Oskar Łapeta

The Musical Language of Eugeniusz Morawski as Exemplified by the Ballets Miłość and Świtezianka

Two of Morawski’s preserved complete ballet scores – Miłość (Love) and Świtezianka (The Maid of Lake Świteź), are representing a relatively late stage of his career as a composer, especially compared to his preserved symphonic poems (Don Quichotte, Nevermore and Ulalume). Miłość was written between 1925 and 1928. Libretto was written by the painter, theatre critic and scenic designer Franciszek Siedlecki. It is Morawski’s longest preserved composition – its estimated duration is about 3 hours. It is a score for a large orchestra supported by organ and choir. The work is divided according to the 19th-century ballet-divertissement. It is set in four parts, representing different locations (the world of machines, the sphere of the planets, the world of eternal love and Earth), and each part is divided into scenes and further dance numbers. Miłość was never presented on stage, but some portions of the work were shown at concerts. Świtezianka was written ca 1922. It is a much shorter work – its duration is about 35 minutes. Libretto was written by the composer himself. The plot of the ballet is a love triangle between a girl, a lumberjack and a knight. It is to represent a fantastic vision of pagan Slavic world in which reality and supernatural are mixed together. Świtezianka was staged in 1931 in Warsaw and was the biggest success in Morawski’s career, bringing him the State Prize for Musical Achievements in 1933. Since then it was staged three times – in 1960, 1962 and 2017, each time bringing reviews full of admiration and respect. Both ballets show Morawski as a composer fully aware of the 20th-century trends and techniques. His musical language in these works resembles Bartók, Ravel, Prokofiev and Stravinsky. They are masterly orchestrated with acute sense of orchestral timbre and with extensive use of percussion and brass sections. Morawski uses polytonality and polymetrics, underlines sharp rhythms and uses scales unfamiliar to traditional tonal system – pentatonic scale, whole tone scale and modal scale. These traits show Morawski as one of the most interesting and unjustly neglected Polish composers of the first half of the 20th century.

Polish music in the repertoire of Leopold Stokowski

Nowadays, Leopold Stokowski is recognized as one of the most im­portant conductors of the 20^th Century. The artist was very proud of his Polish origin and conducted twenty two compositions written by eleven Polish composers, including Chopin, Wieniawski, Fitel­berg, Szymanowski, Tansman, Szabelski, Moniuszko, Lutosławski, Panufnik, Jarecki and Paderewski. During his career Stokowski visit­ed Poland four times. The first two visits (1924 and 1958) were private. The conductor’s first Polish concert took place in Warsaw in May 1959 – on this occasion Stokowski conducted Lutosławski’s Symphony No. 1 and Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater. The press praised Stokowski for bringing from the orchestra his own rich sonorities and for his great sensitivity, and at the same time criticized him for lack of for­mal discipline. Also Lutosławski was dissatisfied with Stokowski’s interpretation. Stokowski conducted in Poland also in May 1960, when he gave a couple of concerts in Zabrze and Bydgoszcz. Both programmes included compositions by Polish composers – Szabelski and Moniuszko. The conductor was also a close friend of Andrzej Panufnik. Stokowski collaborated with Panufnik when conducting his Symphony for peace and later led the world premiere performance of revised version of the work, entitled Sinfonia Elegiaca. He also con­ducted Sinfonia sacra and two other world premiere performances of Panufnik’s works – Katyń Epitaph and Universal Prayer. Stokowski recorded some of Polish compositions – both in studio and during concerts. Some of these performances are still unpublished (Fitel­berg’s Polish rhapsody, Moniuszko’s Fairy tale overture and Szyman­owski’s Stabat Mater), while others have been published (Panufnik’s Universal Prayer, Lutosławski’s Symphony No. 1 and Szabelski’s Tocca­ta). Stokowski’s Polish episodes are intriguing and the present study is the first one to bring to light this forgotten episodes from the great conductor’s biography.

Havergal Brian’s Symphony No. 1 in D minor (1919–1927), known as Gothic Symphony, is possibly one of the most demanding and difficult pieces in symphonic repertoire, the largest-scale symphony ever written, outdoing the most extreme demands of Mahler, Strauss and Schönberg. After the purely instrumental part 1, part 2 is a gigantic setting of Te Deum, inspired by the mighty Gothic cathedrals. This outstanding work has been performed only six times since its premiere in 1961, and has been recorded in studio only once. There are three existing phonographic realisations of this work. Two of them are live recordings made in England. The first of them comes from 1966, when the Symphony was recorded under the direction of Adrian Boult (it was released by the Testament label under catalogue number SBT2 1454) and the second one was made in 2011 under the baton of Martyn Brabbins (it was released in the same year under catalogue number CDA67971/2). The third recording, but the first one that has been available internationally, was made in Bratislava in 1989 under Ondrej Lenárd (it was first released by Marco Polo label in 1990, and later published by Naxos in 2004 under catalogue number 8.557418-19). Made with different orchestras and choirs, under very different sonic circumstances, they also differ considerably within interpretative ideas represented by conductors. They show Brian’s work in different ways, illuminating this composition. Sadly, despite their efforts, the composer’s output is still perceived as peripheral curiosity for connoisseurs.

Phonographic Realisations of the Gothic Symphony by Havergal Brian

Havergal Brian’s Symphony No. 1 in D minor (1919–1927), known as Gothic Symphony, is possibly one of the most demanding and difficult pieces in symphonic repertoire, the largest-scale symphony ever written, outdo­ing the most extreme demands of Mahler, Strauss and Schönberg. After the purely instrumental part 1, part 2 is a gigantic setting of Te Deum, inspired by the mighty Gothic cathedrals. This outstanding work has been performed only six times since its premiere in 1961, and has been recorded in studio only once. There are three existing phonographic realisations of this work. Two of them are live recordings made in England. The first of them comes from 1966, when the Symphony was recorded under the direction of Adrian Boult (it was released by the Testament label under catalogue number SBT2 1454) and the second one was made in 2011 under the baton of Martyn Brabbins (it was released in the same year under cata­logue number CDA67971/2). The third recording, but the first one that has been available internationally, was made in Bratislava in 1989 under Ondrej Lenárd (it was first released by Marco Polo label in 1990, and later pub­lished by Naxos in 2004 under catalogue number 8.557418-19). Made with different orchestras and choirs, under very different sonic circumstances, they also differ considerably within interpretative ideas represented by conductors. They show Brian’s work in different ways, illuminating this composition. Sadly, despite their efforts, the composer’s output is still perceived as peripheral curiosity for connoisseurs.