Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937) is now widely acknowledged to be the most important Polish composer since Chopin. Szymanowski was also a considerable thinker on musical topics: the role of music in society, the goal of musical education, the purpose of criticism, the nature of Romanticism, the hallmarks of national identity – indeed, he was passionately concerned with the emergence of the Polish voice in music, and the role of Chopin in particular.
Szymanowski on Music is the first comprehensive selection of his writings to be published in English. It contains all the most important of the composer’s essays and interviews, throws light on the trying conditions under which he was obliged to work in the 1920s and ’30s, especially in education, and gives perceptive assessments of the work of some of the major composers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries – Wagner, Strauss, Stravinsky, Ravel, Satie and others – and the trends they embodied.
A number of pieces of a more biographical nature are included, not least Szymanowski’s touching obituary for his life-long friend, the violinist Paweł Kochański, and Michał Koromański’s intriguing, but none-too-flattering, report of a meeting with Szymanowski towards the end of his career.
Szymanowski on Music provides, in Alistair Wightman’s words, ‘abundant evidence of the breadth and depth of Szymanowski’s personal culture, and at the same time a telling demonstration of his search for an all-embracing humanistic synthesis’. Dr Wightman faces his pioneering translations from Szymanowski’s Polish originals with an extensive introductory essay that places his literary activities in the context of his life and career. This book will be a vital element in the rediscovery of the music of one of the twentieth century’s most appealing composers.
Wightman is to be congratulated for his painstaking attention to detail. His effort has resulted in an anthology that will allow scholars and performers alike to learn more about Szymanowski's contribution to twentieth-century music.
[...].Wightman provides the reader with an understanding of who Szymanowski was and what his aspirations were for the direction Poland's musical life should take.[...].
[...] an intelligent translation that benefits from his more than thirty years of experience with Szymanowski's music and writings.[...].
Szymanowski on Music is a meticulously prepared English-language anthology of the most important writings on music by a significant composer. [...]. I commend Wightman for his important publication, which will make the writings of Szymanowski accessible to a wide audience.
