Szymanowski composed Five Songs op. 13 in 1905-07, his inspiration being the Modernist German poetry, in particular poems by Richard Dehmel (song No. 1 Stimme im Dunkeln / Voice in the Twilight and No. 3 Auf See / On the Sea), Friedrich Bodenstedt (song No. 4 Zuleikha) and Otto Julius Bierbaum (song no. 5 Die schwarze Laute / The Black Lute). Song No. 2, Christkindleins Wiegenlied, sets lyrics from a popular collection of songs Des Knaben Wunderhorn by Brentan and von Arnim. Songs Nos. 1, 3 and 4, and 2 and 5, are dedicated respectively to Zdzisław Jachimecki and Stanisław Barącz (the latter translated their lyrics into Polish). Five Songs Op. 13 were first played in Vienna on 27th February 1912 by Szymanowski's sister Stanisława Korwin-Szymanowska and Artur Rubinstein at the piano.
The songs are dominated by ąa moody, contemplative lyricism focused around one poetic image; there is a characteristic parallel between the landscape which is being described and the corresponding mental state which can often be convyed by the words regret, longing, sadnessą.1Szymanowski conveyed the themes of loneliness, misfortune, longing and love through music which invoked the late-Romantic style, in particular that of Richard Wagner's and his Tristan and Isolde (Tristanesque chromatisms). He also built the piano texture in a linear way, a thing very symptomatic of vocal works by Arnold Schönberg and Alban Berg, his German contemporaries.
The first publication of the score of Songs Op. 13 (in Polish and German languages) in 1911 was followed by several more after World War II of all or single songs, also in Russian. In 1937 Grzegorz Fitelberg orchestrated songs 2 and 4 for symphony orchestra. It is a testimony of their popularity that the Songs have been performed a number of times in Poland and abroad as well as recorded. The first recording of song no. 4 was made by Szymanowski's sister Stanisława Korwin-Szymanowska and brother Feliks Szymanowski (Parlophon 4416) in 1930 or 1931. In 1960 Stefania Woytowicz and the National Philharmonic Orchestra under Witold Rowicki recorded the orchestra version for Polskie Nagrania (Muza XL 0066). Of contemporary releases one should definitely mention the 2004 Channel Classics set of CDs featuring all Szymanowski songs performed by Piotr Beczała and pianist Reinild Mees.
Notes:
1 Zofia Helman, Pieśni Karola Szymanowskiego w kontekście literackim i muzycznym jego czasów, in: Pieśń w twórczości Karola Szymanowskiego i jemu współczesnych. Red. Zofia Helman, Musica Iagellonica, Kraków 2001, p.12.
Author: Anna Iwanicka-Nijakowska, September 2007.