Wladyslaw Szpilman

Polish pianist and composer who had to leave Germany in 1933 after studying with Arthur Schnabel and Franz Schreker * Enjoyed great success in Poland, where his career was abruptly broken off by Germany's attack on Poland in 1939 * Survived the Warsaw ghetto * Composed about 300 songs, many of which are still popular in Poland today * Wrote a small number of 'serious' works too, which are now available through Boosey & Hawkes / Bote & Bock for the first time * Pre-war compositions include the piano suite The Life of Machines and the Concertino for piano and orchestra that he finished in the ghetto * In 2002, his memories of war were made into a film by Roman Polanski as 'The Pianist' * His amalgamation of serious and popular music is rooted in the stylistic tradition of the twenties * Rhythmic verve and compact forms make Wladyslaw Szpilman's compositions ideally suitable for dance adaptation

Works by Wladyslaw Szpilman include:
Waltz in the olden style (1936) for orchestra
Concertino (1940) for piano and orchestra
Little Overture (1968) for orchestra

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"Every graduate... at the conservatoire is able to compose a Symphony, and maybe it will even receive a performance. But to write a melody which is sung and played by hundreds of interpreters is something one really has to be born to – ideally in America. A good thing for us (not for him, as one has to admit) that Wladyslaw Szpilman, our Cole Porter, Gershwin, McCartney, was born in Poland... Szpilman’s songs evoke the sound of an era of elegance, of good manners, of gracious women and of jazz music."– Wojciech Kilar

"Szpilman is near to neo-classicism. His music does not know of late romantic pathos, but sounds lively and translucent." – Basler Zeitung

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