Like our Louis Couperus, the Polish composer Szymanowski was fascinated by the pagan cultures around the Mediterranean, with their orgies and the intoxication of wine. This resulted in music that is as decadent as it is vital. Fine examples are the opera King Roger and the piano cycle Masks. The latter work was written during the First World War, after a holiday in North Africa. The three parts
… respectively refer to three well-known literary heroes: Sheherazade, Tristan and Don Juan. Patricia Arauzo has also compiled a fine anthology of Szymanowski's mazurkas. The genre is obviously indebted to that other great Pole, Chopin. Szymanowski's mazurkas, however, are clearly of the 20th century. In terms of style, they are closer to Skrjabin, who, alongside Chopin and Debussy, was among Szymanowski's great examples. (HJ)more
