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TODAY’S ALMANAC:
by Jarrett Hoffman
On this date in 1882 in the village of Tymoszówka, now in Ukraine, Karol Szymanowski, one of the great Polish composers was born. Beloved in his home country, he has received a slew of state honors, both during his life and after it.
Among the more fun facts in that arena, a whole year was given to his name. Thanks to a resolution by the Polish Parliament, 2007, the 125th anniversary of his birth, was decreed “The Year of Karol Szymanowski.” And later that year he reached truly rarefied air among composers: he appeared on commemorative currency, pictured above.
Many composers find their appeal among the public slackening towards the end of their life, only for it to spike at some point after their death. But outside of Poland, Szymanowski saw his greatest popularity in his last decades, the 1920s and ‘30s, when his music was performed by such figures as Artur Rubinstein, Robert Casadesus, and Leopold Stokowski. (He has also undergone a revival in recent decades, praised and recorded by Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and Simon Rattle and the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.)
Perhaps one reason his music found lasting appeal even toward the end of his life is that it didn’t occupy a single style that eventually fell out of fashion, but rather evolved greatly over time. He moved from the early influence of the late German Romantics, to an impressionistic and somewhat atonal period, to his fascination with the folk music of the Polish Highlanders as part of an ambitious interest in creating a national style.
On that note, enjoy a set menu today (on the house, generously) containing one piece of music from each of those periods: the Étude Op. 4, No. 3, the First Violin Concerto, and the Fourth Symphony — in essence a piano concerto, for which he was soloist for the premiere.
Performances here are by pianist Daniel Pollack, violinist David Grimal with the Orchestra Les Dissonances, and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, led by Simon Rattle.
