POKOLENIE STALOWOWOLSKIE [pdf] - Radio Katowice SA

mysterious, not very representative for the style the composer had presented so far, and in its shape it
somewhat escapes the form. It is probably here that the road to 3rd Quartet and Scottish Relief begins,
and this might also be here where Andrzej Krzanowski stars to search for his “time of fulfillment”, “time
of late” (although so much too early…). The time after the time of recognitions, experiments, excursions
and examining his sensitivity, his creative possibilities and looking for his own place in the space of the
European musical present.
*
3rd Quartet was finished in May 1988. It was conceived due to the inspiration from The Silesian String
Quartet and was dedicated to “Mr. Witold Lutosławski” (It was also Lutoslawski whom Krzanowski
dedicated his Relief V for the cello solo in 1986). The ensemble performed the piece first on the 25th of September 1988 at the 5th Silesian Days of Contemporary Music In Katowice, and then on the 27th within the Sandomierz’s Music Festival. It consists of three parts (Animato con passione. Largo. Lento
dolcissimo – Animato con bravura. Moderato – Moderato). Andrzej Krzanowski characterized the piece
in such a way: “The problem of 3rd Quartet is a problem of an aesthetic character, and not of technical
and expression-like one. With the very strong coherence of the form, underlined by the slow tempo of
the narration, with the univocal tonal-harmonic basis, with the processual, directed character of form
– the contact between the listener and the work becomes the problem of “being in music”. This poetic
perhaps notion reflects, however, the heart of the matter: the narrowed distance between the subject
that gets to know, and the object which becomes known. Writing about this composition, Stanisław Kosz
pointed out to the fact that Krzanowski’s music started to get milder in time, its lyricism became more
and more sublimed – up to the states of amazing contemplation. This is very strange. The year 1988,
when 3rd Quartet becomes conceived is actually the year which closed down the output of Krzanowski.
This is the time when a series of accordion pieces is written, also assigned to be performed by children,
and from the positions most significant – next to Quartet only Relief VII for the accordion and percussion,
Relief VIII for the tape and the accordion, and Relief IX – Scottish. The following year does not add
up to the composer’s output, and in 1990 only Sonata on the Guitar is written, a piece of rather a small
significance. This time seems to be the time of crisis.
Moving to the new family house in Czechowice-Dziedzice definitely absorbs time and energy, and this quite
perhaps adds up to the doubts that Andrzej had about the choice he had made about the artistic path for
the years to come, which has been remembered by his wife Grażyna.
In this piece we can see how Andrzej Krzanowski reached his artistic heights, which had come from
the fascination and the attempt to take from them as much as he could, whom he considered his soul
masters, or just a very peculiar points of reference. So Henryk Mikołaj Górecki with his archetypical
power of simplicity, the expression of existential strength and energy; Karol Szymanowski, as the land
of ecstatic fulfillments and phrases that bind with their beauty; Witold Lutosławski as the symbol of the
composer’s surrender to discipline, responsibility for each and every note of the composition, and honesty
in placing it on the surface of the score; from the past – Beethoven with his pattern of constructing the
formal schemes of the music so much united with emotion. And certainly Alexander Scriabin with the
idea of the overwhelming music, and perhaps – from a certain distance – Richard Wagner with his idea of
joining music with any possible genres of art and culture, and there might also be Olivier Messiaen with
his metaphysics and pantheism, letting in to the world of culture – the world of nature. How various these
points of reference are! And how much were they digested through Andrzej Krzanowski’s artistic sensitivity;
somehow put together and in his works “presented” in utterly personal, original and very far from any
possible signs of eclecticism silhouettes and shapes! This 3 rd Quartet, as well as coming from the same
year Relief IX, they direct their expression in the lands over-real, separating themselves from the composing
strategies so far. As though Krzanowski dreamed of being Mahler of the 80s of the 20 th Century, with
the use of completely different means of expression, aiming at the same goal – to some Universum.
*
The „swan song” for Andrzej Krzanowski proved to be Relief IX – Scottish for the string quartet and
the computer layer, It was completed in September 1988 in Glasgow – and was conceived by commission
from “Polish Realities” Festival, projected by Adrian Thomas, a truthful friend of Polish music, who at that
time worked for BBC. The work was dedicated to Józef Patkowski and the festival of Warsaw Autumn.
54–55
The part of the computer was realized with the co-operation of David McKenzie in the Electronic Music
Studio in Glasgow. The first performance took place on the 19th of November 1988 – the musicians
of the Paragon Ensemble were playing, under the direction of David Davieds with the sound engineering
by BEAST. On the 16th of September 1989, the work was performed for the first time in Poland by Silesian
String Quartet at the festival Warsaw Autumn. Over-subtled beauty of this unusually delicate music can
be described with the name of “celestial”, but also with something like “bright sadness”.
Almost in its whole, the composition is preserved in quiet dynamics, in slow tempo, creating the phenomenally
oneiric climate. Many times in his artistic life used Krzanowski tapes, usually recorded with