Władysław Szpilman's Post-War Career in Poland

Millions of people around the world have heard of Władysław Szpilman (1911–2000) as a result of his bestselling memoir, Śmierć miasta, which has been translated into thirty-eight languages, and Roman Polański's critically acclaimed and commercially successful 2002 film adaptation of the book.¹ Szpilman's harrowing portrayal of the cruelty of the Holocaust and the German occupation of Warsaw, as well as his inspiring depiction of human kindness amidst absolute evil, have resonated with many people in diverse cultures.

However, few outside Poland know Szpilman's key role in Polish classical and popular music after the war. It would be no exaggeration to call Szpilman one of the most important figures in twentieth-century Polish music. Surprisingly, there are few Polish works about Szpilman's musical output: most histories of modern Polish music devote a couple of pages or, more frequently, merely a passing reference to him. I hope that this overview of his contribution to Polish music, with a particular focus on the period beginning in 1945, based on archival and secondary sources and interviews with the composer's widow and son, will bring to the fore the enormous contribution of the man dubbed the 'Polish Gershwin' and the 'Polish Cole Porter' by leading composers.

Learning from the greats

Władysław Szpilman was born on 5 December 1911 in Sosnowiec to a family of assimilated Polish Jewish musicians. 'I come from a musical family on both sides, starting with my great-grandparents. My own last name attests to this', he said in a documentary produced for Polish television.² Indeed, Spielmann means 'musician' in German. In Polański's film, this fact is noted in a line of dialogue that is probably lost on most anglophone viewers. After being introduced to Szpilman, played by Adrian Brody, Captain Hosenfeld (Thomas Kretschmann) tells the freezing, starving musician: 'Szpilman, a good name for a pianist.' Władysław's father Samuel (Shmiel) was a violinist and concertmaster in the orchestra of the Sosnowiec City Theatre, and he played in the Polish Theatre in Katowice. Samuel Szpilman was one of the co-founders of the Musicians' Union of the Dąbrowa Basin. His mother Estera was a pianist who also played in the Sosnowiec City Theatre. Two of Szpilman's three siblings were also blessed with considerable musical talent: his brother Henryk wrote poetry, translated Shakespeare, and composed some music under the pseudonym Henryk Herold (songs written by him were used in the soundtrack to Miasto 44, Jan Komasa's cinematic depiction of the Warsaw uprising), while his sister Halina graduated from a conservatory. Szpilman's other sister, Regina, was the youngest person to graduate with a law degree from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.³

Estera Szpilman taught her son to play the piano and cello. Eventually, he moved to Warsaw to attend the Warsaw Conservatory (now the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music), where his piano teachers were Józef Śmidowicz and Aleksander Michałowski.⁴ In particular, the latter, a pupil of pupils of Franz Liszt and Fryderyk Chopin, was a great influence on Szpilman, who believed that no pianist in post-war Poland approached Michałowski's level of excellence.⁵

In 1931 Szpilman went to study at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. His teachers included Artur Schnabel, Leonid Kreutzer, and Franz Schreker. However, Hitler's rise to power and growing antisemitism in Germany led him to return to Poland in 1933.⁶ Back in Warsaw, Szpilman again studied with Michałowski and began to give concerts with the Polish Jewish pianist Bronisław Gimpel, a friendship and collaboration that would continue for four decades. Szpilman began to compose classical pieces, including the three-piece piano suite Życie maszyn, which was inspired by futurism and the development of technology.⁷ In Berlin, Szpilman composed a violin concerto that would be performed by Konrad Winawer.⁸ Unfortunately, the notes for all of Szpilman's classical compositions from the 1930s were lost during the war.⁹

In 1935 Szpilman was hired as a...