Mierzejewski, Mieczysław (EN)

Mierzejewski Mieczysław, *10 November 1905 Poznań, †11 January 1998 Warsaw, Polish conductor and composer. As a child, he learned to play the violin with E. Jahnke and the organ with W. Gieburowski (from 1916, he sang in the Poznań Cathedral Choir for boys and men run by him). In 1921–27, he studied at the conservatory in Poznań (piano with B. Zaleski, organ and theory with W. Raczkowski), in 1927–28 at the conservatory in Warsaw (composition with K. Sikorski, conducting with G. Fitelberg and E. Młynarski); K. Szymanowski was the school principal at that time. He took up conducting work in Poznań; he led amateur choirs (S. Moniuszko Singing Club, Postmen’s Choir), as well as operetta performances at the Grand Theatre in Poznań (1929 Die Dollarprinzessin by L. Falla and Farinelli by H. Zumpe) and opera performances at the opera in Warsaw (Konrad Wallenrod by W. Żeleński, 1930). In 1930–32, he furthered his studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin (conducting with J. Prüwer, theory with P. Höffer, piano with B. Elsner), in Vienna and Paris. In 1932, P. Stermich-Valcrociata employed him in the Opera Studio at the newly established National Opera Society in Warsaw; Mierzejewski worked there until 1934 and, together with adepts, he prepared, among others, Abduction from the Seraglio by W.A. Mozart. At the same time, he performed at philharmonic concerts in Warsaw, earning high praise even from harsh critics, such as P. Rytel, for his “downright perfect interpretations” (Gazeta Warszawska, 9 January 1934). Starting from the 1933/34 season, he was a conductor at the Grand Theatre in Warsaw (including Gounod’s Faust, 1933, Moniuszko’s Halka and The Haunted Manor, 1934 and 1936). From 1936, he was the second conductor of the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, with which he performed works by Polish composers, including K. Kurpiński, F. Lessel, S. Moniuszko (1937 at the Wawel concert in Krakow as part of the Polish Music Festival), R. Palester, J. Wertheim, R. Maciejewski; he also performed the Polish premiere of A. Tansman’s Concertina on Polish Radio, with the composer at the piano (1936). Public orchestral concerts were held in the “Roma” cinema hall in Warsaw; it was there that Mierzejewski led a performance of Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater on 24 March 1937, which he repeated on 7 April in the church of St. Cross at the funeral service after the composer’s death.

During the international exhibition of technology and art in Paris, he conducted performances of the Polish Representative Ballet with the Orchester Symphonique de Paris (November 1937); then, several pieces were performed, including F. Chopin’s Piano Concerto in E minor, M. Kondracki’s The Legend or the Krakow Fairy Tale and R. Palester’s Song of the Earth. During further ballet performances in London (December 1937) and in 18 German cities (including Berlin, Weimar, Hamburg, Cologne, and Nuremberg – January 1938), such ensembles as the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Orchester der Rundfunk Berlin played under Mierzejewski’s baton. In Poland, the ballet with its conductor and the accompanying Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra performed in 1938 in Warsaw and Kraków, and in 1939 as part of the 17^th Festival of the International Society of Contemporary Music in Warsaw (Szymanowski’s Harnasie). In 1945, Mierzejewski conducted a concert in Krakow as part of the Festival of Polish Contemporary Music, which accompanied the establishment of the Polish Composers’ Union in place of the pre-war Polish Composers’ Association. In 1945–46, Mierzejewski was the music director of the Polish Army Theatre in Łódź, and in 1946–47 he was conductor of the Silesian Opera in Bytom, where he prepared the premieres of Moniuszko’s The Haunted Manor (1946), G. Puccini’s La bohème (1946) and G. Verdi’s Aida (1947). From 1947, he collaborated with the Warsaw Philharmonic. In 1948, he was a juror of the K. Szymanowski Composition Competition in Kraków, where works by A. Panufnik, R. Palester, K. Sikorski, G. Bacewicz and S. Prószyński were awarded.

In 1949, the Chopin Year, he conducted the Wiener Symphoniker orchestra with W. Kędra at a concert in Salzburg, gaining very good reviews. Then he also gave a series of concerts in Italy, Austria, France and the GDR; in 1951, he led the Orchester Lamoureux in the Salle Gaveau in Paris at a concert accompanying the 6^th UN Session, performing works by Polish composers: Chopin (Piano Concerto in E minor with soloist H. Czerny-Stefańska), Panufnik, Lutosławski, Bacewicz, Wiechowicz. In 1949–72, he was the conductor of the opera in Warsaw. He was the musical director of Szymanowski’s Harnasie (1951) and Moniuszko’s The Countess and Halka in productions by L. Schiller (1951, 1953). After staging Halka in Berlin (1953), Deutsche Grammophon recorded two albums with the Radio Symphonie Orchester Berlin conducted by Mierzejewski: a selection of opera arias, performed by the best Polish soloists at that time, A. Bolechowska, A. Hiolski, B. Paprocki, E. Kossowski (Solisten der Staatsoper Warschau, 1958) and a cross-section of the opera (1961). He also shot Halka in Gothenburg (1955) and Toulouse (1957). In Warsaw, subsequent premieres of The Countess (1960, 1969) earned him the reputation of an outstanding interpreter of Moniuszko’s operas. He recorded The Countess (cross-section) with an excellent cast (H. Słonicka, A. Kossakowska, B. Sokorska, E. Kossowski, K. Pustelak) for Polskie Nagrania (1965), which is still (2012) the only recording of this opera. In addition to his native repertoire, he prepared works that had not previously been performed in Poland, such as the ballet Romeo and Juliet by S. Prokofiev (1954), Wieczór Prządek by Z. Kodály and Jolanta by P. Tchaikovsky (1955), Iphigenia in Tauride by Ch. W. Gluck (1962), as well as a new T. Szeligowski’s ballet Mazepa (1958). His productions of Faust by Ch. Gounod (1956), Carmen by G. Bizet (1957), Aida by G. Verdi (1958), Salome (1961) and Der Rosenkavalier (1962) by R. Strauss, Julius Cesar by G.F. Haendel (1962), Don Carlos by Verdi (1964), The Bartered Bride by B. Smetana (1968) were received with great acclaim. He conducted a ceremonial concert at the opening of the rebuilt building of the Grand Theatre (19 November 1965), and in a series of four premieres inaugurating the theatre’s operations, he presented Szymanowski’s King Roger (23 November 1965).

Starting with Stabat Mater (1937), he relatively often conducted Szymanowski’s works. He conducted Harnasie (1939, 1951) and a ballet performance with Szymanowski’s music (Mandragora, Nocturne and Tarantela and Harnasie, 1966); Harnasie and Halka were presented under his direction by the Grand Theater in Warsaw during a visit to the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow (1967). He prepared King Roger in 1949 with Italian artists at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo – this work was performed at the inauguration of the XXIII Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music (SIMC). He conducted the Warsaw performance (from 1965) at the Národní Divadlo in Prague during the visit of the Warsaw Grand Theater to the Pražské Jaro festival (1968), during a guest performance in Poznań as part of the 3^rd Festival of Polish Operas and Ballets (1969), and its revival on the home stage (1971), and also at the Berlin Staatsoper as part of the presentation at the 15^th Berliner Festtage (1971). King Roger, recorded under the direction of Mierzejewski with an excellent cast (A. Hiolski, K. Pustelak, H. Rumowska, Z. Nikodem, M. Dąbrowski, A. Malewicz-Madey) on the albums of Polskie Nagrania (Muza 1969), received the Orphée d’Or award, awarded by the Académie du Disque Lyrique in Paris (1970); the recording, transferred to CD, was released (together with Harnasie) by Olimpia (1988).

Continuously active for 47 years, Mierzejewski was a versatile conductor. In opera performances, he brilliantly distributed musical climaxes. He could devote entire years to studying one score. Orchestras appreciated his competences, and he willingly gave individual lessons to musicians (at their request). He gained recognition as a symphonist. In his concert repertoire, apart from works by Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner, Dvořák, Fauré, Ravel, R. Strauss and Hindemith, he also included Polish music to a wide extent (I.J. Paderewski, Z. Noskowski, L. Różycki, A. Szałowski, B. Woytowicz, M. Kondracki, P. Perkowski, K. Sikorski). He conducted symphonic works without a score. Described as a “musical positivist;” in his interpretations, he combined the lively paces and rhythmic vitality of the pieces he performed with an intellectual analysis of the composer’s intentions and subtleties of colour; he used a reliable technique to ensure the plasticity of polyphonic structures; in works of Romantic provenance, he maintained discipline of form and, at the same time, dosed expression in his own way.

He never taught or accepted offers to hold directorships. After leaving the theatre in 1972, despite invitations, he never again stood on the conducting podium. Mierzejewski was awarded, among others, The Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1954) and the state award of the 3^rd degree (1952) and the award of the city of Warsaw (1958).

Literature: L. Erhardt Król Roger, “Ruch Muzyczny” 1966 No. 1; B. Horowicz Nim przeminie z wiatrem, Warsaw 1974; M. Komorowski Szymanowski w teatrze, Warsaw 1992;  J. Szczublewski Teatr Wielki w Warszawie 1833–1993, Warsaw 1993; J. Węsławski Świat w kręgu innych wartości. M. Mierzejewski we wspomnieniach muzyka, “Scena Operowa” 1994 No. 3–4; M. Klubiński M. Mierzejewski. Zarys działalności twórczej, BA thesis, Institute of Musicology, University of Warsaw, 2007.