Pawel Szymanski (b. 1954)

[Maciek]

My absolutely favorite Szymanski composition (well maybe on par with some of his chamber pieces from the Silesian Quartet disc). His Quasi una sinfonietta. A brilliant showcase of his composing method. And the haunting beauty of the slow middle movement!

[Maciek]

The Pawel Szymanski Festival DVD was due out this spring. Well, it didn't come out then but now it finally has arrived. The official release date is - this Saturday!!!

[Maciek]

Well, in fact they actually released FIVE DVDs of Szymanski's music!

This 4-DVD set, which contains almost every piece performed during the festival. And this 1-DVD "reduction" for the stingier types.

[Maciek]

This whole QUDSIYA ZAHER situation is tiring... Hopefully he will manage to write it one day...

[Maciek]

This whole QUDSIYA ZAHER situation is tiring... Hopefully he will manage to write it one day...

I've been talking to a friend with "inside knowledge" and according to her, the opera has been completed about 2-3 years ago, and is patiently waiting for the National Opera in Warsaw to finally stage it.

[Symphonien]

It's been far too long since I've listened to Szymanski so I thought it was finally time to get back to this thread and post some opinions. Surely Szymanski deserves his thread to be bumped up and for some more people to take notice of him? Recently I've been trying to play catch-up with all that Szymanski I now have on my computer. And I still have plenty left to listen to (and download). So I will try to post some short opinions as I listen to some more of his works.

Last night I returned to La Folia (the piece that started my interest in the composer), as well as Quasi una sinfonietta, A Study of Shade and the Piano Concerto (the last three I listened to once each a long time ago). La Folia remains a masterpiece in my view, even without considering that it was written with the technology of 1979! But my favourite piece so far is now the Quasi una sinfonietta. The first movement seems to depict a sort of fragmented Classical/Romantic (Beethovenian perhaps?) music with a particularly memorable part occurring when the music seems to jump about to different scenes punctuated by loud percussion. Sort of like frustratedly flicking between radio stations or through tracks on a CD! Plenty of fun. The second movement is really beyond words, just utterly beautiful... I particularly like the way the sighing string glissandi and percussion are incorporated here. Finally, the last movement briefly recalls the mood of the first before disintegrating away, as Szymanski does so well.

A Study of Shade on the other hand, I didn't like quite as much but it still has a lot going for it. It reminded me very much of the Ligeti of Atmospheres and Lontano but didn't really appeal to me until its second half. I did enjoy the moment where the orchestra reaches a diminished chord which resolves to a dominant seventh, but then dies away about 11 minutes in. A cool effect in this context and after that the music takes on some more of these strangely familiar harmonies and seems to be wanting to resolve somewhere but never quite does. I will definitely return to this one later.

The Piano Concerto I liked, but still haven't quite got my head around its form yet. It begins with some active, rhythmic music driven by the piano but then after 5 minutes it goes into a sort of stasis and stays that way for the rest of its duration. Beautiful music but I don't quite understand how it relates to the opening 5 minutes. And that ending is one of the strangest I've ever heard! This one will probably take some more listens as well.

Today, I went through a CD with Partitas III & IV, Lux Aeterna, Two Studies for Piano and the Miserere. Of the two Partitas, III appealed to me the most and I would rank it right up there with Quasi una sinfonietta amongst Szymanski's best compositions. The opening is amazing, really plunging you straight into a wild ride with some fantastic harpsichord playing. The rest is some more beautiful and typical Szymanski disintegration of Baroque music, and as I mentioned in the Listening thread almost recalls the harpsichord bits at the end of La Folia. Partita IV didn't really do much for me... after about 4 minutes, it seems to rest on a single high note! Some different textures moving around underneath though of course.

Lux Aeterna is very colourful with its mix of piano, harp, celesta (I think) and beautiful choral writing. A nice, relatively short little piece this and I quite enjoyed it even though I don't tend to like vocal music that much. The Miserere I didn't really like as much but the carefully judged string glissandi did impart a strange eerie quality over the top of the vocal lines.

As for the Two Piano Studies, although the first one was interesting with its chordal effects it was the second one that really captured my attention! Extremely beautiful all the way through and very imaginative in the way it emerges from the low cluster that ends the first study. I can describe this one as being like a sort of Bach prelude gently floating away into eternity... There are many images that come to my head here. For example, I can imagine Bach being somehow brought back to life and shown the modern piano. He starts to play something like this and is fascinated by all the possibilities that this instrument has to offer, using the pedal and obsessively repeating certain harmonies. Wonderful piece this one and it has already become one of my favourites.

I also just finished listening to the Concerto Grosso. All I can say for now is - wow, Szymanski certainly loves his Baroque music doesn't he? I think perhaps he may have gotten a bit carried away on this one. Here I was expecting something like Schnittke, but to me it sounds like Szymanski has just appropriated the Baroque style here and not really done anything with it! "Banality" perhaps, but a nice work all the same (maybe it sounded somewhat refreshing since I don't listen to much Baroque music).

Tomorrow I plan to move on to the chamber music!

[Maciek]

Hi Bryce! Nice comments - you've made me think I need to listen to some Szymanski today.

But my favourite piece so far is now the Quasi una sinfonietta. The first movement seems to depict a sort of fragmented Classical/Romantic (Beethovenian perhaps?) music with a particularly memorable part occurring when the music seems to jump about to different scenes punctuated by loud percussion. Sort of like frustratedly flicking between radio stations or through tracks on a CD! Plenty of fun. The second movement is really beyond words, just utterly beautiful... I particularly like the way the sighing string glissandi and percussion are incorporated here. Finally, the last movement briefly recalls the mood of the first before disintegrating away, as Szymanski does so well.

100% agreement here. It's one of my 3 or 4 very favorite Szymanski pieces. And the slow (middle) movement is absolutely divine, one of the best things he's ever done.

A Study of Shade on the other hand, I didn't like quite as much but it still has a lot going for it.

Did you listen to it together with its counterpart, A Study of Outline? It makes much more sense that way (with A Study of Outline as the first movement). My sentiments used to be exactly like yours, I considered it sort of "meh", until a couple of months ago I finally listened to both pieces together (as Two Studies for orchestra). And now I rank it with Two Studies for piano!

Of course, you might not like it even then. I think you will like the first study, with it's breathtaking superposition of rhythmic patterns. But as a whole Two Studies for orchestra is formally very similar to both the 4th Partita and the Piano Concerto (two movements, short dynamic first, slow, extremely extended second) - since you only "like" (and don't "love" ) those, A Study of Shade might still not work for you, even in its original surroundings.

My personal (current) Szymanski pantheon is, in random order: 2 Pieces for String Quartet, 2 Studies for Piano (only I prefer the first, but I love them both, consider this to be a masterpiece, in fact), Partita IV, Piano Concerto, 2 Studies for Orchestra, Quasi una sinfonietta. And not far behind, there are quite a few more (the extremely delicate, beautiful chlorophaenhylohydroxipiperidinofluorobutyrophaenon, the dynamic Sonata for chamber orchestra, Kaleidoscope, 2 Illusory Constructions, 5 Pieces for SQ etc. etc. etc.). So there's an interesting overlap in our tastes (Quasi una sinfonietta, 2 Studies for piano) - with a simultaneous strong contrast (Partita IV, Piano Concerto). I find that fact really fascinating and pleasing in a strange sort of way. (Yeah, I'm odd )

I also just finished listening to the Concerto Grosso. All I can say for now is - wow, Szymanski certainly loves his Baroque music doesn't he? I think perhaps he may have gotten a bit carried away on this one. Here I was expecting something like Schnittke, but to me it sounds like Szymanski has just appropriated the Baroque style here and not really done anything with it! "Banality" perhaps, but a nice work all the same (maybe it sounded somewhat refreshing since I don't listen to much Baroque music).

Actually the Concerto is not a "real" composition. It is one of the two pieces he has officially released which weren't planned to be released. This is the sort of material he works on. He composes pieces like this and then pulls them apart. But he has decided to "show the world" two samples of the early stages of his work - the Concerto grosso and Suite for harpsichord.

I've actually made our resident HIPsters Gurn and Que listen to the Concerto. Gurn enjoyed it very much, Que hasn't commented yet. He was probably too overwhelmed for words.

[Symphonien]

Did you listen to it together with its counterpart, A Study of Outline? It makes much more sense that way (with A Study of Outline as the first movement). My sentiments used to be exactly like yours, I considered it sort of "meh", until a couple of months ago I finally listened to both pieces together (as Two Studies for orchestra). And now I rank it with Two Studies for piano!

Of course, you might not like it even then. I think you will like the first study, with it's breathtaking superposition of rhythmic patterns. But as a whole Two Studies for orchestra is formally very similar to both the 4th Partita and the Piano Concerto (two movements, short dynamic first, slow, extremely extended second) - since you only "like" (and don't "love" ) those, A Study of Shade might still not work for you, even in its original surroundings.

Ah, ok... I did not realise that it had a partner; thought it was just a stand-alone piece. I will have to listen to the two of them together later then, when I get around to the rest of the orchestral music I haven't heard yet.

So Partita IV and the Piano Concerto are in two movements (attacca though)? This I did not realise and maybe it will help me to better understand them if I consider them this way rather than as one movement. The Two Piano Studies made much more sense to me because they were labelled as such, so I will try listening to these other two pieces then as having separate movements.

My personal (current) Szymanski pantheon is, in random order: 2 Pieces for String Quartet, 2 Studies for Piano (only I prefer the first, but I love them both, consider this to be a masterpiece, in fact), Partita IV, Piano Concerto, 2 Studies for Orchestra, Quasi una sinfonietta. And not far behind, there are quite a few more (the extremely delicate, beautiful chlorophaenhylohydroxipiperidinofluorobutyrophaenon, the dynamic Sonata for chamber orchestra, Kaleidoscope, 2 Illusory Constructions, 5 Pieces for SQ etc. etc. etc.). So there's an interesting overlap in our tastes (Quasi una sinfonietta, 2 Studies for piano) - with a simultaneous strong contrast (Partita IV, Piano Concerto). I find that fact really fascinating and pleasing in a strange sort of way. (Yeah, I'm odd )

Fascinating indeed! Although I may come to like those latter two pieces yet, time will tell... Good to see plenty of chamber pieces on your list; I'll try and get round to listening to some of those tomorrow.

Now just what exactly is chlorophaenhylohydroxipiperidinofluorobutyrophaenon all about? Please tell me you didn't remember how to spell that one off the top of your head!

Actually the Concerto is not a "real" composition. It is one of the two pieces he has officially released which weren't planned to be released. This is the sort of material he works on. He composes pieces like this and then pulls them apart. But he has decided to "show the world" two samples of the early stages of his work - the Concerto grosso and Suite for harpsichord.

Ah, that makes perfect sense then! And I find it really interesting to note that this is the method Szymanski uses - actually composing whole pieces like this and then pulling them apart for his real compositions. Perhaps this is the reason that his "deconstructions" of other styles are so effective in the context of his actual pieces.

It's funny how some people that don't like contemporary music often say things like "I bet these modern composers couldn't actually write a masterpiece in the style of Bach/Beethoven/etc". Well, Szymanski clearly can, and I'm sure he would have been a great Baroque composer if he had lived 300 years ago.

[Maciek]

Yep, chlorophaenhylohydroxipiperidinofluorobutyrophaenon... Don't you love how that just rolls off the tongue?

Here, I'll do it again:

chlorophaenhylohydroxipiperidinofluorobutyrophaenon

chlorophaenhylohydroxipiperidinofluorobutyrophaenon

Aaah, that was good.

[Maciek]

So Partita IV and the Piano Concerto are in two movements (attacca though)? This I did not realise and maybe it will help me to better understand them if I consider them this way rather than as one movement. The Two Piano Studies made much more sense to me because they were labelled as such, so I will try listening to these other two pieces then as having separate movements.

Well, I've never seen the scores, but that's how I see (or rather: hear) the pieces. In Partita IV it's more like there's a sort of overlap between movements. Or, actually, it's more like the second movement just can't start: there are a couple of false starts, a sort of battle between the first and second movement, before the first finally gives way and the second really begins...

[Maciek]

It seems we have the thread to ourselves. As usual. Ah, the glories of venerating an unjustly ignored composer!

You should definitely try Szymanski's Under a plane tree - his second electronic piece. Brilliant, even funny! though very different to La Folia.

[Symphonien]

You should definitely try Szymanski's Under a plane tree - his second electronic piece. Brilliant, even funny! though very different to La Folia.

Just listened to that one and enjoyed it a lot! I actually find it quite similar to La Folia in certain ways really - in its form and treatment of the electronic medium. Both pieces can be categorised as broadly similar in terms of their structure... it would be a bit of an oversimplification but not too far-fetched to describe them as a rough sonata form. They both begin with the "exposition" of a certain idea/sound (harpsichord in La Folia, birds in Under the Plane Tree), then "develop" it until it becomes more and more polyphonic (with copious electronic glissandi and other funny synthesisers in both cases ), after that the music dies down and seems to return (a "recapitulation" of sorts) to some of the initial ideas with a more sparse texture (but with some "echoes" of the louder section) before fading out.

[Symphonien]

I also listened to the string quartets a while ago (Silesian Quartet) and can give some brief first impressions...

The 2 Pieces for String Quartet take that typical Szymanski two movement structure (short dynamic first, longer more static second) and I feel they do quite a good job at making it work in the quartet medium. But as much as I liked them, I can say that it was the 5 Pieces that really impressed me on the first listen and will go to my list of favourite Szymanski works.

The 5 Pieces for String Quartet are just amazing! For the first movement, I really find it difficult to say exactly what sort of material Szymanski is using here to begin with. It just sounds oddly familiar but I can't place it in any distinct period stylistically. This is really part of Szymanki's genius and he shows us here how similar various styles can be in the way he puts together and manipulates this tonal material. Anyway, there is some effective string glissandi (seems to be a hallmark of his style), and some interesting harmonic effects can be heard in those low notes on the cello. The second movement is wonderful in the disjointed, fragmented sound it produces with its combination of short arco and pizzicato notes... here I can detect a Bach Cello Suite; perhaps that cello outburst just before the end puts that in my mind. Now the third is just another one of those brilliant Szymanski slow movements, and I find it particularly beautiful because it appears to be built entirely out of harmonics. The fourth is more clearly Baroque-inspired fun - some great rhythmic work and a lovely ending. The fifth is permeated by an incessant violin tritone from which the music seems to be trying to seek solace. As a whole, this is truly a fantastic work in my mind.

Photo from a Birthday Party appears to be a less serious work, but a fun one all the same and would probably make a nice encore. The pizzicato chords at the beginning remind me of Ligeti (Hungarian Rock amongst other things) and what follows after that is a rather light-hearted jazzy mood, but interspersed with just detectable traces of some of Szymanski's characteristics.

[Maciek]

Well, if you asked me which composition is better, in an objective sense (in so far as that is possible to judge), I would say it's 5 Pieces. But if you wanted to know which one I like more - it's definitely 2 Pieces. Either I simply have something for that 2-movement form of his or, more likely, it's just "listening fatigue". 5 Pieces was one of the very first Szymanski pieces I ever heard. OTOH, it shares that distinction with Quasi una sinfonietta, a piece I will, seemingly, never tire of. Anyway, the pieces for string quartet is definitely a case where I respond to two compositions in different ways intellectually and emotionally. Also, I do like both sets - just prefer the shorter one.

[Symphonien]

Well, if you asked me which composition is better, in an objective sense (in so far as that is possible to judge), I would say it's 5 Pieces. But if you wanted to know which one I like more - it's definitely 2 Pieces. Either I simply have something for that 2-movement form of his or, more likely, it's just "listening fatigue". 5 Pieces was one of the very first Szymanski pieces I ever heard. OTOH, it shares that distinction with Quasi una sinfonietta, a piece I will, seemingly, never tire of. Anyway, the pieces for string quartet is definitely a case where I respond to two compositions in different ways intellectually and emotionally. Also, I do like both sets - just prefer the shorter one.

Interesting that you feel this way... Based on my limited experience with these works, all I can say is that I prefer the 5 Pieces so far, whether intellectually or emotionally I don't really know.

Just to bump up this thread again while I remember (amazing how quickly it gets buried down in the 3rd page ), I have listened to some more of Szymanski's chamber music. I don't really have time for extensive comments so I'll just comment briefly on the two works that made the greatest impression on me: the 2 Illusory Constructions and the Kaleidoscope for MCE. The 2 Constructions once again typify Szymanski's contrasting two movement structure, beginning with a very lively, rhythmical first movement with the sound of the clarinet's high register prominent in the texture. The second movement is possibly the most meditative piece of music I've heard from the composer so far. I suppose it could be described as minimalistic in the way that it is entirely built out of the repetition of one short phrase, yet it is recognisably Szymanski-an in character - great use of repeated, pedalled piano notes; the way the melody is seamlessly tossed around between the trio of instruments; and the ingenius way in which the movement emerges in the first place from a single loud, low piano note which is then sustained. To me, it sounds like another decontextualisation in the same vein as the second of the 2 Studies for Piano; in this case I imagine a small, isolated moment in a musical performance (perhaps a short cadenza or ornamentation) that has been frozen in time and we are allowed to view it as it gently floats in front of us before gradually disappearing into the distance. Puts me in mind of a quote by Rautavaara when he said that through music we should be able to catch "a glimpse of eternity through the window of time" (not that I'm much of a Rautavaara fan but I think it fits quite nicely here).

The Kaleidoscope for MCE, for solo cello maintains more or less the same rough, uneven rhythmic feel throughout but I had a couple of those oddly familiar (déjà vu?) experiences during a couple of moments in the piece that I often have with Szymanski, and I mean that in a good way. At some point in the middle, where the cello plays some squeakier-sounding high notes it began to sound almost strangely like jazz to me, but very far removed. And just before the end, it sounds like Szymanski's postmodern, decontextualised counterpart to the ending of the Prelude from Bach's 1st Cello Suite. Maybe these moments in particular were just my impression, but it's the wonderful postmodern style Szymanski has developed that will inevitably create these sorts of experiences for listeners somewhere in a piece that makes him such a fascinating composer to explore.

Wow, I didn't even mean to post that much!

[Maciek]

Let's just keep watching this thread and saving it every time it drops below the surface! Like today.

If you liked Kaleidoscope for MCE, you would definitely love the Cellovator disc.

(I'm waiting for our resident cellists to pounce at me for spewing nonsense... )

[Maciek]

I have decided he might be a genius.

(Yes, another one.)

It all happened yesterday. I was feeling pretty depressed and listening to all sorts of random stuff on my mp3 player when one of the slow parts of Sixty-odd pages came up - a piece I merely like (as opposed to venerate). But there and then I experienced the same sort of "light" that I usually associate only with vocal Bach. A music that is shot through with light, immersed in it, soaked with it. It somehow made perfect sense in connection with everything else: the russet leaves, the intense smell of apples as I passed a grocer's stall (it was an unusually warm day). Difficult to describe what I mean - it is a certain lightness of texture and stasis of colour that always makes me perceive the world sub specie aeternitatis.

Funny thing is, Sixty-odd pages still doesn't make my "favorite Szymanski" list.

[Maciek]

Yesterday I listened to the 2 Studies for orchestra. And I was struck once again by how perfect the double set is as a whole, and by how little sense the second movement makes when it's left on its own. The first movement's presence is absolutely essential, to the point where it doesn't really make sense to call it a "movement" - it's an unbreakable, organic binding. Not only are they intertwined (which is always the case in Szymanski's bipartite pieces), but the second movement simply requires the buildup of tension that the first movement creates - it thrives on that tension, on those tempestuous bursts of energy. Without them, it falls flat. With them - a truly amazing effect is attained, the serene, ululating undulations attain a divine, metaphysical, transcendental quality. The same goes for Partita IV or the Piano Concerto. As much as I love the second "movements" of these pieces, I wouldn't want them on their own - it just wouldn't be the same.

If he absolutely had to release one of the movements separately, the first one would have worked much better. It has great "hit" potential, could easily compete with the likes of Short Ride in a Fast Machine or Lollapalooza (and I believe it's more than a bit more refined).

[Maciek]

All of which is not meant to imply that he is incapable of writing slow, calm pieces of interest.

chlorophaenhylohydroxipiperidinofuorobutyrophaenon is a prime example of such a piece: I don't think it ever goes beyond a p, or maybe even pp, but it is a fascinating, even exciting musical journey throughout.

[Maciek]

Sorry, that's chlorophaenhylohydroxipiperidinofluorobutyrophaenon. (Was typing too fast.)