Pawel Szymanski (b. 1954)

[Maciek]

I've posted a Pawel Szymanski discography here. If you feel like taking a look and notice any mistakes, or anything I've left out, or have any suggestions - please let me know through the comments. Thank you.

[Maciek]

Bryce, your favorite Trakl song (the last one) is actually very similar to The Streets of Babylon (from Zaratustra) - though the song is much, much shorter (the incidental music is sort of on auto-repeat, but very nice anyway). You should try Streets one day.

[Symphonien]

Well, I haven't been around this forum in quite some time but it's sure nice to see the Szymanski thread right up the top where it belongs, even if there still seems to be only one user predominantly responsible... but good work I say!

Thanks for linking to all those videos; they were enough to entice me to post. Good to see the Drei Lieder in video form of course, but I especially enjoyed the Partita No. 3 which I hadn't heard for a while. I love the way the two extremes compete with each other before they seem to reach a sort of compromise: that awesome, aimlessly floating, distorted Baroque music that Szymanski does so well. It really does seem as if time has stopped.

I have also managed to hear Zaratustra as well, and I would have to say my initial impression is pretty much the same as yours i.e. the only track there that I enjoyed was "Streets of Babylon". Otherwise repeated drum beat with very thin musical substance above in 1 & 3 and lame atmospheric percussion patterns in 2 & 4. The last piece didn't do much for me either. "Streets of Babylon" was quite good however - I'd say it's perhaps more similar to the second of the Two Illusory Constructions though than the last Trakl song (probably those trills).

[Maciek]

Wow! Someone other than myself posting on this thread? Must be a hallucination...
















Hi there, Bryce! Those drums are terrible, aren't they?

On a tangent: I can't believe there's no recording available of Four Liturgical Pieces. The Warsaw Autumn cassette that I have has a wonderful rendition and I don't understand why the Polish Composers' Union won't release a widely available CD of stuff like that from their vault (a few years ago they released a CD box of Warsaw Autumn recordings which wasn't for sale - so what's the use, I ask?)...

Anyway, I'm trying to figure out if Szymanski has written a complete mass piecemeal or not, but I don't think so. Let's see, there's: Kyrie (77) and Gloria (79). I don't remember details of the 4 Liturgical Pieces, but I'm pretty sure it contains at least an Agnus Dei. So still a Credo, Sanctus, and Benedictus needed (or maybe some of those are included in the liturgical pieces too, I need to check). But at least we have some psalm settings: Miserere (93) and Viderunt omnes fines terrae (98) - that last one could be included in a Christmas Mass... And if we wanted a Requiem mass, there's the Lux aeterna (84) and In Paradisum (95).

Oh, well, it would have been a terrible mass anyway, as each of these pieces is as autonomous as can be and very different in character, and I cringe at the very thought of treating them as a continuous flow of music.

[EDIT: After listening to the Four Pieces today, in conditions very far from ideal, I've managed to ascertain that the first piece is Christe eleison, there definitely is an Agnus Dei in there, and also what appears to be a Credo snippet, perhaps in two movements (well, I don't think it's the whole Credo - but I could only make out the words "Maria Virgine" and later, in what appears to be a different movement, "resurrexit"). The whole thing is sumptuously beautiful. It also seems insanely difficult to sing (which would explain its rarity) and definitely my favorite Szymanski at the moment.]

[Maciek]

First impressions from today's premiere.

[Maciek]

I know this is coming a little late but I have a message to all New Yorkers. The American premiere of 5 pcs for sq is coming up tomorrow:


1st October, 7:30 PM
venue: Symphony Space
performer: Del Sol Quartet from San Francisco (their NY debut)
repertoire: Pawel Szymanski's Five Pieces for SQ, Pawel Mykietyn's SQ no. 2, Tania León's Esencia and Gabriela Ortiz's SQ no. 1

An hour before the concert Pawel Mykietyn and Tania León are going to talk about their music.

(I only heard about this today.)

[EDIT: Could this really be the American premiere of 5 pcs? Didn't the Brodskys ever take the piece abroad with them? Did they even perform it live, ever??]

[not edward]

Torontonians can get to hear the Concerto a 4 on January 10 at the Glenn Gould Studio.

Also on the program are Pawel Mykietyn's 3 for 13, Agata Zubel's Cascando, Zygmunt Krauze's Piano Quintet and Polychromie and M. A. D. by Wojtek Blazejczyk.

[Maciek]

Very nice program! Don't think I know the Zubel and Blazejczyk pieces but Krauze's Quintet is, IMHO, one of his best compositions - it's both quintessential Krauze (well, from a certain period) and really beautiful music. Mykietyn's 3 for 13 is one of my favorite pieces from his "polystylistic" period - great fun. And Concerto a 4 is striking Szymanski, of the more "pensive" kind, with something of a surprise ending. Really, great programming there - looks like a concert well worth hearing.

[Maciek]

Speaking of recordings. A couple of months ago I was holding one of the two new Agata Zubel discs in my hands (CD Accord) and somehow (?) I managed not to notice that it contained a recording of Drei Lieder nach Trakl! (Otherwise I would have bought it right away. Oh, well, I'll search it out, I guess.)

(Hm, actually, I think an Agata Zubel thread is in order...)

[Maciek]

Had to post this, from a review on musicweb (by William Hedley) of the Zubel disc just mentioned:

The recital ends with a real surprise, and though it may seem absurd to say so, the disc is worth buying for Pawel Szymanski's songs alone.

[CaramelJones]

Nice to see Szymanski get some airplay 

Have you heard his 2 pieces for string quartet, as well as the 5 pieces by the Silesian Quartet?

I only have the 1992 Brodsky Quartet premiere version of the 5 pieces. 

His micro-language in music is just phenomenal.  Partita III is just astounding for its whacky combo of sounds and seamless integration of both ancient (harpsichord) and modern orchestra. 

[Maciek]

Has anyone heard the new piece premiered in September? For 8 harps and piano. A piu corde. Commissioned by Paweł Potoroczyn, director of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. Apparently, Potoroczyn had a dream where he was listening to a new Szymanski piano concerto, with a harp ensemble in place of a regular orchestra. So he commissioned the dreamt up piece.

Anyway, somehow I managed to miss the radio broadcast of its premiere and was wondering if anyone had heard the piece...

[Maciek]

1.

Nice to see Szymanski get some airplay 

Have you heard his 2 pieces for string quartet, as well as the 5 pieces by the Silesian Quartet?

I only have the 1992 Brodsky Quartet premiere version of the 5 pieces. 

His micro-language in music is just phenomenal.  Partita III is just astounding for its whacky combo of sounds and seamless integration of both ancient (harpsichord) and modern orchestra. 

A reply almost four years later is probably not what you were counting on, but yes, I have heard the 2 pieces and 5 pieces. I think I've posted some thoughts on them earlier in the thread (and I think Symphonien has too).

2.
Where is Symphonien?

3.
I think I've never posted links to the pieces available from NInA. I'm posting three of them below.

There's K - a piece completed in 1972 when the composer couldn't have been older than 18:
Paweł Szymański K. for symphony orchestra

And there are the Trakl settings that Symphonien commented on (rather favorably) earlier in the thread:
Paweł Szymański Three Trakl songs for soprano and chamber orchestra

And there's the Lux aeterna setting (which I think I'll make part of my Holy Saturday listening - unless I decide to spend the day without private music listening):
Paweł Szymański Lux aeterna for voices and instruments

[Maciek]

A review of the new Hyperion release, where you can actually listen to the recording (below the text):

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/royal-string-quartet-brings-verve-and-polish-szymanski-and-mykietyn/

[Maciek]

A little while ago I discovered that a video of last year's premiere of Through the looking glass... IV is available on Youtube. I guess that's good enough a reason to pay good old GMG a visit.

Here's a link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-lpdZejaf4#t=24m40s

(I thought Szymanski had abandoned this type of idiom, so the piece was a bit of a surprise.)

I've also discovered that on Spotify he is listed as "Pawet Szymanski" (that's a T at the end of his first name).

[Louis]

I just learnt that Szymanski wrote an opera in 2013 called "Qudsja Zaher". Alex Ross reviewed it and a there is a financial times article on it as well.

Has anyone here listened to it/saw it live?
Afaik no recording exists.