Mieczyslaw Karlowicz

Born Dec. 11, 1876, in Wisz-niewo, Lithuania; died Feb. 8, 1909, in Zakopane, Poland. Polish composer and conductor. Son of Jan Karlowicz, a scholar in Slavic ethnology and connoisseur of music, who performed in both Russia and Poland as a cellist.

Karlowicz studied in Warsaw under S. Barcewicz and Z. Noskowski (1890–95), in Berlin (1895–1900), and in Leipzig (1906), where he studied conducting under A. Nikisch. From 1902 he headed the stringed orchestra of the Musical Society in Warsaw, and in 1906 he joined the “Young Poland” group. Karlowicz composed the first Polish symphony (Renascence), seven symphonic poems, a violin concerto, and other orchestral and chamber works, all characterized by a particular expressiveness of lyrical and dramatic elements (influenced by F. Chopin and P. I. Tchaikovsky and, later, by R. Strauss). Karlowicz published a large collection of previously unpublished material on Chopin (1904, Warsaw and Paris). He also worked as a music writer and critic, producing articles on Chopin, Russian and foreign composers, and early Polish violinists.