Szymanowski: Piano Works, Vols. 4 & 5

Featuring

Anu Vehviläinen
Karol Szymanowski

Did you know?

1/7

Composition History

Szymanowski's Twenty Mazurkas, Op. 50, were composed between 1924-25, providing a needed break from his magnum opus, the opera Król Roger (King Roger).

Compositional Technique

The Twelve Studies, Op. 33, from Szymanowski's middle period, often lack key signatures and feature bitonality and polytonality in their harmonic structure.

Performer Biography

Pianist Anu Vehviläinen, who recorded this album, undertook the project of recording Szymanowski's entire solo piano output after a reviewer mistakenly announced she was doing so.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Szymanowski composed all his works at the piano and knew the instrument well, but he primarily wanted to compose large-scale forms for full orchestra.

Historical Context

Karol Szymanowski spent the years of the First World War mostly in Ukraine, where he found new inspiration and developed his most original sound world in works like the Twelve Studies, Op. 33.

Compositional Technique

Szymanowski's early piano works often used the piano as a substitute for an orchestra, resulting in massive textures that demand a lot from the performer.

Composer Biography

Karol Szymanowski's piano music is divided into three style periods: 1900-1913, 1914-1919 (the "Mediterranean" period), and 1920-1933 (the folk-inspired period).