Abel Korzeniowski, photo: Marcin Oleszczyk
www.abelkorzeniowski.com
A film score for which Abel Korzeniowski has received a nomination to the 2011 Golden Globe Award, Korzeniowski’s hypnotic music to Madonna’s romantic drama film 2011 W.E. complements the movie’s constant alternations between England in the '30s and'40s and a modern-day New Yorker. In a statement for Variety Madonna says that Korzeniowski caught her attention after she saw Tom Ford’s 2009 drama film A Single Man featuring a score by the Pole for which he was also nominated for the 2010 Golden Globe. She said she was struck by the score's "bittersweet" qualities, "this melancholic, romantic, sweeping emotional kind of heartbreaking beauty."
While W.E. tells the story of the scandalous and obsessive love affair between King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson intertwined by a fascination for the love story by a lonely New Yorker in the 1990s, the score combines traditional and modern instruments. As Variety journalist Steve Chagollan writes "with its aggressive use of strings accented by electric guitar, harp, viola and, in its quieter moments, piano," the music "seamlessly bridges the movie's two worlds".
Korzeniowski adds,
The prevailing sense of obsession was what inspired me in W.E. -- the irrational compulsion to sacrifice everything and anything for love – a love that could easily be just an illusion. In my music, I wanted to reflect those powerful and conflicting emotions through a web of melodic themes, which relentlessly repeat and constantly swing between despair and sorrow, and hope and joy.
Born in Kraków in 1972, Korzeniowski graduated from the city's prestigious Music Academy, completing his masters in the study of cello and composition. His studies were under the close direction of famed composer Krzysztof Penderecki. While in Poland, Abel composed music for various fields including theatre, film, and live symphony orchestra. His score to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis marked a turning point in his career.
This is the Korzeniowski’s third award at the Ghent Film Festival. In 2010 he received the Public Award and a prize in the Discovery of the Year category for his score to Tom Ford’s A Single Man. The Flanders International Film Festival was the first festival in the world to focus on the importance of scores. In 2001 the festival presented the World Soundtrack Awards for the first time.
Sources: Film Festival Ghent 2012, culture.pl, Variety, PRNewsWire
Editor: Marta Jazowska