Szymanowski: Violin Sonata in D minor, Nocturne and Tarantella & Myths
9/1/2013, 8 Tracks, 51:54
Featuring
Lydia Mordkovitch
Marina Gusak-Grin
Karol Szymanowski
Did you know?
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Composer Biography
Szymanowski wrote extensively for piano but little chamber music, with the violin being his favorite instrument for the latter.
Composition History
Szymanowski collaborated with the great violinist Pawel Kochański to compose the 'Myths' and his two Violin Concertos, a collaboration he was always proud to acknowledge.
Composition History
The Violin Sonata, Op. 9, was composed in 1904 when Szymanowski was 22 and still studying with Zygmunt Noskowski, composer of the first Polish tone poem, 'The Steppe'.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Szymanowski's travels to Italy, Sicily, and North Africa in 1911 and 1914 profoundly changed his perspective on life and art, leading him to become "totally his own composer."
Compositional Technique
Szymanowski employed various technical devices like double-stopping, tremolandos, and quarter tones not for virtuoso display, but to explore timbre and serve a purely artistic impulse.
Composer Biography
Karol Szymanowski, the composer, is seen as a link between late 19th-century Romantics and the modern age, influenced by trends in Germany, Russia, France, and Poland.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Szymanowski claimed that he and Pawel Kochański created "a new mode of expression for the violin," which he classified as "impressionistic," marking the onset of his mature period.
