He died in an avalanche in 1909 on the slope of Maly Koscielec, too early, too young, tragically and so suddenly...after great succes of his work ...
Polish romantic composer and conductor, maybe the most important romantic creator of symphonic poems using thematic transformation. Love, death, joy and sorrow - everything in his masterpieces was very pure and moving.
The music of Karlowicz have a major place in the history of Polish music between Fryderyk Chopin and Karol Szymanowski.
Karlowicz was born in Wisznievo on 11 December 1876. His father was a Polish historian and musician. Mieczyslaw spent his childhood with his family in Lithuania. He went to schools in Heildelberg, Dresden and Warsaw providing general education.
He trained as a violinist and was taught by Jan Jakowski, Stanislaw Barcewicz. He studied composition too. He was simultaneously attending lectures in the history of music, history of philosophy, psychology and physics at the University of Berlin. Indeed, most of Karlowicz's twenty-two solo songs were composed between the end of 1895 and the end of 1896.
Karlowicz wrote a symphony - Revival and a wonderful, delightful Violin Concerto (in A major, opus 8). His works also contains Eternal Songs, Stanislaw and Anna Oswiecimowie and The Returning Waves. He also wrote a number of songs for voice and piano. Unfortunately, much of his small output was lost during The Second World War.
He was a strong supporter of the ‘Young Poland’ – very interesting, special artistic movement before the Second World War. He created new techniques in Polish orchestral music.
He was on the top neo-romantic movement in early twentieth century.
He devoted himself to symphonic poems and composed six symphonic poems (Opus 9-14). In 1906 he settled down in Zakopane (in the Tatras, in the south of Poland)
He joined the famous Tatra Society with his father Jan..
Karlowicz published reports from his trips. He was passionate mountaineer, a pioneer of climbing in The Tatra Mountains and a friend of the best guides in this mountains. He often climbed with Klimek Bachleda – the bravest, heroic, charismatic figure and a guide in Tatras.
He never stopped devoloping his abillity of climbing, his climbing routes were the most difficult.
Was it hobby? No..rather the way of life, like often for others...
He was a winter climbing forerunner in Poland, with a great experience.
Prefered lonely exploration of mountains. He had talent of orientation in difficult rocky environment and was one of the most prominent, outstanding climberers. He was a talented photographer. He lost three delightful photography albums.
He treated his lonely trips like a aesthetic feelings, and he often wrote about it in his diaries.
He created a harmony in his life – The Mountains were the main aim for him, never vying with his musical work, but supporting his music-writting.
Together with Mariusz Zaruski, he was a one of the authors of the idea of establishment of The Rescue Service in Tatra.
The concert at the Warsaw Philharmonic in February in 1909 was a full success. The vehement opponent of everything new, always at odds with Karlowicz's music, called the ETERNAL SONGS no less than a "precious musical gem shining like a rainbow".
On 8th February 1909, Karlowicz went for his very last trip to the mountains. Beloved but extremely dangerous, during wintertime.
Went there for solitude..peace and quiet after musical success, happy and relieved. He was caught by the avalanche under Maly Koscielec.
No one knew what happened. His great friend Zaruski, went to search of him, suspecting something was wrong cause Karlowicz didn’t come back. Zaruski found the place of the tragedy, but then wasn’t sure if his friend is underneath or not. He couldn’t believe it..didn’t want to believe it, but worst thoughts were returning to his mind, beacause the avalache was fresh and skis marks were visible. Kneeling, he listened and knocked on the masses of snow, helplessly trying to find his friend. It was a nightmarish night for Mariusz Zaruski. He waited sleepless till morning, almost loosing his senses in desperation, waiting.
Karlowicz was found under the avalanche few hours later by the special expedition from Zakopane Town.He was a well known public figure and his death distressed the general public. It was one of the main reasons of establishing The Rescue Tatra Mountain Service. On October 29, 1909 Governor’s Office in Lvov approved TOPR (The Tatra Mountain Rescue Service)
Polish TOPR was the fourth rescue service in the world (Austria – 1895, France- 1897, Switzerland – 1902)
Mariusz Zaruski was the first to head The Rescue Brigade and Klimek Bachleda was his deputy. During the war many rescuers died either in battle, in camps, or while performing courier mission.
Mieczyslaw Karlowicz died from mountain caprice... But it seems he reached life spiritual fulness and his music graces the the biggest concert halls all over the world..
2009 was his celebration year in Poland.
Selected works:
• O, NIE WIERZ / OH, DON'T BELIEVE, song for voice and piano (1892)
• Z NOWA WIOSNA / WITH THE NEW SPRING, song for voice and piano(1895)
• CZASEM, GDY DLUGO NA POL SENNIE MARZE / SOMETIMES, WHEN I DREAM..., song for voice and piano (1895)
• SZESC PIESNI OP. 1 / SIX SONGS OP. 1 for voice and piano (1895-96)
• RDZAWE LISCIE STRZASA Z DRZEW / RUST-COLOURED LEAVES..., song for voice and piano (1896)
• 10 PIESNI OP. 3V NA GLOS I FORTEPIAN / 10 SONGS OP. 3V FOR VOICE AND PIANO (1896)
• SERENADA OP. 2 / SERENADE OP. 2 for string orchestra (1897)
• NAJPIEKNIEJSZE PIOSENKI OP. 4 / THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SONGS OP. 4 for voice and piano (1898)
• POD JAWOREM / UNDER THE SYCAMORE, song for voice and piano (1898)
• BIANCA DA MOLENA op. 6, music to the WHITE DOVE, symphonic prologue and intermezzo for orchestra (1900)
• SYMFONIA e-moll OP. 7 "ODRODZENIE" / SYMPHONY IN E-MINOR OP. 7 "RENAISSANCE" (Revival) (1902)
• NA ANIOL PANSKI / THE ANGELUS, for reciting voice and piano (1902)
• KONCERT SKRZYPCOWY A-DUR OP. 8 / VIOLIN CONCERTO IN A-MAJOR OP. 8 (1902)
• POWRACAJACE FALE OP. 9 / THE RETURNING WAVES OP. 9, symphonic poem for orchestra (1904)
• ODWIECZNE PIESNI OP. 10 / ETERNAL SONGS OP. 10, symphonic poem (1906)
• RAPSODIA LITEWSKA OP. 11, / LITHUANIAN RHAPSODY OP. 11, symphonic poem (1906)
• STANISLAW I ANNA OSWIECIMOWIE OP. 12, symphonic poem (1906)
• SMUTNA OPOWIESC OP. 13, / THE SORROWFUL TALE OP. 13, symphonic poem (1908)
• EPIZOD NA MASKARADZIE OP. 14 / EPISODE AT A MASQUERADE OP. 14, symphonic poem completed by Grzegorz Fitelberg. (1908-09)
