The London Episode of Apolinary Kątski (1838)

The early artistic career of Apolinary Kątski (1824–1879) was that of an infant prodigy – one of the Wunderkinder who (especially in the 19th century) dazzled audiences with their exceptionally well-developed abilities. The Polish virtuoso, unlike many prodigies, did not disappoint the hopes placed in him, going down in history as a distinguished  violinist, as well as the founder and longtime director of the Institute of Music in Warsaw. In the author’s opinion, the violinist’s early career requires more thorough discussion. The present article outlines the fortunes of the young  Apolinary Kątski in the second half of 1838 – so, directly after his meeting with Niccolò Paganini. This event represented a certain turning point in the development of Kątski’s career. The letter – a peculiar sort of recommendation – drawn up by the Italian virtuoso to rate the young violinist’s playing opened the doors for him to many of Europe’s concert halls and had a favourable effect on his later artistic career. Kątski had the opportunity to see for himself the power of Paganini’s words during his first trip to London, the primary aim of which was to perform before the British Queen, Victoria. The present article describes Kątski’s activities in preparation for this event. It takes up the thread of the reception of the young Kątski’s first performances in the capital of England, as well as his reception by the Polish community resident in London. Beyond this, it discusses the relationship of the Kątski family with journalist and émigré activist Leonard Niedźwiecki, who served as their guide in the salons of the city upon the Thames.
Studies of the correspondence of Leonard Niedźwiecki (with, among others, Eustachy Januszkiewicz, who was active in the Polish émigré community in Paris), as well as preliminary research of the foreign press, have permitted us to recreate Apolinary Kątski’s experiences during his first independent artistic journey to London.

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.

The Ideas of Determinism and Indeterminism in Works of Iannis Xenakis and György Ligeti on an Example of Pithoprakta and Clocks and Clouds

The issue of determinism and indeterminism became essential in the music of the second half of the 20th century. It occupied a special place in artistic output of two avant-garde composers: Iannis Xenakis and György Ligeti. In both cases, the ideas of determinism and indeterminism are connected with their music: with Pithoprakta (written by Xenakis in 1955–1956) and with Clocks and Clouds (written by Ligeti in 1972). The following article presents some aspects of their artistic approach as well as an analysis and interpretation of the compositions. Xenakis proposed his own way of thinking about indeterminism in music linked to the “stochastic music”, and Pithoprakta is the first example of this compositional technique. Meanwhile, Ligeti’s main inspiration when composing Clocks and Clouds was the essay Of Clouds and Clocks written in 1965 by Karl Popper and published in 1972 (in his book Objective Knowledge). The Austrian-British philosopher used this metaphor to describe different physical phenomena which are  more or less predictable. Pithoprakta as well as Clocks and Clouds represent specific kind of music called “sound-mass music”. In both of them some distinctive textural and timbral structures may be pointed out: in the first work, they can be described as figures (“galaxy” and “beam”), and in the second one – as bands (“clocks” and “clouds”).