THE ROLE OF THE DARMSTADT CONCERTINO IN THE COMPOSITIONAL OUTPUT OF ZDZISAW SZOSTAK

Abstract

Both in academic publications and in the music press, little attention has been paid to the figure of Zdzisaw Szostak a conductor and a composer, who spent most of his professional life at the d Philharmonic and the Academy of Music in d. Prof. Szostak was seen by the musical community mainly through the prism of his great achievements in the field of film music. The artists later autonomous works had to contend against the success and recognition of his previous compositions. In the article, however, the author focuses on a specific autonomous work by Szostak the Darmstadt Concertino for violin, piano and orchestra, with the title clearly associated with the important 20th century centre of European avant-garde. The resulting connotation seemed particularly interesting due to Szostaks reluctance to radical compositional means used by artists associated with the famous Internationale Ferienkurse fr Neue Musik. The intriguing contradiction encoded in the title and the rudimentary knowledge of the work led the author to investigate its history based on the collected sources. These were limited to a piano reduction assembled in parts, some orchestral voices and completely amateur, poor quality recording. The only possible way to obtain information about the genesis of the piece was interviewing soloists, the violinist ukasz Baszczyk and the pianist Mariusz Drzewicki. The musicians participated in the premiere performance, which was conducted in Darmstadt in November 1998 by Zdzisaw Szostak himself. The concert crowned the celebration of the sixth edition of the Polish Music and Culture Week in Darmstadt organised by the German Chopin Society.