Poles discover wartime violin concerto
mainThe composer Ludomir Różycki buried a violin concerto in a Warsaw garden before fleeing the city.
Builders discovered it as they worked on the house.
This week, the composer’s great-granddaughter Ewa Wyszogrodzka attended its premiere.
Kate Connolly has the story in the Guardian, with a clip of the music.
Here’s what we know of the composer (1883-1953).
A nice story but a bit confusing as YT has had the piece online since May 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KORGtkbU9yI
The Guardian piece is very light on dates, and would surely have been better written by a music journalist rather than their Central Europe stringer
Thank you for posting this. That clip above was sufficiently appealing for me to try it out later.
That article was the first thing I read this morning, and my thought was, what a nice way to start the new year. it still is — it’s a lovely story. And may have added something worthwhile to the repertoire. When I covered ballet extensively, I heard of Pan Twardowski. If the Royal Phil has recorded it, I imagine it is a worthwhile piece.
I suspect there may have been a local piece in the Szczecin rag that caught the eye of the Guardian reporter. As you say, not a music critic. Looks as if she followed it up — with the great-grand-daughter, the violinist if the night and a musicologist for an outside view. They were all probably stronger on enthusiasm and excitement than on dates.
Good work on your part to have found it all for us.
Happy New Year — or, as the Poles say, Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku!!!!!!!!
The piece that has been on YouTube since 2012 is indeed a violin concerto by Różycki, but it’s an old reconstruction, based on incomplete materials, so there are many changes compared to the original Różycki’s concept. The article refers to the brand new reconstruction made by Ryszard Bryła and violinist Janusz Wawrowski (who also enhanced the solo part and made it more “violin-friendly”), that was a result of putting all the pieces of the puzzle together, thus making it closer to how this concerto could have actually sounded. Moreover, this version includes first 87 bars that were written entirely by the composer itself – they were found preserved from destruction.
Svendsen romance anyone ?
Both NYC cinemas that a showing “The Song of Names” are also showing “A Hidden Life” about the anti Nazi Austrian peasant hero Jagerstatter who was executed for refusing to take an oath to Hitler and refusing to serve in the Nazi army.
This composer’s life, if more details can be found, would also make a great film.
The violinist plays as good as ntrebko
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