Zygmunt Krauze

Was born in Warsaw in 1938. He graduated from the State Higher School of Music in Warsaw where he studied piano with Maria Wi1komirska (diploma in 1962) and composition with Tadeusz Szeligowski and Kazimierz Sikorski (diploma 1964). In 1966 he went to Paris to continue his studies in composition with Nadia Boulanger. In 1973 he worked as artist-in-residence in Berlin thanks to a daad grant. He has lectured and given master classes for pianists and composers in Polish and foreign new music centres and universities (usa, Sweden, Croatia, India, Japan, South Korea, Germany). He has organised and attended many international seminars for young composers, musicologists and instrumentalists in Poland (Kazimierz Dolny, Radziejowice), Croatia and Israel. He has sat on the juries of prestigious competitions for composers and performers in Amsterdam, Bilthoven, Johannesburg, Munich, Pitts-burgh, Rotterdam,Taipei, Trieste, Warsaw, as well as on the jury of the iscm/simc World Music Days (Athens, Oslo, Warsaw). In 1984 he initiated, together with the Polish Society for Contemporary Music, the International Competition dedicated to the prominent Polish composer Kazimierz Serocki (1922­1981), and has chaired the jury of all its six editions held so far.
Zygmunt Krauze is also a distinguished performer of new music. In 1967 he founded Music Workshop, an ensemble of four musicians (clarinet, trombone, piano, cello). In its 21 year-long history, the group gave over 300 concerts in many European countries, the United States and Canada. It participated in prestigious international festivals, including the OWarsaw Autumn1. Over 100 works by Polish and foreign composers were written specially for the Music Workshop.
As a pianist Krauze has appeared in almost 30 countries, with orchestras, chamber ensembles and string quartets, performing his own and others composers1 works. He has also made a name for himself as an organizer of highly interesting artistic events, such as a cycle of concerts of Polish 20th-century music at the Pompidou Centre in Paris (1983), a series of weekly programmes on Radio France-Musique devoted to avant-garde music (1983-84), a series of films about modern music OSilence and Sound1 for Polish tv (1988-89), and Warsaw festivals: Takemitsu Days (1992), Kagel Days (1994), OPassage1 ­ Panorama of 20th-Century Music (1997, 1998).
In 1998 Zygmunt Krauze was elected chairman of the Polish Society for Contemporary Music. He served as a Board member of iscm (1985­87) and a member of the OWarsaw Autumn1 Repertoire Committee (1970­81). He was a co-founder of the Assoziation für Neue Musik OEuropa-Europa1 in Rheinsberg, Germany (1994). Between 1982­88 he lived in Paris, working as a musical adviser at ircam at the invitation of Pierre Boulez. He participated in two congresses organised by the European Parliament: L1Inedita Culturale Europea (Venice, 1984) and El Espacio Cultural Europeo (Madrid, 1985).
His honours include First Prize at the National Contemporary Music Piano Competition (1957), Second Prize at the Young Composers1 Competition of the Polish Composers1 Union (for String Quartet, 1965), First Prize at the International Gaudeamus Contest for Performers of Contemporary Music (Utrecht, 1966), Silver Cross of Merit awarded by the Polish Council of State (1975), Chevalier dans I1Ordre des Arts et des Letters awarded by the French Government (1984), the annual award of the Polish Composers1 Union (1988), the award of the Ministry of Culture and Art (1989).

Selected works: Five Piano Pieces (1958), Ohne Konraste for piano (1960), Malay Pantuns for alto voice and three flutes (1961), Five Unitary Piano Pieces (1963), Triptych for piano (1964), Esquisse for piano (1967), Spatial Composition No. 1 for six tapes (1968), and No. 2 for two tapes (1970), Falling Water for piano (1971), Folk Music for orchestra (1972), Gloves Music for piano (1972), Stone Music for piano (1972), Aus aller Welt stammende for five violins, three violas and two cellos (1973), Automatophone, spatial version for three or more mandolins, three or more guitars, three or more mechanical instruments (1976), Fete galante et pastorale, spatial version I for six instrumental ensembles and 13 tapes (1974), concert version for orchestra (1975), spatial version II for 13 instrumental ensembles, five voices and 13 tapes (1984), Idyll for four soloists playing folk instruments and for tape (1974), Soundscape for four soloists playing zithers, melodicas, recorders, sheep bells, glasses and mouth harmonicas, with amplification and tape (1975), Piano Concerto No. 1 (1976), Suite de danses et de chansons for harpsichord and orchestra (1977), Violin Concerto (1980), The Star, chamber opera to a libretto by Helmut Kajzar (1981, version for symphony orchestra 1994), Tableau vivant for chamber orchestra (1982), Commencement for harpsichord (1982), Piece for Orchestra No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 (1969, 1970, 1982), String Quartets No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 (1965, 1970, 1982), Arabesque for piano and chamber orchestra (1983), Quatuor pour la naissance for clarinet, violin, cello and piano (1984), Je préf…re qu1il chante for bassoon (1985), Blanc-rouge / Paysage d1un pays for two large orchestras (1985), Symphonie parisienne (1986), From Keyboard to Score for piano (1987), Rivi…re Souterraine, concert version (1987), spatial version (1987), For Alfred Schlee with admiration for string quartet (1991), Refrain for piano (1993), Piano Quintet (1993), Terra incognita for 10 strings and piano (1994), Rhapsod for string orchestra (1995), La Terre for soprano, piano and orchestra (1995), Piano Concerto No. 2 (1996), Trois chansons for mixed choirs (16 singers), set to texts by Claude Lefebvre (1997), Serenade for orchestra (1998), Five Songs set to texts by Tadeusz Ró›ewicz for baritone and piano (2000), Emille Bell for string orchestra (2000), Adieu for symphony orchestra (2000), incidental music for the theatre: Corneille1s Polyeucte (1987), Lorca1s Le Public (1988), Billetdoux1s Réveilletoi, Philadelphie! (1988), Gombro-wicz1s Operetta (1988), lonesco1s Macbett (1992).

Adieu is a programmatic Capriccio for solo upright piano and orchestra. Its entire programme is contained in the title, which can be explained in various ways. For me, a farewell or parting is a moment when something comes to an end but at the same time a new situation is created and new perspectives are opened up. This seems to be the point of view of a confirmed optimist.
The use of the upright piano, an out-of-tune instrument at that, was dictated not only by its sound qualities. The grand piano1s impoverished next of kin, this is an instrument which boasts a glorious history and surely deserves, at long last, to be placed on the concert platform alongside a symphony orchestra. Adieu is a piece in a lighter vein, similarly to my Serenade for orchestra (1998) and Emille Bell for string orchestra (2000). In line with the recommendations of Jean Baptiste Lully, a melody with accompaniment is the foundation of the piece. In Adieu, I used sketches for a ballet (which never materialized) on which I worked over ten years ago in Florida. Initially Adieu was intended as a piece for symphony orchestra alone; it was only after completing the score that I decided to add the piano part. Adieu is in
a single movement. Duration ­ ca. 141.
It was composed to a commission from the Bavarian Radio in Munich.
Zygmunt Krauze

The composer’s own internet site: www.zygmuntkrauze.com