Concerning Raoul Koczalski’s ‘Piano Concerto in B Minor’ No. 1, Op. 79. Sources and Origin
Abstract
Polish pianist-composer Raoul Koczalski, a pupil of Karol Mikuli (who was taught by Fryderyk Chopin), was renowned first and foremost as a piano virtuoso, an excellent interpreter of the works of Chopin. His rich output as a composer is less widely known today, though he wrote compositions in many genres, including piano, symphonic and even operatic works. He composed as many as six piano concertos, the first of which, the Piano Concerto in B minor, Op. 79, is the least known. This article presents Koczalski’s unpublished opus 79, hitherto practically ignored in discussions of his oeuvre. A brief outline of this work’s origins within Koczalski’s output as a pianist and composer is followed by reflection on the development of his compositional work in the context of his relatively short musical education, and the article concludes with a description of the little-known but abundant source materials of this composition held in Berlin’s Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung. Those sources make it possible to date the Concerto and place it within Koczalski’s oeuvre.
Keywords:
Raoul Koczalski, piano concerto, sources, autograph, manuscript, piano music, Piano Concerto in B Minor, Op. 79, virtuoso, nineteenth-century musicReferences
Dybowski, Stanisław. Raoul Koczalski. Chopinista i kompozytor. Warszawa: Selene, 1998.
Google Scholar
Frączkiewicz, Aleksander. „Koncert fortepianowy polski po Chopinie”. Dysertacja doktorska, Uniwersytet Jagielloński, 1945.
Google Scholar
Frączkiewicz, Aleksander. „Koncert instrumentalny w II połowie XIX wieku”. W: Z dziejów polskiej kultury muzycznej, red. Stefania Łobaczewska, Tadeusz Strumiłło, Zygmunt Maria Szweykowski. T. 2, Od Oświecenia do Młodej Polski, 445–462. Kraków: PWM, 1966.
Google Scholar
Jarnicki, Jan, Karol Rzepecki. [Książeczka do płyty:] Raoul Koczalski. Concertos 1: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B minor Op. 79, Piano Concerto No. 2 in G major Op. 83, fort. Joanna Ławrynowicz, dyr. Massimiliano Caldi, Orkiestra Symfoniczna Filharmonii Podkarpackiej im. Artura Malawskiego w Rzeszowie. Acte Préalable, AP0501, 2017.
Google Scholar
Koczalski, Raoul. Zum hundertsten Geburtstag Frédéric Chopins: Chopin-Zyklus: vier Klaviervorträge nebst einer biographischen Skizze: F. Chopin, sowie den Aufsätzen: Chopin als Komponist und Chopin als Pianist, und einer eingehenden Analyse aller zum Vortrag bestimmten Werke. Leipzig: Probst, 1909.
Google Scholar
Poniatowska, Irena. Romantyzm. Cz. 2A: 1850–1900. Warszawa: Sutkowski Edition, 2010 (= Historia Muzyki Polskiej 5).
Google Scholar
Szabszajewicz, Jelena. „Polscy pianiści i pianistki w życiu muzycznym Moskwy XIX wieku”. W: Polsko-rosyjskie spotkania w przestrzeni kultury muzycznej. XIX wiek i początek XX stulecia, red. Renata Suchowiejko, 103–139. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Księgarnia Akademicka, 2022.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12797/9788381386685.04
Google Scholar
Vogel, Bernhard. Raoul Koczalski: Skizze. Leipzig: Pabst, [1896].
Google Scholar
Statistics
Abstract views: 208PDF downloads: 86
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Ewa Bogula-Gniazdowska
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free nonexclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Muzyka, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in "Muzyka" should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). By submitting an article the author agrees to make it available under CC BY 4.0 license.
Articles from 2018/1 to 2022/3 were published under a Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. During this period the authors granted the publisher a royalty-free nonexclusive license (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in "Muzyka", retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.