Karol Szymanowski

A monographic album presenting the works of Karol Szymanowski, recorded by soprano Iwona Sobotka, the NFM Choir and the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero. The album recorded in the NFM Main Hall includes the Concert Overture in E majorv op. 12, Songs of a Fairy Princess op. 31 and Symphony No. 3 “Song of the Night” op. 27 by Karol Szymanowski

Album premiere: May 24, 2024

Publisher: National Forum of Music, CD Accord

Performers:

Giancarlo Guerrero - conductor

Iwona Sobotka – soprano, NFM Choir, NFM Wrocław Philharmonic

An orchestral debut, one of numerous song cycles and finally a short yet massive vocal- instrumental work. Years spanning their dates of inception: twelve. Significantly greater span – between the dates of their premieres, interspersed by greater and lesser historical events, most notably the First World War and both Russian revolutions, along with a series of personal trials and reappraisals of the artist’s spirituality, as well as bad luck and unfavourable circumstances.

What – apart from the author – links these works? Seemingly very little, yet certain common threads can be found. Among them that each of the three works is linked to a degree with some kind of specific literary text. “Some kind of” that is to say different
in each instance. Songs of a Fairy Princess is a clear example of a “musical setting”.
Symphony No. 3 subtitled “The Song of the Night”, has at its core the text of a Persian mystic, yet is fundamentally an instrumental work capable of being performed without voices.

What about the Overture? In keeping with the spirit – or manner – of the era, the first version of the work was preceded by a poetic motto from the poem Witeź Włast by Tadeusz Miciński (1873–1918), a close friend of the composer, a cult figure in today’s slang and in yesterday’s stricter definition, a type of “magus”, and one of the leaders of Polish modernism at the turn of the 20th century.

Rafał Augustyn