KARŁOWICZ FEST | Returning waves

During the festival’s opening concert, we spoke about youth not as a matter of age, but as the courage to confront the world. In a sense, this was our first key to interpreting the life and work of Karłowicz. What, then, will be the next?

To many of his contemporaries, Mieczysław Karłowicz appeared reserved, restrained, and reluctant to seek company. He gave the impression of being withdrawn, as though distant from the world and from other people. Yet this image was only a surface impression. His letters reveal someone quite different: a warm and loyal friend who cherished relationships, meetings, and human connections. This duality-outward reserve and inner intensity-leads us directly to his music.

In his symphonic poems, Karłowicz reveals what is hidden: tensions, emotions, and conflicts unfolding within the human soul. Bianca da Molena, derived from the prologue to a drama about a knight-errant, tells a story of tragic love and of a man torn between the past and his feelings. The protagonist arrives to fight for his rights, only to discover that the greatest battle is not fought on the battlefield but within himself. Love leads him to a decision that overturns the very purpose of his actions-he begins to fight against himself.

Returning Waves takes us even deeper into the inner world. Karłowicz himself described the emotions expressed in this work as the state of a person immersed in numbness, trapped in the monotony of everyday life, gazing at lifeless, icy landscapes. Then suddenly-like the waves of the title-memories return: bright moments of youth, visions of happiness, love, and passion. The past comes alive with extraordinary force, only to recede once more, leaving the individual in silence and solitude.

Both works, united by the theme of unfulfilled love, present Karłowicz as an artist who does not want us to stop at what is visible. What may appear cold, distant, or inaccessible on the surface is revealed in his music as a remarkably rich world-one filled with love, tension, mystery, and inner struggle. What matters most does not happen outside us; it happens within us. So the next time you encounter someone who seems reserved and restrained, it may be worth considering how rich their inner world might be.

Listen to selected excerpts from the concert programme: