Szymanowski: Piano Works, Vol. 4

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Cat No: 8557168

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Release Date: 09 January 2005

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 747313216826

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: SZYMANOWSKI

Description
Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937)Piano Works, Volume 4Karol Szymanowski was born in 1882, the same year asboth Stravinsky and Kodaly, to an aristocratic Polishfamily in the Ukraine. He was the third of five children,all of whom pursued careers in the arts, and displayed akeen interest in both music and literature. Owing to a leginjury at the age of four his early education was at home,where, under his father's direction, he began to study thepiano from the age of seven. Later he was sent to hisuncle Gustav Neuhaus's music school to study bothpiano and theory. It was under his tutelage thatSzymanowski was introduced to the works of Bach,Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and, naturally, Chopin. Hisfirst published work was a set of nine ChopinesquePreludes, written between 1896 and 1900, although notpublished until 1906. In 1901 he moved to Warsaw forfurther study, taking lessons from Zygmunt Noskowskiin counterpoint and composition and from MarekZawirski in harmony. It was here that he establishedfriendships with a small group of remarkable musicianswho were all to become important interpreters of hismusic, the pianist Artur Rubinstein, the violinist PawelKochafski, and the conductor Grzegorz Fitelberg.Together with Fitelberg and two other students ofNoskowski, Ludomir Ro. zycki and Apolinary Szeluto,Szymanowski established the group known as 'M1odaPolska' (Young Poland), in order to publish and promotenew Polish music.Besides the strong influence of his compatriot,Chopin, other key influences throughoutSzymanowski's early creative life included the music ofWagner, Strauss, Reger and Scriabin, as can be heard inworks such as the Symphony No. 2 (1909-10) (Naxos8.553683) and the one-act opera Hagith (1912-13). Withthe outbreak of World War I, Szymanowski returnedhome from travel abroad that had taken him to Italy,Sicily, Algiers, Constantine, Biskra and Tunis,concentrating his attention on composition. Having bynow discovered the music of Debussy, Ravel andStravinsky, thereby freeing himself from the clutches oflate German romanticism, he reached his creativematurity in a series of works written in 1915 thatincluded Metopes for piano (Naxos 8.553016), Mythsfor violin and piano, and Songs of the Fairy Princess(8.553688) for coloratura soprano and piano. Until theshattering experience of the Russian Revolution, inwhich his family estate was destroyed, this wasSzymanowski's most fertile creative period. Other keyworks written around this time include the ThirdSymphony (1914-16) (8.553684), the First ViolinConcerto (1916) (8.553685), the twelve Etudes (1916)and the First String Quartet (1917).It was following a trip to Paris in 1921, whenSzymanowski had the overwhelming experience ofhearing Stravinsky play Les Noces at the piano (the twohad met for the first time in London in 1914) thatSzymanowski felt inspired to write a series of worksdrawing on the folk-music of the Tatra mountains insouthern Poland. This third creative phase witnessed thecreation of the one-act
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