Artists:

Roksana Wardenga – mezzo-soprano,
Aleksandra Hałat – piano.

Aleksandra Hałat invited to the project the talented and titled mezzo-soprano Roksana Wardenga, with whom they both made the world phonographic premiere of Karol Rathaus’s song (DUX 2022) and presented it to the public for the first time in Poland.

The juxtaposition of Karol Szymanowski’s work with the work of Karol Rathaus is not accidental. Both composers have a lot in common, both being representatives of the German school of composition. Moreover, K. Szymanowski’s work, similarly to the work of Franz Schrecker – a teacher, mentor and authority of Karol Rathaus, is described as a combination of German romanticism with French impressionism. It seems intriguing and significant that, not without a reason, the audience during the concert will be able to find echoes of Karol Szymanowski’s extraordinary music in the works of Karol Rathaus – this is due to Grzegorz Fitelberg, who popularized K. Szymanowski’s artistic output in the USA.

During the concert, the audience will be able to move into the extraordinary world of poetry by listening to songs to the lyrics of William Shakespeare, E. J. Coatsworth, T. S. Eliot, Emily Dickinson, Dorothy Parker, E.E. Cummings and Jan Kasprowicz, as the programme includes two series of songs by Karol Rathaus entitled “Three English Songs” op. 48 for voice and piano (1942) and “Five Moods after Amercican Poets” for voice and piano (1946). Both series were created in the period of Karol Rathaus’s emigration to the USA. Apart from K. Rathaus’s songs, the project involves the performance of “Three Fragments from Jan Kasprowicz’s Poems, op. 5”, which is described as one of the most remarkable manifestations of Szymanowski’s youthful talent and an outstanding work in the scale of European neo-romanticism.

The juxtaposition of the artistic output of K. Szymanowski and K. Rathaus will introduce the audience into the atmosphere of metaphysics intertwined with elements of folk religiousness and will allow listeners to experience a real manifestation of Young Poland symbolism.

Programme:

1. K. Szymanowski – Three fragments from poems by Jan Kasprowicz op.5

• Święty Boże [Holy God]

• Jestem i płaczę [I am here and I am crying]

• Moja pieśń wieczorna [My evening song]

The song cycle “Three fragments from Jan Kasprowicz’s poems for voice and piano op. 5” by Karol Szymanowski was written in 1902. The composer used some fragments of poems by Jan Kasprowicz from his latest poetry collection entitled “To the dying world”, which was re-issueed in 1921 together with the collection “Salve Regina” under the joint title “Hymns”. The name “Hymns” is also used in reference to Szymanowski’s work, which was first published (by Gebethner and Wolff) in 1928 and had the dedication “In memory of the Great Poet Jan Kasprowicz”. For Szymanowski, the works of this Young Poland poet were “a revelation of great poetry”. What is present in Kasprowicz’s “Hymns” are decadent moods, full of spiritual anxiety, symbolism and metaphysics, typical of the works of Young Poland poets.

2. K. Rathaus -Three English Songs op. 48 for voice and piano (1942)

• Sweet Music
• As I ride
• The Oblation

3. K. Rathaus – Five Moods after American Poets for voice and piano (1946)

• My sweet old etcetera
• Frustration
• Indian summer
• Conversation Galante
• Pretty futility

Vocal lyricism was the favorite artistic form of composers already in the 19th century and Rathaus composed songs to the texts by German poets since his student days.  Unfortunately, they have not survived. What has been left are some later works on English poetry – Three English Songs op. 48 (1941-43) and on American poetry – Five Moods after American Poets op. 57 (1946). Rathaus chose works by very distant (from him) authors, such as William Shakespeare and two representatives of the Victorian era: Robert Browning and Algernon Charles Swinburne (op. 48) or American authors, such as: Elizabeth J. Coatsworth, Emily Dickinson, Dorothy Parker, Edward Estlin Cummings, Thomas Stearns Eliot (op. 57).

Reaching out to so many different texts confirms the broad mind and thorough education of the composer, who was convinced of the need for an intellectual approach to music, as recalled by his university colleagues.