Ludomir Różycki (; 18 September 1883

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

– 1 January 1953

Katowice Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...

) was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Biology and medicine * Bone conduction, the conduction of sound to the inner ear * Conduction aphasia, a language disorder Mathematics * Conductor (ring theory) * Conductor of an abelian variety * Cond ...

and

pedagogue Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

. He was, with

Mieczysław Karłowicz Mieczysław Karłowicz (, 11 December 18768 February 1909) was a Polish composer and conductor. Life Mieczysław Karłowicz was born in Vishneva, in the Vilna Governorate of the Russian Empire (now in Belarus) into a noble family belonging to ...

Karol Szymanowski Karol Maciej Szymanowski (; 3 October 188229 March 1937) was a Polish composer and pianist. He was a member of the modernism (music), modernist Young Poland movement that flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century. Szymanowski's early w ...

and Grzegorz Fitelberg, a member of the group of composers known as ''

Young Poland Young Poland ( ) was a modernist period in Polish visual arts, literature and music, covering roughly the years between 1890 and 1918. It was a result of strong aesthetic opposition to the earlier ideas of Positivism. Young Poland promoted tre ...

'', the intention of which was to invigorate the musical culture of their generation in their mother country.

Life

He was a son of a professor at the Warsaw Conservatory, where he studied piano and composition. He completed his studies with distinction, and then continued his studies in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

at the Academy of Music under Engelbert Humperdinck. He began his musical career as a conductor of opera and professor of piano in

Lwów Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

in 1907. It was while in Lwów that he began to compose. Subsequently, he moved to Warsaw but had to flee during the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...

. After the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

, he lived and taught in

Music

Różycki's

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

''Pan Twardowski'' (1920) was the first Polish large-scale ballet to be performed abroad, being seen in Copenhagen, Prague, Brno, Zagreb, Belgrade and Vienna, and being performed over 800 times in Warsaw. His eight operas included ''Casanova'' and ''Eros i Psyche'' (

Eros and Psyche Cupid and Psyche is a story originally from ''Metamorphoses'' (also called ''The Golden Ass''), written in the 2nd century AD by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (or Platonicus). The tale concerns the overcoming of obstacles to the love between Psy ...

, to the

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

Jerzy Żuławski Jerzy Żuławski (; 14 July 1874 – 9 August 1915) was a Polish literary figure, philosopher, translator, Alpinism, alpinist and patriot whose best-known work is the science fiction, science-fiction epic, ''Trylogia Księżycowa'' (''The Lun ...

), the latter having its world premiere in

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

in 1917. A significant number of his solo piano pieces have been recorded on CD by Valentina Seferinova, and issued on the Polish Acte Préalable label (catalogue reference AP 0263) as world premiere recordings.

Hyperion Records Hyperion Records is a British classical music record label. It was independent until February 2023, when it was acquired by the Universal Music Group. Under Universal, Hyperion is one of the three main classical record labels, alongside Decca a ...

have released recordings of his two piano concertos, his piano quintet and his string quartet. In 1944 Różycki began writing a

violin concerto A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up thro ...

but had to leave the manuscript buried in his garden when he fled Warsaw. Discovered years later by construction workers, the score ended up in the archives of the

National Library of Poland The National Library (, ''BN'') is the national library of Poland, subject directly to the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The main seat of the National Library is located in the Ochota district of Warsaw, adjacent to the Mo ...

. Violinist

Janusz Wawrowski Janusz Wawrowski (born March 22, 1982) is a Polish violinist, lecturer at the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, and director of multiple violin festivals. Biography Wawrowski began playing the violin at the age of 6. He attended the Henryk W ...

later restored the work, performed the premiere in 2018, and released a recording in 2021.

Awards and decorations

Order of the Banner of Labour The Order of the Banner of Labour () was a governmental award in Poland during the 20th-century era of the Polish People's Republic, a former Marxist-Leninist state. The order was established by the Sejm (a chamber of the Polish parliament) on 2 ...

, 1st Class (22 July 1949) * POL Polonia Restituta Komandorski ZG BAR

Commander's Cross with Star of the

Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta (, ) is a Polish state decoration, state Order (decoration), order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on alien (law), foreigners for outstanding achievements in ...

(17 January 1951) * POL Polonia Restituta Oficerski BAR

Officer's Cross of

(7 November 1925) * Gold Cross of Merit (twice: 5 May 1931 and 18 January 1946) * POL Wawrzyn Akademicki BAR

Gold Academic Laurel (7 November 1936) * ROM Order of the Crown of Romania 1881 Comm BAR

Commander of the

Order of the Crown of Romania The Order of the Crown of Romania is a chivalric order set up on 14 March 1881 by King Carol I of Romania to commemorate the establishment of the Kingdom of Romania. It was awarded as a state order until the end of the Romanian monarchy in 1947. ...

(Romania, 1923)

References

External links

Ludomir Różycki
at culture.pl * 1883 births 1953 deaths 20th-century Polish classical composers Polish male classical composers Musicians from Warsaw Chopin University of Music alumni Polish music educators Pupils of Engelbert Humperdinck Academic staff of Lviv Conservatory 20th-century Polish male musicians Recipients of the State Award Badge (Poland) {{poland-composer-stub

Life

Music

Awards and decorations

See also

References

External links