Jerzy Gablenz

Jerzy Gablenz (born January 23, 1888 in Krakow , † November 11, 1937 near Warsaw ) was a Polish composer.

Life

Gablenz came from a musical family: a grandfather taught at the Krakow Conservatory, his uncle was a violinist and his father a talented amateur pianist. He had piano and flute lessons and learned to play the organ and cello. He then studied law at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow .

Around 1907 he met his future wife Margaret Schoen , who worked as a piano teacher. Around this time he composed numerous piano pieces and songs. However, his increasing involvement in his father's company left him with less and less time to compose. Nevertheless, two symphonies were written, the first of which Gablenz never orchestrated.

In 1919 he was commissioned to reconstruct Stanisław Moniuszko's lost opera Straszny dwór ( The Haunted Castle ). The work was performed in the same year with great success with audiences and critics. In the following years he wrote his own four-act opera based on a drama by Lucjan Rydel (English title: Bewitched Circle ). This was followed by an unfinished orchestral suite ( Sunny Fields ) and the symphonic poem Der Pilger for symphony orchestra, which was never performed.

Based on sketches for a concert waltz for symphony orchestra, Gablenz composed the symphonic poem In den Bergen in 1924 , which was only premiered in 1977 in the Dominican Republic. After further symphonic poems, his first symphony (which he recognized as full) was written in 1926, the premiere of which failed in 1928 due to its technical difficulty, as well as a piano concerto, which was also premiered in 1977 in the Dominican Republic and only on his 100th birthday in Poland in 1988 was played several times.

The symphonic prelude The Rosary of St. Salome (1927) was never performed publicly, but was recorded in 1991 on the Polish radio. In addition, Gablenz composed almost 100 piano songs, a cello sonata, three terzets for female voices and piano and other pieces during this time.

After 1928, Gablenz's compositional production came to a standstill. It was not until 1936 that the Symphonic Variations came into being , but their performance in Poland again failed due to their technical difficulty. Parts of the work were premiered in the Dominican Republic in 1977 and 1987. His last completed composition was the symphonic prelude The Enchanted Lake , which was also only recorded as an archive recording by Polish radio in 1991. On November 11, 1937, Gablenz was killed in a plane crash near Warsaw.

Web links

• Polish Music Center - Jerzy Gablenz (English)