Polish Music

[jowcol]

I've uploaded the Violin Concerto by Paul Kletzki.  I've classified him as Polish, but as you will see in the excerpts below, the story is more complicated.  I'm also curious if anyone has a recording of his 3rd symphony referenced below.




Wikipedia Entry:
Born Paweł Klecki in Łódź, Poland, he later adopted the German spelling Paul Kletzki. He joined its Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of fifteen. After serving in the First World War, he studied philosophy at the University of Warsaw before moving to Berlin in 1921 to continue his studies. During the 1920s his compositions were championed by Arturo Toscanini; and Wilhelm Furtwängler, who permitted Kletzki to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1925. Because he was Jewish, he left Nazi Germany in 1933 and moved to Italy, however due to the anti-semitism of the Italian Fascist regime he moved to the Soviet Union in 1936 but had to flee during Joseph Stalin's Great Terror and went to live in Switzerland.

Kletzki's most notable work is his Third Symphony, completed in October 1939, with the subtitle 'In memoriam'. It is an elegiac work interpreted as a moving monument to the victims of Nazism. Other works include two string quartets, a Sinfonietta for strings, a Fantasy for piano, and a sonata for violin and piano. From 1942 onwards Kletzki wrote no more compositions; he argued that Nazism had destroyed his spirit and his will to compose. During the Holocaust a number of Kletzki's family were murdered by the Nazis including his parents and his sister.

In the post-war years Kletzki was a renowned conductor, especially of Gustav Mahler. In 1954 he was appointed chief conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Between 1958 and 1961 he was principal conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. From 1966 until 1970 he was the General Music Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

Naxos Biography:

PAUL KLETZKI
Paul Kletzki was born into a vigorous Jewish community and began his musical studies early, quickly gaining recognition for his skills both as a violinist and as a pianist. He attended the Warsaw Conservatory, where he was taught by the violinist and conductor Emil Młynarski, and also Warsaw University; and moved to Berlin in 1921 to continue his studies at the High School for Music where he came under the influence of two major figures of the period: the composer Arnold Schoenberg and the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler. Kletzki was leader of the Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra from 1916 to 1919, but saw himself primarily as a composer. He wrote a significant body of work between 1921 and 1933, including two large symphonies, a capriccio, three string quartets and at least twenty songs, and made his conducting debut in 1923 in a concert of his own music. Furtwängler also performed Kletzki's music, recommending his work to the publisher Simrock and inviting him to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1928 in a programme that included his violin concerto. This was well received, as was his piano concerto at its first performance in Leipzig in 1932. All his compositions were published, but were then proscribed by the National Socialist Party when it came to power in 1933, and as a result Kletzki's publishers destroyed all his printed music and melted down their printing plates.

Kletzki fled to Italy, taking printed and manuscript copies of his music with him in a metal trunk and teaching in Milan at the Scuola Superiore di Musica. During 1937 and 1938 he also held the post of chief conductor of the Kharkov Philharmonic Orchestra in Russia, but had to quit this position because he was of Polish origin. Mussolini's Fascists were no kinder towards Jews than the Nazis, with the result that in 1939 Kletzki was forced to flee once again. Unable to take his trunk of music with him, he hid it in a basement near Milan's opera house, La Scala, and settled in Switzerland with his wife, who was Swiss. Here he wrote his last works, including his Symphony No. 3 of 1939, subtitled 'In Memoriam'. Kletzki has been quoted as saying that the Holocaust, and the loss of his music (and especially the fact that his publisher had even melted down the printing plates) killed in him the desire to compose. During World War II he taught at the Lausanne Conservatory, and between 1943 and 1949 he conducted the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in concerts which helped him to establish an international reputation. He appeared in Paris shortly after the liberation, conducting Mahler's Symphony No. 1, and was invited by Toscanini to participate in the celebrations surrounding the re-opening of La Scala in 1946. In the autumn of that year Walter Legge invited him to record with his recently formed Philharmonia Orchestra, which he also conducted in concerts, as well as the London Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras.

For the rest of Kletzki's life his conducting career flourished. He appeared regularly throughout Europe as a guest conductor, becoming a Swiss citizen in 1949, and toured Australia in 1948, once again performing some of the symphonies of Mahler. With the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra he appeared on tour in Europe during 1955, having previously with this orchestra recorded for Legge and the Columbia label in 1954 Mahler's Symphony No. 9 and Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht. Kletzki was chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for the 1954–1955 season, but, as had previously been his experience in Russia, was unable to continue in this role because of British Civil Service rules concerning the engagement of foreigners. He made his American debut in 1957 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and also led concerts with the Chicago Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestras. The success of these appearances resulted in him being appointed as chief conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for three seasons between 1958 and 1961: together with Antal Dorati he is credited in Dallas with significantly developing the orchestra's playing standards. The cellist Mimi McShane, who was hired by Kletzki, had vivid recollections of his time in Dallas: 'He was very European, very old-fashioned. He liked to throw tantrums, but everybody really respected him, and what he said about the music was the word of God. As a conductor, his technique was perfect. He didn't really get along with the Dallas social scene, though. I imagine the Dallas lifestyle was very alien to him.'

Kletzki left the Dallas orchestra ostensibly because of its inability to secure a recording contract, and henceforth confined himself to appearances in Europe because of his wife's weakening health. Later appointments included the chief conductorships of the Berne Symphony Orchestra (1964–1967) and of Ernest Ansermet's Suisse Romande Orchestra (1967–1970), with which its founder maintained a close connection until his death in 1969. Kletzki returned to his musical roots late in his life through guest appearances with the Warsaw Philharmonic and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestras, with whom he recorded a much-admired cycle of the Beethoven symphonies. In 1965 a construction crew working near La Scala in Milan found the metal trunk in which he had placed his music before World War II, but Kletzki was never to open it, afraid that, having lost his music once, it might have been destroyed a second time by nature. He died unexpectedly in 1973 while working with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Interviewed by Tully Potter, the leader of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Peter Rybar, gave a graphic description of Kletzki as a conductor: 'He conducted very well, with lovely gestures – it was very professional conducting – and he was very emotional, he was almost crying sometimes.' The same point is made by the biographer of the Philharmonia Orchestra, Stephen Pettitt, who also noted Kletzki's useful background as a string player: 'Kletzki's experience as a player made his conducting gestures particularly sympathetic to the strings of the Philharmonia Orchestra, to whose tone he brought a bloom – 'the burning sound!' as he demanded from them. He was a very emotional conductor, too; his desire for warmth of string sound came from this emotionalism. "Cry it!" he would beg, tears rolling down his cheeks as if in sympathy, and the tone came.'

Kletzki's discography is large. He recorded consistently from the advent of tape recording and the long-playing record until his death: initially for EMI, and subsequently for several other labels, notably the Concert Hall Record Club, Decca and Supraphon. He was equally adept as a symphonic conductor and as an accompanist. Among his many outstanding records are very fine accounts of Mahler's Symphonies Nos 1 and 4 and Das Lied von der Erde (with Murray Dickie and Dietrich Fischer- Dieskau); Sibelius's Symphonies Nos 1 and 2; Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 'Pathétique' and Manfred Symphony; and a powerful reading of Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5, as well as numerous shorter works. Two outstanding concerto recordings are Berg's Violin Concerto, with the Belgian violinist André Gertler, and Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1, with Maurizio Pollini. For Concert Hall Kletzki added Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 and Beethoven's Symphonies Nos 1, 3, 5 and 6 to his recorded repertoire. His final recordings for Decca, with the Suisse Romande Orchestra, maintained this high standard, and included emotional accounts of Rachmaninov's Symphonies Nos 2 and 3 and Nielsen's Symphony No. 5, as well as Hindemith's Symphony, Mathis der Maler and Lutosławski's Concerto for Orchestra. As the archives of many European radio stations are gradually explored in depth, more performances conducted by Kletzki have appeared. These include refulgent accounts of Brahms's Double Concerto, with Adolf and Hermann Busch and the French National Radio Orchestra, and of the same composer's Symphony No. 4 with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

[markniew]

thank you for the Kletzki.
Yes, I do recordings of his symphonies nos 2 and 3. must check

[Dundonnell]

I have the Kletzki 3rd on the BIS disc. It was released around the same time that CPO released the Klemperer symphonies and were beginning their Weingartner series. There seemed to be a bit of a vogue for recording the compositions of composers who had much more fame as conductors. I don't recall being overly impressed by the Kletzki 3rd but I am certainly happy to give him another shot

[jowcol]

There seemed to be a bit of a vogue for recording the compositions of composers who had much more fame as conductors.

Speaking of that vogue, I did go an a Markevich binge a few months ago, some of his works I really liked.  (and I didn't mention Bernstein-- until now...)

[JimL]

So, did anybody ever open that trunk after he died?

[Dundonnell]

So, did anybody ever open that trunk after he died?

Yes.....and the scores inside were intact

[markniew]

Thanks for uploading of the operettta by Szymanowski 

[Dundonnell]

I am not quite sure which Skrowaczewski symphony has actually been uploaded.

The link says that it is the Symphony of 2003 which was, apparently, entitled "Symphony In Memory of Ken Dayton" but the file itself is titled Symphony No.3-a symphony which was, I believe, composed in 1946. No doubt the commentary makes it clear which symphony it is but since I cannot understand Polish........

[markniew]

It is in fact his Symphony no. 3. That was the Polish premiere of the piece. According to the commentary world premier took place in 2003 with The Minnesota SO.

[Dundonnell]

Thanks for that information

[semloh]

Mark, thank you for the pieces by ŻELEŃSKI. Lovely music! 
I even enjoyed the Polish vocal!   

[Amphissa]

I have uploaded what I believe to be Kletzki String Quartets 1 & 2 with commentary. My German is very poor. If I have provided incorrect information about the quartet number or key, please let me know. Also, if anyone knows the movements of these quartets, please post them.

[Holger]

Amphissa, thanks for your upload of these two Kletzki quartets. The correct details are as follows (partly taken from the announcement):

String Quartet No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 1 (1923)
String Quartet No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 13 (1925)

His SQ #3 is in D Minor and his Op. 23, but the piece you uploaded is the second one, for which details are as above.

[Amphissa]

Thank you for the corrections, Holger. I've updated the info on the downloads page and will correct the info file included with the download tonight.

[eschiss1]

according to Worldcat.org, Kletzki's opus 23 3rd quartet was published by Breitkopf in 1931. (Several interesting-seeming works are listed not all of them listed above... a solo violin sonata op.26 (pub.1933), a sonata for violin and piano D major op12, orchestral-variations op20, sym. 1 in D minor op.17, symphony no.2 op.18 in G minor (pub.1927),  piano and vocal/choral music ... ... ah. The violin concerto listed (G major, op.19) has even been, as one mentions, uploaded... my HD is becoming full again so I've been falling behind ... looking forward to hearing based on what I've already heard by him. Thanks!