John Allison explores how the Poland\u2019s turbulent history has left an exceptional musical heritage <\/p>
It is hardly surprising that interwar Poland was such an artistic hothouse. For almost a century and a half, following the First Partition of 1772, the history of Poland had been one of artistic ideas rather than material substance.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> After the Third Partition in 1795, Poland had ceased to exist as a state \u2014 Russia, Prussia and Austria had joined forces in dividing up the land of the mazurka and polonaise. <\/span><\/p>\n Political activity was suppressed, but it found artistic expression and the arts became not just a reflection of events but a replacement for them.<\/span><\/p>\n It was in this climate that the musical genius of Chopin<\/a> <\/strong>flourished, both before and after he went into exile in Paris.<\/span><\/p>\n He was not alone, and other important Polish composers of the 19th century included;<\/span><\/p>\n But to understand the depth of Polish musical culture in the 20th century and beyond, it\u2019s necessary to remember not only Chopin\u2019s direct predecessors \u2013 Maria Szymanowska, Karol Lipi\u0144ski, Franciszek Lessel, J\u00f3zef Elsner and Karol Kurpi\u0144ski \u2013 but the much earlier figures who are only now beginning to gain recognition in the wider world. Indeed, through a line of such figures as Miko\u0142aj of Radom (born around 1400) to Miko\u0142aj Gom\u00f3lka and Bart\u0142omiej P\u0119kiel, Poland can claim some of the greatest Renaissance<\/a><\/strong> and Baroque composers<\/a><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n Of special significance are Miko\u0142aj Gomo\u0142ka\u2019s settings of Jan Kochanowski\u2019s Psa\u0142terz Dawid\u00f3w (Psalms of David). Kochanowski was the greatest poet of the entire Slavonic world before the 19th century, and (as the historian Norman Davies puts it) \u2018his Psalter did for Polish what Luther\u2019s Bible did for German\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n Born in Kursk in 1860, Ignacy Paderewski was plunged into a dual life of music and political activism. Largely self-taught, he started to grab attention as an exceptional pianist and improviser, though his career didn\u2019t really take off until he was in his mid-20s. After a breakthrough in Paris in 1888, he toured widely, gaining something of a cult reputation as audiences were wowed by his stage presence and thrilling virtuosity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n During World War One<\/a><\/strong>, he saw concert tours as an opportunity to champion and raise funds for the burgeoning Polish independence movement, and when Poland achieved its desired political status at war\u2019s end, Paderewski had become too influential a voice to ignore \u2013 he was soon appointed both Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. <\/span><\/p>\n As the political sands shifted around him, Paderewski did not stay long in post, but he did remain a respected elder statesman as he revived in earnest his career as a pianist. When he died in 1941, aged 80, it was, appropriately, while on a tour in the US in order to drum up support for his homeland\u2019s cause in the Second World War.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> In any ranking of more recent Polish composers, Szymanowski must be regarded as second greatest after Chopin. An almost exact contemporary of Bart\u00f3k<\/a><\/strong>, Kod\u00e1ly, Enescu and Stravinsky<\/a><\/strong>, he occupies a similar place to them on the cusp of modern music. <\/span><\/p>\n The heady opulence of some of his biggest, middle-period works has led to him being viewed as even perhaps \u2018the last Romantic\u2019, but his late style \u2013 an attempt to summon up the primitivism of traditional Polish music that coincided with the emergence of an independent Poland \u2013 is of greater significance.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
Great Polish composers<\/h2>\n
Ignacy Paderewski<\/h3>\n
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Szymanowski<\/span><\/h3>\n