Zygmunt Noskowski - Symphony No. 1 (Wróblewski)

Zygmunt Noskowski - Pierwsza symfonia Composed from 1874-1875 Conductor: Sławek Wróblewski Orchestra: Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra in Katowice 0:00 - I. Allegro molto 13:40 - II. Adagio cantabile 25:19 - III. Vivace - Molto meno mosso 35:03 - IV. Allegro con fuoco Zygmunt Noskowski was a Polish Composer who was born in Warsaw and lived from 1846-1909. He was known mostly for his symphonic compositions. He worked not only as a musician, but as a teacher and a journalist. He taught almost all of the most important composers of the next generation in Polish music. It is through his efforts primarily that symphonic music was introduced to Warsaw, and he built the foundations for a strong symphonic tradition in Poland [1]. At the time of his birth, Poland was divided between Austria, Prussia, and the Russian Empire. Conditions were difficult for Polish artists due to censorship and general repression of Polish culture. Noskowski himself was a witness of a pogrom against the "manifestations of patriotism" (pogrom manifestacji patriotycznej) conducted by Russian soldiers on the 27th of February 1861 in Warsaw. After witnessing the events, he traveled to Kraków and visited the Tatra mountains. These events influenced the rest of his creative output. The sights of the mountains and the beauty of Kraków juxtaposed with the foreign oppression that he saw could not be discounted easily, given that he later joined the January Uprising after his father's death in 1863. Interestingly, Noskowski was not well aware of Chopin's output. His mother was a dedicated supporter of Towiański, who was a messianic, apocalyptic religious leader in Poland who claimed he had a vision of the end times. Chopin was highly critical of Towiański, which led Noskowski's family to avoid his work. Noskowski would detach from Towianism later in his life and become a propagator of Chopin's music. In the meantime, however, he still saw Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński as the model Polish composer. Stylistically, he absorbed much of Dobrzyński's style as well as those of his other teachers - Kątski, Moniuszko, and Kiel. Symphony No. 1 Noskowski's first symphony was completed just a year before Brahms' first symphony, so they invite comparison with each other. Both symphonies are part of the conservative strain of German symphonic writing to which Noskowski allied himself based primarily on his studies with Kiel [2]. Noskowski wrote: "Letting go of what Wagner and Liszt have done, I stand impartial and will never be carried away by any theoretical trend, because beauty in art is not my goal, but the principle." [3] Further, Noskowski wrote that the symphony was "the noblest symptom of thought, the greatest fruit of spiritual work in music." [4] For him, any symphonic work represented a serious endeavor, so Noskowski's first symphony is full of the utmost sincerity. The ties to the German tradition pull in stylistic hallmarks from the works of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Lachner, and Raff, thus one can hear all that would be lovable about Brahms' symphonies in Noskowski's unique voice. While the first symphony was a graduation piece written under Kiel, it shows remarkable maturity and erudition in the symphonic literature. Written alongside Morskie Oko, a concert overture that evokes the Tatra mountains, Noskowski's first presents joyous and adventurous moods harkening back to Beethoven's 6th with tinges of nostalgia and inner conflict. Exemplified by the second movement which glows with that tenderness that film composers often try to replicate with middling results, Noskowski's highest artistic aspirations come to the foreground. After the prayerful and spiritually uplifting adagio, the scherzo anticipates the raw intensity of the finales of Dvorak's 7th and Brahms' 3rd with a lovely, lyrical middle section bringing back the moods of the 1st movement. The finale brings the joy and exuberance of the 1st movement to full fruition and closes out the symphony with a cadence full of gladness. [1] W. Wroński. Zygmunt Noskowski. Warsaw: Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne, 1960. [2] F. Starostka, "Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła: Discovering the Life and Music of Zygmunt Noskowski," Ph. D. dissertation. LSU, Baton Rouge, USA, 2021. [3] Z. Noskowski. "Ze Świata Muzycznego," p 247. [4] Z. Noskowski. "Ideał opery", Echo muzyczne, teatralne i artystyczne, vol. 5, no 237-240, p. 169-171, 186-187, 194-196 et 207-208. 1888.