Stanislaw Skrowaczewski

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Stanisław Skrowaczewski (October 2011)

Stanisław Paweł Stefan Jan Sebastian Skrowaczewski (born October 3, 1923 in Lwów ; † February 21, 2017 in St. Louis Park , Minnesota ) was a Polish conductor and composer .

Life

Born in Lwów, then part of the Second Polish Republic , Skrowaczewski learned violin and piano as a child . He made his pianist debut at the age of eleven and quickly made a name for himself. He conducted an orchestra for the first time when he was thirteen . A hand injury sustained during World War II ended his pianist career.

After the war, Skrowaczewski became music director of the Wrocław Philharmonic in 1946. This was followed by senior posts in Warsaw , Katowice and Kraków . Eventually he became chief conductor of the Warsaw National Orchestra. After studying at the Kraków Music Academy in Poland, Skrowaczewski continued his composition studies in Paris with Nadia Boulanger .

In 1956 he won the Santa Cecilia Competition for Conductors. At the invitation of George Szell , Skrowaczewski conducted the renowned Cleveland Orchestra . Guest conductors with other American orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic followed. In 1960 he was appointed music director of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra . This shaped Skrowaczewski significantly until 1979; His recording of Ravel's Boléro from 1975, which was published again in a technically revised version on Super Audio CD in 2003, is considered to be outstanding . Since that time he has been the orchestra's honorary conductor. From 1984 to 1991 Skrowaczewski was chief conductor of the Hallé Orchestra . As a guest conductor he has received regular invitations to North and South America, Australia, Japan and numerous European cities.

Since 1994 Skrowaczewski has been the first guest conductor of the Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSO) Saarbrücken and today's German Radio Philharmonic . With the RSO Saarbrücken he recorded all of Anton Bruckner's symphonies and received the Cannes Classical Award in 2002 . In spring 2007, the recording of all Beethoven symphonies that received the Diapason d'or was completed. He has also published complete recordings of the symphonies by Robert Schumann with the Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSO) Saarbrücken and by Johannes Brahms with the German Radio Philharmonic . Among other things, he also recorded Frédéric Chopin's two piano concertos on CD with Ewa Kupiec as a soloist and the Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSO) Saarbrücken . With the Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSO) Saarbrücken and today's Deutsche Radio Philharmonie he also recorded his own works on CD, such as the Fantasie per flauto ed orchestra "Il piffero della notte" with Roswitha Staege as soloist, the chamber concert (Ritornelli poi ritornelli) ( Chamber Concerto) , the concerto for clarinet and orchestra with Richard Stoltzman as soloist, Music at night , the Passacaglia immaginaria and the Symphony in memory of Ken Dayton .

Skrowaczewski died at the age of 93 at the Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park , Minnesota.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1954: Under the Phrygian Star (Pod gwiazdą frygijską)
  • 1955: career (Kariera)
  • 1955: Atlantic narrative (Opowieść atlantycka)
  • 1956: The Secret of the Dead Shaft (Tajemnica dzikiego szybu)
  • 1960: Encounter in the Twilight (Spotkania w mroku)

honors and awards

Skrowaczewski, who had already started composing as a child, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1997 for his composition Passacaglia Immaginaria , as well as for the Concerto for Orchestra he composed in 1999. For his work as a musician, Skrowaczewski received the highest Polish award, the Order of the White Eagle and the gold medal of the Mahler-Bruckner Society .

On November 6, 2015, Skrowaczewski was appointed honorary conductor of the orchestra after a concert with the German Radio Philharmonic in Saarbrücken.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Conductor Who Fled Poland, Dies at 93 - The… February 27, 2017, archived from the original on February 27, 2017 ; accessed on July 1, 2019 .
  2. ^ Stanislaw Skrowaczewski first guest conductor of the German Radio Philharmonic. German Radio Philharmonic , 2002, archived from the original on November 30, 2014 ; accessed on February 22, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Anastasia Tsioulcas: Beloved Conductor Of The Minnesota Orchestra, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Dies. In: National Public Radio , February 21, 2017, accessed February 22, 2017.
  4. ^ The Pulitzer Prizes 1997 Finalists. The Pulitzer Prizes, accessed February 22, 2017.
  5. ^ The Pulitzer Prizes 1999 Finalists. The Pulitzer Prizes, accessed February 22, 2017.
  6. ↑ Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Polish-American conductor, is appointed honorary conductor of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern. In: drp-orchester.de. German Radio Philharmonic , November 2015, archived from the original on July 8, 2016 ; accessed on February 22, 2017 . Stanislaw Skrowaczewski is dead. German Radio Philharmonic , February 22, 2017, accessed on February 22, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Skrowaczewski, Stanislaw
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish conductor
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Lviv , Poland
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 2017
Place of death St. Louis Park , Minnesota , United States