Atom String Quartet and the Philharmonics | KARŁOWICZ

I'm looking for you – and when I see you
I pretend I don't see you.
I love you – and when I meet you
I pretend I don't love you.
I will die because of you – before I die,
I will shout that I am dying by accident …


Songs by Mieczysław Karłowicz is one of those collections which, despite their small size, are of great importance not only for the history of music but also for countless artists and listeners. They constitute a bridge between Romanticism and Young Poland – one of the Polish culture's most beautiful adventures in the 20th century.

Karłowicz wrote them during his studies. We would say – a credit assignment, probably still criticized by the professors of the time, as it often happens during studies. But songs were not at all in the young composer's curriculum. He wrote them for himself. He carefully selected texts (almost all Polish authors) that reflected his own feelings and thoughts. He decided to give them a new dimension. About what, he wrote in his letters: "Maybe music cannot rise higher than poetry, but it can certainly fly elsewhere, in a different direction."

The poetry that Karłowicz especially appreciated were the poems of Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer. Both artists' spiritual kinship is a similar experience of love and longing for the world that has already passed or has not yet come.

In 2020, the Philharmonic in Szczecin again reached for Karłowicz's songs. On October 30, the album Mieczysław Karłowicz – Pieśni, performed by Małgorzata Walewska and the musicians of the Szczecin Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Rune Bergmann, was released. Piotr Moss is the author of the wonderful orchestrations on the album. Today we present a jazzy interpretation of the songs, prepared by the well-known Atom String Quartet with our instrumentalists' accompaniment

Mieczysław Karłowicz tragically died in the Tatra Mountains on February 9, 1909, at only 33. Today, he is the patron of our Philharmonic, where we cultivate his work like in no other place in Poland. Although nostalgic, not to say sad, the songs inspire new artists visiting us. We hope that you will deeply remember each subsequent performance.