Four Songs for mezzo-soprano and chamber orchestra to poems by Vesna Parun (1966)

Four Songs. Stranger /excerpt/

Performers: Krystyna Szostek-Radkowa – mezzo-soprano, Orkiestra Filharmonii Narodowej, Witold Rowicki – conductor, Filharmonia Narodowa w Warszawie 16 IX 1967, Polish Composers' Union

Four Songs. Fading light /excerpt/

Performers: Krystyna Szostek-Radkowa – mezzo-soprano, Orkiestra Filharmonii Narodowej, Witold Rowicki – conductor, Filharmonia Narodowa w Warszawie 16 IX 1967, Polish Composers' Union

Four Songs. Last song /excerpt/

Performers: Krystyna Szostek-Radkowa – mezzo-soprano, Orkiestra Filharmonii Narodowej, Witold Rowicki – conductor, Filharmonia Narodowa w Warszawie 16 IX 1967, Polish Composers' Union

Four Songs. Return /excerpt/

Performers: Krystyna Szostek-Radkowa – mezzo-soprano, Orkiestra Filharmonii Narodowej, Witold Rowicki – conductor, Filharmonia Narodowa w Warszawie 16 IX 1967, Polish Composers' Union

Four SongsFour SongsFour SongsFour Songs

PWM Edition Music Sales Classical

This poetic song cycle was commissioned by the organising committee of the “Muzički Biennale” Festival in Zagreb (1967). The work – dedicated to Krystyna Szostek-Radkowa – is written for mezzo-soprano solo and 20-member chamber orchestra. The world premiere took place during the Zagreb Festival and the Polish premiere – in the same year at the 11th Warsaw Autumn.

The composer used very personal poems by the Croatian poet Vesna Parun and set them to music in a four-part cycle:

I. Stranger, II. Fading light, III. Last song, IV. Return.

The work expressive coherence is ensured by the sensual, sad and restless themes of the poetic texts to which the composer subordinated all the musical means. The songs are characterised by a sophisticated, subtle sound colouring as well as a quasi twelve-note organisation of the sonic material. In each song notes are put together as if in a series, yet their successive “thematic” presentations do not follow the dodecaphonic principles. The form of the song is subordinated to the logic of the words. The instrumental layer accompanying the voice is a colourful addition, emphasising the nature and content of the poetry. The cycle is musically coherent and does not contain many internal contrasts.