Abstract of the Commemorative lecture
Life and Music
To respond to the wish of the organizers of this meeting I will speak of my life and work. I was born on 25, January, 1913 in a family of landowners. In 1915 my family went to Russia, where I lost my father, executed by Bolsheviks. We returned to Poland in 1918. At the age of six, I began piano lessons. At eleven, I heard the 3rd Symphony of Szymanowski, which was a revelation. At fourteen I began to study composition with Witold Maliszewski, pupil of Timsky-Korsakoff. He didn't accept my "too modern" Symphonic Variations, which I could complete only after my military service. In the Warsaw Conservatory I got diplomas for piano (1936) and composition (1937). In 1939 I took part in the war as commander of a military radio-station. The period of German occupation (1939-1945) I spent in Warsaw playing in cafes. In 1945 the Russians entered Poland. The country was under their domination for more than forty years. In 1948 the first performance of my First Symphony took place. I also composed some "functional" music (for schools, radio etc.), responding to strong needs of the devastated cultural life. I began working on my sound language. Between 1949 and 1955 was a very depressing period, during which only traditional music was performed. In 1956, however, an annual festival of contemporary music was inaugurated. It was only in 1966 that I was permitted to publish my music in England. Since then only have I been performed and known abroad. In 1963 I began to conduct publicly the concerts of my music in Europe, USA, and Australia. I explain why I haven't yet composed an opera. I discuss the important question of for whom I compose music. It is connected with the ethics of a creative artist, whose work must be compatible with what he believes in, what is the true expression of his artistic convictions. The "ideal world" is the object of the work of a creative artist. The political changes in our part of Europe have an influence of supreme importance on my life and state of mind.
