Anniversaries *
Awards *
Books *
Calendar 
Director's Report *
Discography * News
Recording of the Month *
Recent Performances
Polish Music
Reference Center
Newsletter
June 1998, Vol. 4, no. 6
ISSN 1098-9188
Anniversaries *
Awards *
Books *
Calendar
Director's Report *
Discography * News
Recording of the Month *
Recent Performances
The female chorus, Polonia Singers #329 was awarded the highest points over all competing choruses and took home not only the 1st Place trophy for their category, but also a traveling trophy and the PSAAs highest award, the Hlond Trophy.
On Sunday, May 24th, a concert of the combined choruses of the PSAA with the aid of the recently formed Polish-American Symphony Orchestra of Chicago took place at the Medinah Temple under the musical direction of Andrzej Rozbicki, former General Choral Director of the PSAA. Polish composer and guest of honor, Wojciech Kilar was unable to attend the convention due to the unfortunate circumstance of his wife having suffered a heart attack a few days earlier. He addressed the singers and audience by tape broadcast during the concert. The concert boasted two American premiers by Kilar: Angelus, for soprano solo, mixed chorus and orchestra featuring guest soprano Brygida Bziukiewicz; and Krzesany, for orchestra and band of mountaineer musicians. Master and Mistress of Ceremony were the illustrious Bogusław Kaczynski, Polish TV Personality and Director of the Roma Musical Theater in Warsaw, and Lucyna Migała, Artistic Director and Coordinator of the Lira Singers #314, Chicago.
You can learn more about the Polish Singers Alliance of America by visiting their site: http://www.ivandv.com/psaa.
The Leopold Stokowsky Collection was transferred from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia to the University of Pennsylvania Library. To celebrate this occasion an all-day program (symposium, exhibit, film and evening concert) was devoted to the famous maestro. Born in London to a Polish father Stokowsky was conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1912-38, transforming it into a world class orchestra.
Polish-American pianist Emanuel AX has just recorded a new way to hear Chopin. This time Sony selected an 1851 Erard piano for his rendition of Chopin's Piano Concerto no. 2, Fantasia on polish Airs and Andante spaniato & Grande Polonaise. Jed Distler calls it "a welcome issue" and discusses Ax's first encounter with a period instrument in the June issue of Gramophone.
Kurt MASUR, director of the New York Philharmonic, recently opened the International Silesian Festival of Music conducting the WOSPRiT Orchestra of Katowice. The festival was held in the town of Brzeg, located in Wrocław county, where the famous conductor was born.
Joanna Oledzka reported in the Nowy Dziennik on Stanisław SOJKA's concert for the benefit of the Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Music critic of the Smooth Jazz radio program called it the top event of the month. The Polish vocalist sang several versions (including his own arrangement) of Shakespeare's Sonnets, as well as old and newest highlights from his latest CD No. 17, which includes poetry of Nobel prize winner Wisława Szymborska.
POSITION AVAILABLE: St. Barbara Parish, 13534 Colson, Dearborn, MI 48126 (fax: 313-582-1581) searches for a qulified organist/choir director. The preference is for someone familiar with the Catholic music and liturgy, as well as with the Polish language. For more information please contact Fr. Zbigniew Grankowski, pastor, at the above address.
IRCR Historic Awards for 1998: Winner of the International Classical Record Collector, a quarterly magazine devoted to recordings from the past, in the instrumental category is The Complete Josef Hofmann. Vol. 5 Solo Recordings 1935-48. Marston mono 52004-2. His playing is described (Gramophone, June 98) as "imbued with a sense of classical poise and beauty of tone and there is some stunning finger technique( the cadenza in the second performance of Chopin's Op. 27 No. 2 is quite breathtaking." Among the nominations in the vocal awards we find Marcella Sembrich. Opera Arias (Romophone mono 810262).
The newest book by Polish music critic, Jerzy Waldorf, is hot off the press: Serce w płomieniach. Słowo o Szymanowskim. [Heart in flames. A word about Szymanowski.] The author concentrates on painting a picture of Szymanowski in the context of musical life in the Poland's capital city, Warsaw, during the years between the two world wars.
Dabringhaus und Grimm has just released the complete organ symphonies by Feliks NOWOWIEJSKI (1877-1946). MDG 317 0757-2.
NAXOS has just released music of SZYMANOWSKI and LUTOSŁAWSKI:
The British music journal Gramophone released its list of choices for best sounding recordings in its May issue. One of the 13 chosen CDs is EMI CDC5 56439-2: "Credo" with Plainchant plus music by Panufnik, Penderecki, Rachmaninov and Stravinsky. Produced by Simon Woods, Simon Rhodes, engineer at King's College Chapel, Cambridge with the King's College Choir and S. Cleobury.
VIRGIN CLASSICS VC5 45275-2: Lutosławski. Chantefleurs et Chantefables. Preludes and Fugue. Five Songs. Chain 1. Solveig Kringelborn, sop. Norwegian Chamber Orchestra/Daniel Harding. Gramophone critic, Michael Oliver, praises "these quite admirable performances and recordings, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra responding with enthusiasm and warmth to Lutoslawski's implicit demands that they should play like an ensemble of soloists. Daniel Harding's love for this music is everywhere apparent in his care for balance, vivid sonority and the sheer range (from eloquent intensity to touching tenderness) of Lutoslawski's lyricism." He also praises Solveig Kringelborn, "who gave the first performance of Chantefleurs et chantefables under the composer's direction, sounds just as much at home in Polish as in French."
KOCH SCHWANN 317972: Chopin. Nocturnes. Ewa Kupiec, piano. Reviewed in both Gramophone and American Record Guide. Although acknowledging the pianist's warm and sensitive playing, honest clarity and directness, and confident of the recording's commercial success, both critics do not feel that it is enough. They would like to see more passion and deeper musical substance from her.
ACA 20010 (Albany). Chopin: Ballades; Etudes, op. 10 and Liszt: Campanella. Ruth Slenczynska, piano. Very favorably reviewed in May/June American Record guide by Alan Linkowski, who believes that this former child prodigy "could probably play the Chopin etudes blindfolded; such is her command of these challenging miniatures. Artur Rubinstein is said to have told the young Slenczynska that she played these pieces better than he did. ...Musically and technically this is a fine tribute to a remarkable artist." She retired in 1988 at the age of 63 and continues to teach at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
Panufnik: Symphony no. 9; Piano Concerto. Ewa Pobłocka, p.; London Symphony Orchestra/Panufnik. Conifer Classics CDCF 206. Going for a Song, P.O. Box 167, Orpington BR5 3ZS. U.K. Fax: 01689 899030. (2.99pound/cd).
Harold Moores Records has reduced Moniuszko's opera Halka (CPO 999 032-2) to a special price: 15 and a half pounds. FAX: (0170) 287 0377. Web site: http://www.hmrecords.demon.co.uk.
Issued by DUX [#0261, 1996], this delightful recording suggests what possibilities may be
discovered in the innovative junctions of sound technology and art. The recording
presents a set of Polish folk songs from the Kaszuby region, sung by Apolonia Nowak
in a wonderfully
rich, full-chested "white" voice (used by female Polish folksingers from different
areas).
The voice, without vibrato and ornamentation, but recorded with a smooth
veil of reverberation,
sounds from a distance, as if heard from the "fields, waters, and villages"
described in the songs' texts.
The songs are performed in dialect, with the proper "folk" pronunciation (which is
startling to some
Polish speakers who know only the literary form of the language).
What makes the
recording
very remarkable, though, and what captured the attention of juries at competitions
(the CD received an award from the Polish Radio and another one at a competition
in Shanghai)
is the presence of an early music ensemble as the accompaniment for the singer.
The ARS Nova
ensemble, directed by Jacek Urbaniak, includes the director performing on an
array of wind instruments, as well as Agata Sapiecha (fidel, rebec, mazanki -
bowed string instruments), Małgorzata Feldgebel and Joanna Nogal (fidel),
Marcin Zalewski (viola da gamba, lute, ocarine), Tadeusz Czechak
(psalterium, gothic harp, lute, drum), Czesław Pałkowski
(flutes, ocarine, hurdy-gurdy), and Marcin Domżał (glass cups, whistle).
The ecclectic collection of instruments, juxtaposing reconstructed medieval instruments
with those originating in Polish folklore, is not the only surprising element of this recording.
Their sounds are supported with recordings of natural sound effects - the gurgling
water of a stream, tranquil layers of birdsong, the crowing of the village rooster, the wind....
The instruments augment and ornament the
melodies, faithfully rendered by the beautiful "white" voice of Ms. Nowak. The improvisations
freely mix figures and gestures from the medieval, renaissance and baroque periods, creating a
fascinatingly inventive, and completely fictional, portrait of an idealized,
peaceful village, filled with enchanting
sonorities and vivid colors of folk art. The CD divides the songs into three groups, subtitled
"The Water," "The Forest," and "The Village." The booklet contains all the texts illustrated
with reproductions of folk "paper cut-outs" [wycinanki].
The recording was engineered by Małgorzata Polańska, Lech Tołwiński, and Antoni Dąbrowski.
The recording session took place in the interior of the Assumption of the BVM Church in Warsaw.
Unfortunately, I do not know who distributes DUX and this CD outside of Poland.
The company's address is listed on our web site.[MAH]
Soon after the April "Day with Women's Music" and the visit of Hanna Kulenty
to California, sponsored by the PMRC, I left for Europe, to participate in an
international conference at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. The conference,
entitled "The Yearning for the Middle Ages" took place on April 16-19 and was
organized by two German scholars, Prof. Annette Kreutziger-Herr (Hamburg)
and Prof. Dr. hab. Dorothea Redepenning (Heidelberg).
For this occasion,
I finally used the ticket that I won at the raffle of the Polish University
Club during their Christmas Party in 1996. Thanks to the Manager of LOT
in Los Angeles, Mr. Marek Kasiak, I could even travel in the comfort of
business class. While my flight from New York to Warsaw was very enjoyable,
my schedule was hectic. What was I doing in Warsaw when I was supposed to go
to Heidelberg? In addition to attending the conference in Germany,
I had several business tasks in Poland.
First, I had to visit Mr. Henryk Górecki, for another interview which will
appear in our book, entitled Górecki: An Autumn Portrait and scheduled for
publication for the summer of 1999. He also signed forms to permit
publication of my interview and article in The Musical Quarterly. Second,
I paid a quick visit to Wanda Bacewicz, the sister of the great woman composer,
whose music continues to be celebrated and promoted by the PMRC.
Ms. Bacewicz let me use some of her personal photographs for our future Bacewicz web site
and I had to return
them to the owner (after making computer scans and copies).
My third and final assignment in Poland was a
meeting with the editorial board of the Polish Musicological Quarterly, Muzyka,
discussing the future cooperation between this journal and our new
scholarly journal, published electronically on the PMRC web site, Polish Music Journal.
The first issue of this publication will appear in June (with the three
papers awarded Wilk Prizes for Research in Polish Music); the following
issues will contain translations from articles by Polish scholars,
previously published only in Polish. By making these articles available
to the English-speaking world we hope to stimulate interest in and
recognition of the achievements of Polish composers. At the PMRC,
we believe in the power of the written word, and in the importance
of including a wider range of Polish music in history textbooks,
encyclopedias, dictionaries, journals, etc. We hope that the
cooperation with Muzyka will serve this purpose. Finally,
I have also discussed the support that the Ministry of Arts and Culture
offered for our upcoming International Conference "Polish Jewish Music,"
which will explore a little-known and controversial aspect of
Polish culture.
At the conference at Heidelberg University, however, I dealt with another controversy:
the political use of medieval anthem in the music by Polish contemporary composers.
I presented a paper entitled "Bogurodzica Reborn: A Medieval Anthem in
Contemporary Music (Panufnik, Ptaszyńska, Kilar, Górecki)." "Bogurodzica"
for those who do not know that, is one of the earliest documents of the Polish
language, and the earliest notated piece of music with Polish text.
Its written sources date back to the beginning of the 15th century, but the
anthem is considered to have been composed in the 13th c. Some scholars have
even attributed it to the St. Adalbertus (11th c.). According to historians,
this song, called "carmen patrium" - the song of the homeland - served as a
coronation anthem to the Iagellon dynasty, and was sung at the battlefields
of Grunwald (1410, against the Teutonic Knights), and of Varna (1444, against
the Turkish invasion). Its continuing popularity (through the 17th century)
ended when the archaic language became incomprehensible to modern speakers and
when the venerated icon of the Black Madonna replaced the song as the national-religious
symbol.
In my paper (which will appear in the conference's proceedings next year)
I discuss the socio-political context, symbolic function and compositional use
of this anthem in works including Sinfonia Sacra by Andrzej PANUFNIK,
Conductus and Polish Letters by Marta PTASZYNSKA, Bogurodzica
by Wojciech KILAR, and a series of compositions by Henryk Mikołaj GÓRECKI,
in which only the anthem's first motive appears. The usage of "Bogurodzica" --
an ardent prayer for peace and restful sojourn in paradise, addressed to Mary
and Jesus -- as a national anthem, an anti-German symbol, and a battle hymn of the Polish army suggests the interplay of political and religious factors with the aesthetics of contemporary music. The composers associated the anthem with the Millennium of Poland (Panufnik), the 600th Anniversary of the Black Madonna and the rise of the Solidarity movement (Panufnik, Górecki, Ptaszynska, Kilar). The paper was also illustrated with an excerpt from Aleksander Ford's film "The Teutonic Knights" (music by Kazimierz Serocki) highlighting the presence of Bogurodzica at a battlefield at Grunwald.
Finally, I should mention the PMRC visitors, that we are very happy to welcome here. On May 7th two of the Wilk
Prize-winners traveled to Los Angeles to receive their award in person: Dr. Jill
Timmons and Dr. Sylvain Fremaux, the authors of a study about Alexander Tansman,
were our lovely guests. Their joy was marred only by the fact that instead of
the award certificate they received only an apology note from the USC office.
"The note is so funny that we will frame it" - they said. Their paper will soon be published online: in the first issue of
the Polish Music Journal that is being prepared now.
Our guests
this summer will include Dr. Richard Scott, who will travel to USC for
a post-doctoral research project on the music of Karol Szymanowski. He will search
for materials in the PMRC archives. Dr. Scott applied for a grant to be able
to travel to USC and we will warmly welcome him in California. Also in July, the Boys Choir from the St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Warsaw,
conducted by Joseph Herter, will travel to Southern California. At the moment we
are still searching for an appropriate concert venue for their concert -- which
would, if the proper location is found, become a fund-raiser for the PMRC.
At the PMRC, work continues on another Internet project, the sample
entries for the Online Encyclopedia of Polish Music. Entries on Górecki, Lutosławski, Bacewicz, and Szymański will be ready by the end of the summer. We will continue to inform you about our activities and the news from the research
front in the future.
Copyright 1998 by the Polish Music Reference
Center Newsletter Editors: Wanda Wilk and Maria Anna Harley
Born this month:
Died this month:
Send your comments and inquiries to: polmusic@usc.edu
Formatting by M. A. Harley, 3 June 1998
