ALEKSANDER TANSMAN
3rd International Competition of Music Personalities 2000

Polskie Nagrania PNCD 591, 2002

Label: Polskie Nagrania, 2002
Catalogue No: PNCD 591
Format: CD

 Tracks / Composers / Performers:

1. Fantaisie pour cello, ( A.Tansman); Dominik Polonski - cello
2. Sonata D-dur/D major Op. 78, (J. Brahms); Dominik Polonski - cello
3. El Carnaval al. Venezia, (A.Tansman); Dmitrii Illarionow - guitar
4. Suite Concertante - Notturno, (A.Tansman); Arkadiusz Krupa - oboe
5. Suite Concertante - Toccata, (A.Tansman); Arkadiusz Krupa - oboe
6. Suite Concertante - Beceuse, (A.Tansman); Arkadiusz Krupa - oboe
7. Suite Concertante - Scherzino (A.Tansman); Arkadiusz Krupa - oboe
8. Introduction and rondo - capriccioso; (C. Saint - Saëns); Julia Igonina - violin
9. Sarkasmes Op. 17 - No. 1, (S. Prokofiev); Elena Portnaya - piano
10. Sarkasmes Op. 17 - No. 2; (S. Prokofiev); Elena Portnaya - piano
11. Prelude Op. 23 No. 3, (S. Rachmaninov), Viktoriya Yermolyeva - piano
12. Prelude Op. 32 No. 12; (S. Rachmaninov), Viktoriya Yermolyeva - piano
13. Fantasie pour violin and piano (world premiere) - Divertimento, (A.Tansman); Julia Igonina - violin
14. Fantasie pour violin and piano (world premiere) - Elegie, (A.Tansman); Julia Igonina - violin
15. Fantasie pour violin and piano (world premiere) - Fuga, (A.Tansman); Julia Igonina - violin
16. Fantasie pour violin and piano (world premiere) - Improvisazione, (A.Tansman); Julia Igonina - violin
17. Fantasie pour violin and piano (world premiere) - Canon, (A.Tansman); Julia Igonina - violin
18. Fantasie pour violin and piano (world premiere) - Finale-scherzo , (A.Tansman); Julia Igonina - violin

Recorded:

2000, Lodz, Poland

About:

Alexander Tansman was born in Lodz on June 11th (not 12th) 1897. He studied in Lodz and Warsaw under the guidance of professors Wojciech Gawro?ski (a student of Moszkowski and Brahms), Naum Podkaminer (a student of Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov), Karol Lüdschg and the Hungarian Sandor Va`s. He was taught harmonics and counterpoint in Warsaw by Piotr Rytel, while Henryk Melcer-Szczawi?ski gave professional advice on his compositions. Tansman's early compositions can be divided into two parallel currents, the first of which was firmly embedded in Polish national tradition and under the strong influence of Chopin. The second current was avant-garde in character and went well beyond the parochial tastes of contemporary Polish musical circles. As early as 1916 the young composer was writing atonal and polytonal music, while in the Ist String Quartet he made use of dodecaphonic themes - his achievement is all the greater if one takes into account the fact that at the time he did not have the slightest idea that somewhere in the world there lived a certain Arnold Schönberg. Even today, eighty years later, his cycle of Eight Japanese Songs, which was composed to texts written by Remigiusz Kwiatkowski, still sounds fresh and new. In the first composer's competition held in Independent Poland, which ended in Warsaw on January 8th 1919, he was awarded the first three prizes.
 In Poland, however, his compositions met with the same vitriolic criticism - coming from Warsaw circles - that had been directed against Karol Szymanowski. As a result, Tansman decided to leave for France. In Paris he presented his compositions to Maurice Ravel and received his wholehearted approval. Thereafter, Aleksander Tansman's international career progressed at an all but sensational pace. Arthur Honegger and Darius Milhaud induced him to join their Group "Le Six" as the "seventh", but he prized his independence above all else. Soon after his name began to be mentioned in connection with the composers of the "L'Ecole de Paris" - Bohuslav Martinu,Tibor Harsanyi, Marcel Mihalovici and Aleksandr Cherepnin. By the beginning of the twenties Tansman was, alongside Karol Szymanowski, the foremost representative of the "new school of composers" in Poland.
 Tansman's rise to fame was meteoric. In America his pieces were conducted by Sergey Kussevitzky, Tulio Serafin, Arturo Toscanini, Leopold Stokowski, Willem Mengelberg, while in Europe by Pierre Monteux, Jasha Horenstein, Herman Abendroth, Walter Straram, Erich Kleiber, Otto Klemperer, Emil M?ynarski and Grzegorz Fitelberg. His chamber pieces were played by the most famous string quartets, while his solo compositions were performed by pianists such as Walter Gieseking, José Iturbi, Henri Gil-Marchex, Jan Smeterlin, Henryk Sztompka, Mieczys?aw Horszowski and Zbigniew Drzewiecki. They were sung by Maria Freund, Jane Bathori and Stanis?awa Korwin-Szymanowska, and also became the show pieces of violinists Bronis?aw Huberman, József Szigeti, Hél?ne Jourdan-Morhange and Irena Dubiska, and of violoncellists Pablo Casals, Gregory Piatigorsky, Maurice Maréchal, Enrico Mainardi and Kazimierz Wi?komirski. He was a close friend of Chaplin and Gershwin.
 A monograph dedicated to Tansman, entitled Aleksander Tansman - Polish Composer and written by Irving Schwerke, the famous American critic, was published in 1931 in both Paris and New York. Its hero was just 34 years old! The 1932-33 season, during which Tansman embarked on a round-the-world concert tour that started in Warsaw and took him across the United States, Japan, China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, the Malay archipelago and Ceylon to Egypt, marked an important stage in his career. In Tokyo he was received by Emperor Hirohito, while in Bombay he was the private guest of Mahatma Gandhi. Everywhere he travelled, he was greeted as one of the greatest Polish artists of the time.
 In 1939 Tansman went on five great concert tours of the United States, and soon became a well known composer in that country. He spent the war years in Hollywood, which then played the role of American "Weimar". Tansman shared the fate of many European émigrés - like that of Arnold Schönberg, Igor Stravinsky, Darius Milhaud, Béla Bartók, and of writers Thomas Mann, Lion Feuchtwanger and Emil Ludwig. His friendship with Stravinsky was to result in a biographical book - one of the most valuable and credible works for those who wish to acquaint themselves with the brilliant composer's artistry and creative achievement.
 In 1946 he returned to Europe and once again settled in Paris. The time of his creative maturity was nearing. His compositions became part of the fixed concert hall repertoire. Tansman became a classic in both meanings of the word: literal and figurative. He was included amongst the most famous representatives of the neo-classical current in world music, alongside Stravinsky, Hindemith, Poulenc and Casella. His outstanding contribution to world music was officially confirmed by many awards and distinctions, the Japanese Ji-ji Shimpo Medal, honorary membership of the Imperial Musical Academy in Tokyo, the Elizabeth Sprague-Coolidge Medal in Washington, the Musical Award of the French Academy, the Prix Hector Berlioz in Paris, a chair in the Royal Belgian Academy, which he inherited from Dmitry Shostakovich, the Commandery of the French Order of Arts and Sciences, and the honorary membership Medal of the Association of Polish Composers.
 In 1983 this list was supplemented by two Polish distinctions: the Gold Decoration of the Order of Merit and the Decoration of Merit for Polish Culture. In 1986 the Academy of Music in Lodz granted him a honoris causa doctorate. In a letter to Polish readers, written in June 1983, the composer stated: "It is obvious that I owe much to France, but anyone who has ever heard my compositions cannot have doubt that I have been, am and forever will be a Polish composer". Tansman's last piece, composed shortly before his death, in 1985, was a miniature composition for viola and piano entitled... Alla polacca.
The composer died in Paris on November 15th 1986.   

(text courtesy of Janusz Cegiella)