![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drplaceboIt's Forgotten Masterpiece Friday!
19th century Poland isn't normally associated with orchestral music. Poland's national composer, Chopin, wrote nothing for orchestra that didn't feature a piano soloist; the other well-known 19th century Polish composer, Henryk Wieniawski, composed very little that didn't feature a violin soloist. This was likely because Poland did not have any established orchestras performing public concerts for most of the 19th century; most Polish composers of the time composed mainly for piano or voice. That makes Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński (1807-1867), Chopin's classmate at the Warsaw Conservatory, stand out from the crowd.
Dobrzyński was the son of a violinist and conductor named Ignacy Dobrzyński (his middle name is generally used to distinguish him from his father); the elder Ignacy Dobrzyński was music director to a Polish count, filling much the same role as Haydn did for the Esterházy family. This made Ignacy Feliks one of the few Poles to have regular opportunities to hear orchestral music at the time, which led him to focus on music for orchestras and chamber ensembles rather than solo piano throughout his career. He composed for the concert hall early in his career; from the 1850s onward most of his work was incidental music for the theater, as he was music director at Warsaw's Grand Theater for much of the last two decades of his life. Although he lived in Warsaw for most of his life, Dobrzyński's music was far more successful in Germany than it was in Poland; most of his orchestral works were premiered in Leipzig under the baton of Felix Mendelssohn.
His second symphony was no exception. It was composed in 1831, three years after he graduated from the Warsaw Conservatory, and was submitted to a competition in Vienna where it won a prize and first drew Mendelssohn's attention. Mendelssohn would go on to conduct its first performance several years later. At first it was dubbed the "Competition" Symphony because of the prize it had won; by the time it premiered, though, it had been retitled "Characteristic Symphony in the Spirit of Polish Music." Like Chopin, Dobrzyński was motivated by a desire to see the re-emergence of an independent Poland. His second symphony was composed as the November Uprising of 1830 was crushed by Russian forces, around the same time Chopin emigrated to France. Just as Chopin tried to keep the spirit of Poland alive during his French exile by composing music in Polish dance forms, Dobrzyński similarly built his symphony around four Polish dances, one in each movement. In order, these are a polonaise, a kujawiak, a mazurka (cleverly amalgamated with the minuet that was still traditional in symphonies at the time), and a krakowiak. The final movement's rondo theme is taken from the same folk song from Kraków that Chopin used in his earlier Rondo à la Krakowiak -- perhaps Dobrzyński's salute to his exiled classmate?
Movements:
I. Andante sostenuto - Allegro vivace
II. Elegia: Andante doloroso ma non troppo lento (13:35)
III. Minuetto alla Mazovienna: Allegro ma non troppo (19:32)
IV. Finale alla Cracovienna: Vivace assai - Presto - Prestissimo (28:15)
19th century Poland isn't normally associated with orchestral music. Poland's national composer, Chopin, wrote nothing for orchestra that didn't feature a piano soloist; the other well-known 19th century Polish composer, Henryk Wieniawski, composed very little that didn't feature a violin soloist. This was likely because Poland did not have any established orchestras performing public concerts for most of the 19th century; most Polish composers of the time composed mainly for piano or voice. That makes Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński (1807-1867), Chopin's classmate at the Warsaw Conservatory, stand out from the crowd.
Dobrzyński was the son of a violinist and conductor named Ignacy Dobrzyński (his middle name is generally used to distinguish him from his father); the elder Ignacy Dobrzyński was music director to a Polish count, filling much the same role as Haydn did for the Esterházy family. This made Ignacy Feliks one of the few Poles to have regular opportunities to hear orchestral music at the time, which led him to focus on music for orchestras and chamber ensembles rather than solo piano throughout his career. He composed for the concert hall early in his career; from the 1850s onward most of his work was incidental music for the theater, as he was music director at Warsaw's Grand Theater for much of the last two decades of his life. Although he lived in Warsaw for most of his life, Dobrzyński's music was far more successful in Germany than it was in Poland; most of his orchestral works were premiered in Leipzig under the baton of Felix Mendelssohn.
His second symphony was no exception. It was composed in 1831, three years after he graduated from the Warsaw Conservatory, and was submitted to a competition in Vienna where it won a prize and first drew Mendelssohn's attention. Mendelssohn would go on to conduct its first performance several years later. At first it was dubbed the "Competition" Symphony because of the prize it had won; by the time it premiered, though, it had been retitled "Characteristic Symphony in the Spirit of Polish Music." Like Chopin, Dobrzyński was motivated by a desire to see the re-emergence of an independent Poland. His second symphony was composed as the November Uprising of 1830 was crushed by Russian forces, around the same time Chopin emigrated to France. Just as Chopin tried to keep the spirit of Poland alive during his French exile by composing music in Polish dance forms, Dobrzyński similarly built his symphony around four Polish dances, one in each movement. In order, these are a polonaise, a kujawiak, a mazurka (cleverly amalgamated with the minuet that was still traditional in symphonies at the time), and a krakowiak. The final movement's rondo theme is taken from the same folk song from Kraków that Chopin used in his earlier Rondo à la Krakowiak -- perhaps Dobrzyński's salute to his exiled classmate?
Movements:
I. Andante sostenuto - Allegro vivace
II. Elegia: Andante doloroso ma non troppo lento (13:35)
III. Minuetto alla Mazovienna: Allegro ma non troppo (19:32)
IV. Finale alla Cracovienna: Vivace assai - Presto - Prestissimo (28:15)