Young Poland in Music

The expansion of technique and proportion discernible in those works Szymanowski completed in the period immediately following his student years is attributable to a combination of internal, creative pressure and external circumstances, and in particular his involvement with the Young Poland in Music Publishing Group, formed in 1905. After spending a few weeks in Italy in March and early April with Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, Szymanowski went on to Berlin in May or June 1905, so avoiding the disturbances which broke out in the Russian-occupied sector of Poland at this time, and it was during this visit that he first met Grzegorz Fitelberg (1879-1953) (see Plate 5). Like Szymanowski, Fitelberg, known to friends as 'Ficio', had trained with Noskowski, and his own works, including two symphonies, symphonic poems, a violin sonata and a violin concerto, reveal both the influence of the late Romantic German tradition and an awareness of recent developments in Russian music. His chief contribution to Polish music was as a conductor, and in this capacity he gave first performances of almost all Szymanowski's orchestral works. After 1908 he virtually ceased to compose, and confined his activities to transcription and orchestration. In this field, he undoubtedly possessed considerable flair, as his completion of Karlowicz's symphonic poem Episode at a Masquerade demonstrates. Fitelberg advised Szymanowski on the orchestration of some of his early works and, as will be seen, exerted a not always benign influence on other decisions the composer had to make. Teresa Chylinska believes that following the death of his father, Szymanowski was especially vulnerable, his sense of isolation leading him to submit 'openly and readily ... to the influence of Grzegorz Fitelberg'. ¹