- Born
- Died
- Birth nameKarol Maciej Szymanowski
- Karol Szymanowski was born on October 6, 1882 in Timoshovka, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire [now Timoshivka, Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine]. He was a writer, known for Le roi Roger (2009), Television Theater (1953) and The Polish Bride (1998). He died on March 29, 1937 in Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland.
- His stage works include the ballets Harnasie and Mandragora and the operas Hagith and King Roger.
- On 16 November 2006 the Polish Parliament passed a resolution to name 2007 "The Year of Karol Szymanowski" to honour the 125th anniversary of his birth and the 70th anniversary of his death.
- Szymanowski inspired the character of composer Edgar Szyller in Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz's novel Fame and Glory.
- Szymanowski's music has received international recognition. In the 1920s and the 1930s, his music proved immensely popular. His works were performed throughout the world by soloists such as Artur Rubinstein, Harry Neuhaus, Robert Casadesus, Pawel Kochanski, Bronislaw Huberman, Joseph Szigeti, and Jacques Thibaud, and by orchestras led by conductors including Emil Mlynarski, Albert Coates, Pierre Monteux, Philippe Gaubert, Leopold Stokowski, and Willem Mengelberg.
- He wrote much piano music, including the four Études, Op. 4 (of which No. 3 was once his most popular piece), many mazurkas and Métopes. Other works include the Three Myths for violin and piano, Nocturne and Tarantella, two string quartets, a sonata for violin and piano, a number of orchestral songs (some to texts by Hafiz and James Joyce) and his Stabat Mater.
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