The next hour will be entirely dedicated to the music of Polish composer Mieczysław Karłowicz. His reputation as a composer rests on a collection of five symphonic poems that he composed between 1903 and 1908. We will listen to two of these symphonic poems as well as his Lithuanian Rhapsody.
Mieczysław Karłowicz was an adventurer and a cosmopolitan. He grew up in an affluent Lithuanian family on an estate in Wiszniew, east of Vilnius. From 1887, his family primarily lived in Warsaw, but they also traveled to places like Heidelberg, Prague, and Dresden. Young Karłowicz played the violin and began studying composition in Berlin in 1895. In 1906, he completed his three Eternal Songs, we will play two: Song of everlasting yearning and Song of eternal being. The composer was inspired by Schopenhauer and mystical experiences he claimed to have had in the Tatra Mountains. He spent considerable time in Zakopane, where he also engaged in photography, skiing, and cycling. His Lithuanian Rhapsody is based on a single folk tune, and his symphonic poem Stanisław and Anna Oświecim is arguably his best work. Karłowicz died at the age of 33 due to a skiing accident.
Programme details:
- Mieczysław Karłowicz – Eternal Songs, op.10, part 1 and 3
BBC Philharmonic conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier
- Mieczysław Karłowicz – Lithuanian Rhapsody, op.11
BBC Philharmonic conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier
- Mieczysław Karłowicz – Stanisław and Anna Oświecim, op.12
BBC Philharmonic conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier
Stanisław Wojciech Bergman, Stanisław Oświęcim at Anna Oświęcim’s body, 1888.
