Szymanowski on Music

This is the first comprehensive selection of his writings to be published in English. It contains all the most important of the composer's essays and interviews, throws light on the trying conditions under which he was obliged to work in the 1920s and '30s, especially in education, and gives perceptive assessments of the work of some of the major composers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries -- Wagner, Strauss, Stravinsky, Ravel, Satie and others -- and the trends they embodied. A number of pieces of a more biographical nature are included, not least Szymanowski's touching obituary for his life-long friend, the violinist Pawel Kochanski, and Michal Koromanski's intriguing, but none-too-flattering, report of a meeting with Szymanowski towards the end of his career. The translations are preceded by an extensive introductory essay placing Szymanowski's literary activities in the context of his life and career. This book will be a vital element in the rediscovery of the music of one of the twentieth century's most appealing composers.