ABSTRACT
From the earliest years of his career, Szymanowski enjoyed an uneasy relationship with music critics. His first appearance in the press came in a letter to Kurier Warszawski (22 April 1907), in which, with Grzegorz Fitelberg, he complained about the now famous review of a Young Poland concert by Aleksander Poliński, who criticised the Germanic influences on their work, making them seem to be ‘possessed by some evil spirit, which depraved their work, stripped it of personal and national characteristics and turned them into parrots mimicking Wagner and Strauss’. 1 But it was only after the First World War that Szymanowski seriously addressed the problem of artistic criticism, publically expressing views on the purpose of artistic criticism in the article ‘Some Observations Regarding Contemporary Musical Opinion in Poland’, published in July 1920. 2 Though conceding that there was a general view that the educational task of artistic criticism was ‘the shaping of public taste by means of a summary judgment on a work of art, an authoritative indication of its absolute worth’, Szymanowski believed that artistic criticism of a completely different nature could exist, and he traced its origins to Oscar Wilde and Walter Pater. Such a type of criticism does not sit in judgement, signing untimely death warrants. Instead, being essentially amoral, ‘it is beyond “good” and “evil”. 3 It reveals with a gracious, but wise smile, new worlds of beauty which the short-sighted eye of the Philistine would perhaps be unable to perceive without its all-powerful help.’ 4
