John Potter and Neil Sorrell's excellent book "A History of Singing", translated by her, was published by Astraia in Krakow. Marek Szlezer (born 1981) Is one of the most sought-after Polish pianists. He started to play the piano at the age of five. His career started with the Grand Prix at the International Piano Competition in Rome at the age of 12. He has studied at the ecole Normale de Musique in Paris, the Music Academy in Cracow and the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Belgium with Stefan Wojtas, Ewa Bukojemska, Abdel Rahman El Bacha, Dmitri Bashkirov and Marcella Crudeli. He has held grants from Polish and foreign foundations, as well as the City of Krakow and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. He took artistic advices from, among others A. Ciccolini, F. Ts'ong, K. Kenner, M. Pressler and H. Czerny-Stefanska. He is a prizewinner of many prestigious competitions in Poland and abroad. His consummate performances of Frederic Chopin's music have won him numerous prizes: 1st Prize at the National Chopin Competition in Warsaw and the special prize of the Chopin National Edition. He had the honor to play a concert on Chopin's original piano at the Jagiellonian University on the night Poland entered the European Union. Marek Szlezer has performed in such prestigious concert halls as Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, Palais des Beaux-Arts, St. Martin-in-the-fields, Salle Cortot, Seoul Arts Center, NCPA in Mumbai and Palacio de Bellas Artes. He has given public lectures and performed at such prestigious universities as: Cambridge University, Columbia University, Indiana University Bloomington, University of Chicago, University of Southern California, UNAM, UNICAMP, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Royal Conservatory in Brussels. He discovered the piano music of Jadwiga Sarnecka and recordeda selection of her compositions for DUX. He has been also involved in an editing process of Alexandre Tansman Piano concerto for the left hand which he premiered in Poland in a year 2010. Works by contemporary composers dedicated to him have been published by prestigious publishing houses such as Universal Edition, Sikorski Verlag, Boosey & Hawkes and PWM. He is the author of numerous research papers about piano works of Polish composers, published by PWM Edition and Euphonium, as well as book publications and articles about Polish music. He has recorded several albums for the recording companies Warner Classics, Dux, EMI, Amadeus and Moderato receiving an enthusiastic critical acclaim in prestigious musical magazines (among others Gramophone, Kulturspiegel, The Strad, Fanfare, American Record's Guide). For the CD's with music of Chopin, Szymanowski, Tansman and Penderecki he has received twice the French music critics' awards La Clef de ResMusica as well as Gramophone Editor's Choice, 5 du Diapason, Selection ClicMag, Prix de la SACD, Global Music Awards Outstanding Achievement, Musicweb International Recording of the Month and various nominations for other phonographic prizes (i. e. Polish Phonographic Awards FRYDERYK and International Classical Music Awards). In 2017 his CD has been selected by Hi-fi music magazine as one of the best recordings of the year. In 2024, together with Jan Kalinowski, he received the Golden Diploma in the Chamber Ensemble category and the Bronze Diploma in the Phonographic Album category of the 4th International Competition "Muzyczne Orly". For his artistic achievements he was awarded the Gloria Artis Medal by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.