Szymanowski: Piano Works, Vol. 3

Regular: £11.49

Sale: £11.49
Regular

Out of Stock

Unit Price: per

Cat No: 8553867

Release Date: 06 January 2000

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099486729

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: SZYMANOWSKI

Description
Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) Piano Works, Vol. 3 Mazurkas, Op. 50?ëtudes, Op. 33Folk Dances of the World Prelude and Fugue in C sharp minorSonata in C minor, Op. 8Karol Szymanowski was born on 3rd October1882 (the same year as both Stravinsky and Kodaly) to an aristocratic Polishfamily in the Ukraine, part of the former kingdom of Poland but by then underRussian jurisdiction after the partition of 1793. Karol was the third of fivechildren, all of whom pursued careers in the arts, and he displayed a keeninterest in both music and literature. Due to a leg injury at the age of fourhis early education was at home, with books and music taking the place ofgames, and it was initially under his father's direction that he began to studythe piano at the age of seven. After three years he was then sent to his uncleGustav Neuhaus's music school, where he was able to study both piano andtheory, and under Neuhaus's tutelage was introduced to the works of Bach,Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and, naturally, Chopin. At around the same time hestarted to compose, mainly for the piano, with his first published work a setof nine Chopinesque Preludes, written between 1896 and 1900, althoughnot published until 1906.In 1901 Szymanowski's father decided tosend him to Warsaw for further study, and he took lessons from both ZygmuntNoskowski (counterpoint and composition) and Marek Zawirski (harmony) It washere that he established friendships with a small group of remarkable musicianswho were all to become important interpreters of his music - the pianist ArturRubinstein, the violinist Pawel Kochanski, and the conductor GrzegorzFitelberg. Together with Fitelberg and two other students of Noskowski (LudomirRozycki and Apolinary Szeluta), Szymanowski established the group known as'Young Poland in Music', in order to publish and promote new Polish music.As displayed in the early set of Preludes,the influence of his compatriot Chopin was very strong throughout his earlycreative life; other composers such as Wagner, Strauss, Reger and Scriabin werealso important figures during this period, as can be heard in works such as theSymphony No.2 (1909-10) (available on Naxos 8.553683), and the one-actopera, Hagith (1912-13). With the outbreak of World War I, Szymanowskireturned from foreign travels (to Italy, Sicily, Algiers, Constantine, Biskraand Tunis) to Poland, where he composed intensively. Haying by now discoveredthe music of Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky, thereby freeing himself from theclutches of late German romanticism, he reached his creative maturity in aseries of works written in 1915 that included Metopes for piano (Naxos8.553016), Myths for violin and piano, and Songs of the FairyPrincessi8.553688) for coloratura soprano and piano. Until the shatteringexperience of the Russian Revolution in which his family estate was destroyed,this was Szymanowski's most fruitful creative period. Other key works writtenaround this time include the Third Symphony (1914-16) (8.553684), the F
Tracklisting