WARS FESTIVAL IN ŁÓDŹ

By Joseph A. Herter

HENRYK WARS (1902-1977)—A COMPOSER OF SERIOUS MUSIC

Cover art from the Festival program, detail. For a larger view, click here.

The featured soloists for the concert included soprano Anna Cymmerman and pianist Marek Żebrowski who performed with the Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of conductor/composer Krzesimir Dębski. The festival's honored guests, coming from as far as London and Los Angeles, included Irena Bogdańska-Andersowa (the widow of General Władysław Anders, leader of the Polish Second Corps during World War II) and several members of Wars's immediate family: his daughter Danuta Wars-Mitchell (Myśliborski) with her son Dennis and Wars's son Robert Vars with his daughter Dina. Unfortunately, the composer's widow Elżbieta Warsowa was unable to attend.

The festival's chief organizer Elżbieta Czarnecka titled this program of War's serious music as "Miłość". Following her introductory welcoming remarks, the audience first heard a rendition of the famous song Miłość Ci wszystko wybaczy, sung by Anna Cymmerman to an orchestral arrangement by Zdzisław Szostak as homage to Hanka Ordonówna. Although the arrangement was well written for the orchestra, its placement at the beginning of the concert was unfortunate. Ms Cymmerman, who has a beautiful voice, presented the song's two verses as a vocalise, singing it on one vowel sound throughout. Needless to say, the performance was very uninteresting and its programming at the outset of the evening was simply too trite for a concert of classical music.

The exploration of Wars's "classical side" began with one of the last works he wrote, Maalot-Elegy for Orchestra. Dating from 1974, the work had its first performance under Zubin Mehta conducting an "ad hoc" orchestra made up of members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The title is derived from the tragedy which took place in 1974 in Maalot, Israel, where 27 Jewish children were murdered by Arab terrorists. Wars, deeply distraught by the event, beautifully captured the anguish of the moment in his orchestral elegy. The composition's sweeping hymn-like melody begins quietly in the lower strings and is passed onto the other instruments in a slow, staggering crescendo of sound until the entire orchestra is at prayer. The work was beautifully played by the orchestra, whose outpouring of religious fervor was effectively drawn out by conductor Krzesimir Dębski.

In complete stylistic contrast to Maalot were the following two works: City Sketches and the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. These two works, as well as the First Symphony heard after the intermission, were written when the composer first arrived to Los Angeles in 1948, before he began to work in Hollywood. When Wars visited Warsaw in 1967—his first and last trip to Poland following World War II—he conducted archival recordings of these pieces with the Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw. Wars's music is eclectic in style in these pieces. In the suite's first movement, "High-rise," there are influences of impressionism, in the second movement, "Downtown Blues," jazz and Gershwin dominate, while the last movement, "Freeway Scherzo," sounds like programmatic background music for the silver screen, depicting swift moving city traffic.

In the Piano Concerto, Krzesimir Dębski joined forces with his former classmate from his freshman year at the Poznań Higher School of Music, pianist Marek Żebrowski. Since 1973, Mr. Żebrowski has been living in the United States, where he completed his musical studies at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, studying piano with Russell Sherman. Currently, he lives in Los Angeles where he is the director of the University of Southern California's Polish Music Center. Mr. Żebrowski gave a superb performance of the Wars concerto. The most outstanding part of this one-movement concerto in sonata allegro form is the second theme which is based on Wars's pop song Po mlecznej drodze. It was the festival's honored guest Rena Anders who frequently sang this song, while Wars directed his "Polish Parade" during his service in the Second Corps under General Anders. In this section, Żebrowski's musicality shined and his expressiveness captured the listener's heart.

Wars and the Polish Parade ensemble at the Cafe Continental in Tehran, 1942.
Photograph from the Vars Family Archive.

It is Wars's First Symphony, though, that demonstrates his mettle as a composer of serious music. This piece is post-romantic in style. Thematic material is fragmented and developed, such as the motifs in the symphony's first movement. Wars uses no key signatures in this work, and although the symphony begins and ends in C, the music strays far away from having a tonal center. The symphony is long and demanding for the orchestra. Although the sailing could have been smoother and more certain during the symphony's first three movements, the last movement was performed brilliantly. Conductor Dębski once more succeeded in providing an emotionally charged performance which was acknowledged by a grateful audience with a standing ovation.

Hopefully, other orchestras in Poland will repeat these works in future concerts. In addition to the works played, there are also several other "classical" works by Wars (including a Sonatina for Orchestra) all of which are available from the Henryk Wars Archive at the University of Southern California's Polish Music Center.

Danuta and Robert at the Festival of Film Music in Łódź
Photograph by Krzysztof Czerwiński

Mrs. Wars, how does it feel to be back in Warsaw for the first time in over 60 years? Is there anything here at all that you recognize from your childhood?
Just walking down Nowy Świat yesterday evening gave me this great feeling of being back home. So far, there hasn't been anything which I remember from 64 years ago. However, I haven't been to Łazienki and Ujazdowskie Parks or the Saxon Gardens yet.

I also plan to see what now stands at Al. Jerozolimskie 23, the place where my family lived. I still remember the apartment number, m. 20, and the telephone number too: 99521.

You are still fluent in Polish. After you left Poland did you continue to study Polish?
I attended schools in Poland until I was ten. Once we got to Palestine, I and about 5,000 other girls attended the Szkoła Młodszej Ochotniczek (SMO) and while in Tel Aviv, thanks to my father who helped prepare me for the entrance placement exams, I studied at the Polish Junior High School (gimnazjum) for one year. When we got to California, I was also able to borrow books in Polish from the Los Angeles Public Library at their branch near the Biltmore Hotel. Polish, of course, was the language spoken at home and I also spoke Polish with my husband. By the way, when I leave Warsaw I will be going to London and meeting with several other "girls" who were former students of SOM—my first such meeting since the Second World War.

When you settled in Los Angeles, did your father have any contact with the local Polonia or associate with other Poles in California?
Although my father was Jewish, he frequently attended the cultural events at the Jasna Góra Catholic Church in Los Angeles. He was always made to feel welcome there and he was always on their invitation list. Of course, my father kept contacts with other Poles living in Los Angeles such as composer Bronisław Kaper and actress Pola Negri.

Did your or your brother have any musical talent?
My brother plays the piano by ear and I am able to read music. I took piano lessons for a while in Nazareth. We are both able to play some dance melodies—a mazurka and czardas—that our father taught us to play by ear. These were dances that he wrote for a Polish Army dance troupe while he served in the Polish Second Corps under General Anders.

What about your father's relationship to classical music?
Well, my father was trained at the Warsaw Conservatory as a classical musician. He often mentioned that he took several lessons from Szymanowski, so he must have been at the Conservatory when Szymanowski was named director in 1926. My father would have been 24 years old then. Szymanowski was my father's hero and he loved his music. In fact, my father died while listening to Szymanowski. In California, my father never listened to popular music on the radio. If the radio was playing, it was always tuned in to a classical radio station.

Did your father have any students of his own?
Yes, he had several, the most famous of which was Harry Sukman, a pianist and composer. Sukman once performed my father's piano concerto with one of the orchestras in the San Fernando Valley. He also won an Oscar for the best musical score in 1960 (Song without End). Although not a student of my father's, there was also Henry Mancini who was known to consult my father for advice on writing background music.

Do you know of any future performances of your father's symphonic works?
Several conductors in both Poland and the United States have expressed interest in seeing the scores to the compositions that were played at the Łódź Film Festival. We'll have to wait and see if anything comes of that. In Los Angeles, however, on November 11—Polish Independence Day—there will be a special concert marking the acceptance of the Henry Vars Archive by the University of Southern California's Polish Music Center. The concert will feature my father's pop songs from the 1920s and 30's, including an early foxtrot The New York Times, whose success began his road to stardom. The concert will be played by USC Thornton School of Music's Jazz Ensemble and conducted by Sheldon Berg.