Meczislaw Karlowicz was a Polish composer, conductor, publicist, and a public figure. He belonged to the stream of late romanticism and was famous for his symphonic compositions. Owing to him, the symphony performance in Poland was enhanced and the attention of audience and composers was drawn to this genre. Namely the materialization of that idea was in the centre of his activities as a composer, touring conductor, publicist.
Background
Meczislaw Karlowicz was born on December 11, 1876 in the village of Vishnyeva, at that time Russian Empire (today’s Belarus), into a noble family belonging to Clan Ostoja. His father Jan was a well-known Polish linguist, lexicographer, and musician. He developed a unique method to record folklore, recorded and collected more than 500 Belarusian folk songs, published books of Belarusian fairy-tales and legends. He was a friend of Frantisek Bogushevich Adam Hurynovich and Eliza Ozheshko. Mother Irena, nee Sulistrovskaya, was a well educated woman and talented singer. She was from a noble family, one of the four daughters of local aristocrat Edmund Sulistrovsky, who had family ties with the noble dynasties of Drutsk-Lyubetsky and Radziwill. Mieczyslaw was the fourth and the youngest child in the family. He was born weak and was frequently ill, nervous, sad child, always pale and very impressive, he avoided any child's play. He began learning playing the violin under his father at the age of five. In 1882, the Karlowicz family sold the estate and moved to Europe.
Education
In 1882, having sold the estate in Vishnyeva, the family moved to a German city of Heidelberg, where Mieczyslaw started going to school, and taking violin lessons. Together with his parents, he regularly attended symphony concerts and operas. Later, they moved to Prague and Dresden, and since 1887 lived in Warsaw. Apart from his studies at school, young Meczislaw continued learning playing the violin. In 1888, Mieczyslaw enrolled into a non-classical secondary school in Warsaw and in 1889, he became a student of Stanisław Barcewicz, a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s friend and student. Since March 1890, he began learning playing the piano, as well as studied music and theater disciplines. Mieczyslaw tried to enter Berlin Conservatory, but failed. He studied in Warsaw with such well-known composers and conductors, as Zygmunt Noskowski, Piotr Maszyński, and Gustaw Roguski, and later in Berlin with Heinrich Urban, to whom he dedicated his Serenade for Strings, which he composed and performed while Urban's student. From 1906 to 1907, he studied conducting with Arthur Nikisch.
In addition, Mieczyslaw studied natural sciences at the University of Warsaw, attended classes in music history, philosophy, psychology and physics at the University of Berlin.
Career
Meczislaw Karlowicz began writing music already as a student. He wrote his first composition in 1891. It was “An evening song” for violin and piano, and dedicated it to his father. At that time, he also wrote song "A gorgeous flower" to the words of Ch.Yankouski.
In 1889, he went to the Tatras together with his mother and since then mountains became his another passion. He constantly spent time in Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Croatia and Montenegro, but always returning to the Tatra Mountains. He was a member of the “Tatras society” and in 1892, together with his friend Yanush Khmialeuski, published first literature articles dedicated to the Tatras in the “Tatras Courier”. At that period he also became fond of photography.
During his studies in Berlin, he created a lot of songs, including music to the words of Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, Maria Konopnicka, Sigmund Krasinski, and serenades, symphonic overture "Bianca with Malena", sonatas, waltzes, Rondo, began to work on the symphony "Rebirth." He was inspired by Edvard Grieg’s music at that period. After graduation, Karlowicz returned to Warsaw, where he focused on symphonic music. Songs and romances by Karlowicz began to gain popularity. In 1897, he published his book of vocal works, as in a symphonic concert of the Warsaw Music Society, his Serenade was first made of four pieces for string orchestra. In 1898, he published the second book of songs and romances, and in 1899 - the third. On July 12, 1900 Karlowicz’s symphonic prologue to the play by I.Navinski "White Dove." He started his conductor’s career in Warsaw. It was related to the opening of the Warsaw Philharmonic. By the end of 1902, he organized a large string orchestra, and acted as its conductor (1903-1905) within the Warsaw Music Society. Working in Warsaw, Karlowicz not only engaged in social activities and wrote music, but also gave concerts. Thus, in February, 1903, the first concert of his symphony orchestra took place in Warsaw and was very successful. Unfortunately, due to his conflict with A. Reichman, an influential person in the world of music of that time, his concerts and achievements were ignored by the publishers to some extent. Reichman even tried to prevent Karlowicz from giving concerts at the Warsaw Philharmonic. Despite this, Karlowicz successfully toured in Germany and Austria, and in the period from 1904 to 1909, wrote six outstanding symphonic musical pieces.
Karłowicz's music is of a late Romantic character. He was great admirer of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky whose Symphony No. 6 he praised. Tchaikovsky's influence can be heard in Karłowicz's earlier works, most notably the E minor symphony and the Violin Concerto. Like most of the late Romantics he also fell under the considerable influence of Richard Wagner, especially with Tristan und Isolde. Nevertheless, he managed to develop an original musical language expressed in harmony and orchestration, the latter of which he mastered like few other composers and wrote some of the most colourful orchestral music ever found.
Meczislaw Karlowicz was elected director of the Warsaw Music Society in May 1905. He did a lot to popularize Polish composers at that time. Since 1906, he was a member of the composers’ group “Młoda Polska” (Young Poland) and followed the main principles of that modernist period in Polish music. It was a result of strong aesthetic opposition to the earlier ideas of Positivism which followed the suppression of the 1863 January Uprising against the occupying army of Imperial Russia. “Młoda Polska” promoted trends of decadence, neo-romanticism, symbolism, impressionism and art nouveau. In January 1906, he finished his symphonic triptych "Eternal Songs", and in Autumn - symphonic work "Lithuanian Rhapsody". He often visited Vishnyeva, recorded folk songs, photographed and talked to the local people.
In 1907, Karlowicz moved to Zakopane and stayed there. He loved this town. There he was actively involved in the activities of the tourist section of the Tatras Society , became engaged in journalism, photography, backpacking, skiing, promoted outdoor activities and, of course, wrote music. Nevertheless, from time to time he visited Warsaw and gave concerts there. His last concert as a conductor took place on January 21, 1909 in Warsaw Philharmonic. This was the time when Karlowicz was most popular.
Karlowicz died in 1909, at the age of 32, after his return from Warsaw while skiing on an excursion in the Tatra mountains due to the toe of the avalanche.
Views
Quotations:
The composer described his work as: "With each new musical piece, which I begin writing, I have passion and believe that the road will be very long and even infinite! All the thoughts run away from the finished piece in order to start a new project and carry it out without last mistakes and disadvantages. However, the same repeats all the time and seems to be the destiny of everyone who fell in love with art one day. Those are happy, who after finishing something can say that “the work was done well” and enjoy this fact. Unfortunately, it’s not about me.”
Membership
He was a member of the Warsaw Music Society since 1903.
Personality
He loved animals (dogs, cats, birds), was always kind to children and elder people. He was very serious, precise, but could be very entertaining, when he was in a good mood. Karlowicz had a special mimic talent, was able to demonstrate the features of speech and diction of Belarusian peasants and local Jews.
Quotes from others about the person
Composer’s cousin Helena Romer-Akhenkovska noted that "Mieczyslaw was a skeptic, and deliberately emphasized this fact, he liked to seem cold. He was stubborn, like his mother, and very often was aggrieved, but always stayed calm and reserved. Other children had always to re-win his sympathies ... He was neither cheerful nor sociable, didn’t trust anyone, but was very kind to some elder people and spent much time with them as a child. He loved Vishnyeva and local people, going hunting with them, walking in the forest for hours. He adored nature.”
Karlowicz’s family friend Alina Sviderska wrote about Mieczyslaw: “He was very tall and thin, self-contained, cold towards the others, and even rude sometimes, but could be kind, if only wanted… He was a very difficult person, but at the same time aristocratic, strong and reserved. He was very sarcastic and hard to be around, but often very gentle and sensitive.”