Like the diner at an international buffet, in his or her everyday life the twentieth-century composer is faced with a bewildering variety of cultural traditions. And just as the buffet diner faces the problem of creating a meal which is not simply a collection of interesting but incompatible tastes, so the modern composer has to siphon diverse musical, historical and cultural influences to form a cogent and personal style.
One of the first composers to face and overcome this peculiarly modern conundrum was Karol Szymanowski. During his lifetime Szymanowski was successively exposed to German romanticism, French impressionism, oriental culture and ancient history, and finally to the ethnic tradition of his Polish homeland. Each of these influences left a particular stamp on the composer’s style, the result being an output of remarkable development. Yet Szymanowski’s output is by no means that of a musical chameleon: not only does the subtle mix of these influences defy easy labelling, but throughout his music we can hear a continuous and distinct voice
The first significant musical influence on Szymanowski was the late German romanticism of Wagner, Reger and Strauss. In the Concert Overture, first heard in 1906 as part of the ‘Young Poland in Music’ concerts which Szymanowski helped instigate, these Germanic overtones are clearly apparent. But Szymanowski’s influences were never solely musical. The inspiration behind the Concert Overture was literary – a poem by Micinski which affirms man’s power over the old gods: it is perhaps no coincidence that this theme reflects the Nietzschian creed which had so influenced Wagner
Another poem by Micinski, ‘May Night’, helped shape the Violin Concerto No. 1. ‘May Night’ is a lengthy evocation of a fantastic world inhabited by creatures from mythology. The first shimmering bars of the concerto perfectly reflect the opening of the poem, and considering this, we might ask how much the concerto as a whole is a programmatic response to the poem. Szymanowski himself was never clear about this, yet a programmatic link might help to explain not only the remarkable opening, but also the novel singlemovement form of the entire concerto. Unlike most single-movement works, which effectively divide into linked sections, until the cadenza of the Concerto No. 1 there is no clear break in the musical argument. It is only after the cadenza that the soloist, dominant thus far, falls silent as the orchestra builds towards the climax of the work.
The First Violin Concerto dates from 1916, and marks an interesting development in the composer’s style. Although the concerto’s sensuous harmonic style still points to Strauss, the soundscape now looks more towards the impressionism of Debussy and Ravel. This is the result of a more subtle approach to aural colour, by which Szymanowski dissolves the orchestra’s traditional demarcations into a melting pot of timbral combinations. Standing slightly aside from this powerful orchestral brew is an idiomatic solo part composed, as with all Szymanowski’s violin works, for his friend Pawel Kocha ´nski. Under Kocha ´nski’s advocacy, the First Violin Concerto became familiar to American audiences during the 1920s, and before long was taken up by many other leading violinists of the day.
Some fifteen years were to elapse before Kocha´nski persuaded Szymanowski to pen a second concerto. In a letter to a friend dating from 1932 Szymanowski wrote that ‘Paul provoked me to write, practically forced me to produce a whole violin concerto… I wrote it in less than four weeks – so you can imagine how hard I had to work and how exhausted I am.’ In fact, the health of neither man was good at the time. Szymanowski was already suffering from the tuberculosis which was to kill him within five years, whilst Kocha ´nski was gravely ill from cancer. Shortly after giving the first performance of the Violin Concerto No. 2 in Warsaw in 1933, Kocha ´nski died. His role in the creation of the concerto had been more than that of mere instigator and performer. Szymanowski and Kocha ´nski spent the summer of 1932 together at Zakopane, working in close conjunction on the concerto: when Kocha ´nski later commented on the brevity of the work Szymanowski gave him permission to write a cadenza. By the time that Szymanowski
By the time that Szymanowski came to write the Second Violin Concerto the influence on him of romanticism and impressionism had largely been replaced by that of nationalism in music. Like Bartók in Hungary, Szymanowski became absorbed by folk song and folkidioms. Initially this resulted in some works which were based on authentic folk songs, but by the time of the Second Concerto Szymanowski had moved away from the direct use of folk material to a style which bore only indirect melodic and rhythmic Polish traits. The influence of folk music can even be seen in the writing for the violin, which has traces of the performing mannerisms and style of folk fiddlers from the Polish highlands.
Superficially, the one-movement form of the Second Violin Concerto resembles that of the First. The later work, however, can be clearly sub-divided into sections. The first of these is essentially in sonata form, ending with Kocha´nski’s virtuosic cadenza. A march-like theme dominates the second section, whilst the third sets a series of lyrical duets against a harmonically static background. The final section links together the concerto as a whole by recapitulating the music of the opening.
Whatever specific influences may have infused Szymanowski’s output at any one time, his self-acknowledged ‘fanatic love of the idea of Poland’ was always central to him. The Second Violin Concerto may be more overtly Polish than the First, but it is the opening of the earlier work which is irresistibly brought to mind by a view of nationalism in music which Szymanowski expressed in later life: ‘I maintain that our national music is not the stiffened ghost of the polonaise or mazurka… It is rather the solitary, joyful, carefree song of the nightingale in a fragrant night in Poland.’
Tk 1 Karol Szymanowski Concert Overture Op 12
