Episode 178. Andrzej Hiolski

Episode 178. Andrzej Hiolski

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Andrzej Hiolski (01 January 1922 – 25 February 2000)

This week I have been tantalizing my followers with the promise of a tall, dark, handsome stranger, born on January 1, with the voice of a god. I shall keep you in suspense no longer: he is the great Polish baritone Andrzej Hiolski, born in Lvov in New Year’s Day 1922 and died in Krakow on 26 February 2000. I have known of Hiolski for years because of his association with the works of the late Krzysztof Penderecki, but I began digging deeper into his legacy a few years ago and was absolutely stunned at what I found: a singer with a near-perfect technique with a powerful voice with a slightly burred timbre characterized by both beauty, range, and subtlety of expression. I have been collecting his recordings for a few years now and have featured him at every possible opportunity on the podcast, including twice already in the current season. But this episode is devoted entirely to him and it may well serve, strange as it may seem for an artist who is so revered and treasured in his native country, as an introduction for many of my listeners to one of the great baritone voices of the twentieth century. The episode features recordings and performances, many of them exceedingly rare, ranging over more than 50 years, and includes music by Verdi, Wagner, Schubert, Mahler, Bach, Leoncavallo, Mozart, Tosti, Rossini, Tchaikovsky, and Giordano, but also a generous helping of music by Hiolski’s compatriots, including Karol Szymanowski, Frédéric Chopin, Augustyn Bloch, Mieczysław Karłowicz, Stanisław Moniuszko, Tadeusz Baird, Tadeusz Szeligowski, as well as, of course, Penderecki. Guest vocalists include the supercharged Greek-American mezzo Tatiana Troyanos and the delectable Polish soprano Alina Bolechowska, as well as the venerable Polish bass Adamo Didur, an early mentor of Hiolski’s. who now joins company with Jorma Hynninen and Gérard Souzay in the triumvirate of my favorite baritones of all time!

RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE

Paolo Tosti, Carmelo Errico: Ideale. Andrzej Hiolski, Henryk Debich, Polish Radio and Television Orchestra in Łodz [1957]

Ruggero Leoncavallo: Si può (Pagliacci). Andrzej Hiolski, Bohdan Wodiczko, Orchestra of the Warsaw State Opera [1963]

Consuelo Velázquez, Eugenia Wnukowska: Miłość [Besame mucho]. Andrzej Hiolski (as Andrzej Boruta), Konrad Bryzek’s Orchestra conducted by Jerzy Harald [1947]

Traditional Polish, arr. Jacek Urbaniak: Gdy śliczna Panna. Andrzej Hiolski, Jacek Urbaniak, Ensemble Ars Nova [live 1999]

Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Somma [after Eugène Scribe]: Eri tu che macchiavi (Un ballo in maschera). Andrzej Hiolski, Jerzy Gert, Orchestra of the Polish Radio in Krakow

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo da Ponte: Deh, vieni alla finestra (Don Giovanni). Andrzej Hiolski, Mieczysław Mierzejewski, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin [1958]

Gioacchino Rossini, Cesare Sterbini [after Pierre Beaumarchais]: Largo al factotum (Il barbiere di Siviglia). Andrzej Hiolski, Bohdan Wodiczko, Orchestra of the Warsaw State Opera [1963]

Adamo Didur (24 December 1873 – 07 January 1946)

Paolo Tosti, Elena Vacarescu: Si tu le voulais. Adamo Didur [sung in Polish as O Amiele moj – 1928]

Henryk Debich (18 January 1921 – 04 July 2001)

Paolo Tosti, Elena Vacarescu: Si tu le voulais. Andrzej Hiolski, Henryk Debich, Polish Radio and Television Orchestra in Łodz [1957]

Włodzimierz Hiolski-Lwowicz (09 October 1927 – 26 February 2002)

Stanisław Moniuszko, Jan Chęciński: Tandem, panicze (Straszny dwór [The Haunted Manor]). Włodzimierz Lwowicz, Jerzy Gert, Orchestra of the Polish Radio in Krakow [1952]

Hiolski in Straszny dwór

Stanisław Moniuszko, Jan Chęciński: Zakazniech ozywcze slonko [Stanislaus’s Aria] (Verbum nobile). Andrzej Hiolski, Arnold Rezler, Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Bydgoszcz [1954]

Alina Bolechowska (12 November 1924 – 16 October 2002)

Stanisław Moniuszko, Włodzimierz Wolski: Gdzie krzyż na drodze [Janusz-Halka Duet] (Halka). Andrzej Hiolski, Alina Bolechowska, Mieczysław Mierzejewski,Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin [1958]

Krzysztof Penderecki (23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) and Andrzej Hiolski

Krzysztof Penderecki: Deus meus (Passio et mors Domini nostri Iesu Christi secundum Lucam). Andrzej Hiolski, Henryk Czyż, Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra, Boy’s and Mixed Chorus of the Krakow Philharmonic [1966]

Krzysztof Penderecki [libretto by the composer after John Whiting’s adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s The Devils of Loudun, translated into German by Erich Fried]: Hier musst ihr runter (Die Teufel von Loudun). Andrzej Hiolski, Tatiana Troyanos, Helmut Melchert, Marek Janowski, Orchester der Hamburgischen Staatsoper [1969]

Johann Sebastian Bach: Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod (Ich habe genug, BWV 82). Andrzej Hiolski, Jerzy Kotyczka, Bohdan Wodiczko, Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice [1965]

Jerzy Marchwinski (born 06 January 1935)

Franz Schubert, Heinrich Heine: Das Fischermädchen, D. 957/10. Andrzej Hiolski, Jerzy Marchwiński [1967]

Sergiusz Nadgryzowski (31 March 1898 – 20 April 1970) and Hiolski

Stanisław Moniuszko, Adam Mickiewicz [after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]: Znasz‑li ten kraj? [Do you know the land?] Andrzej Hiolski, Sergiusz Nadgryzowski [1956]

Frédéric Chopin (01 March 1810 – 17 October 1849)

Frédéric Chopin, Zygmunt Krasiński: Melodia, Op. 74/9. Andrzej Hiolski, Sergiusz Nadgryzowski [1956]

Mieczysław Karłowicz (11 December 1876 – 08 February 1909)

Mieczysław Karłowicz, Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer: W wieczorną ciszę [In the silence of the evening], Op. 3/8. Andrzej Hiolski, Jerzy Marchwiński [1978]

Mieczysław Karłowicz, Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer: Czasem, gdy długo. Andrzej Hiolski, Jerzy Marchwiński [1978]

Mieczysław Karłowicz, Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer [orchestrated Ryszard Bukowski]: Mów do mnie jeszcze [Speak to me again from afar], Op.3/1. Andrzej Hiolski, Marek Tracz, Symphony Orchestra of the National Philharmonic Society in Opole [1981]

Tadeusz Szeligowski, Alexander Pushkin: Arion. Andrzej Hiolski, Jerzy Marchwiński [live television broadcast, ca. 1982]

Richard Wagner: O du mein holder Abendstern (Tannhäuser). Andrzej Hiolski, Bohdan Wodiczko, Orchestra of the Warsaw State Opera [1963]

Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky [libretto by the composer after Alexander Pushkin]: Voi mne pisali [Onegin’s Aria] (Yevgeny Onegin). Andrzej Hiolski, Bohdan Wodiczko, Orchestra of the Warsaw State Opera [1963]

Umberto Giordano, Luigi Illica: Nemico della patria (Andrea Chénier). Andrzej Hiolski, Bohdan Wodiczko, Orchestra of the Warsaw State Opera [1963]

Giuseppe Verdi, Joseph Méry, Camille du Locle [after Friedrich Schiller]: Io morrò [sung in Polish] (Don Carlos). Andrzej Hiolski, Mieczysław Mierzejewski, Orchestra of the Warsaw State Opera House [live Warsaw, unknown date]

Augustyn Bloch (13 August 1929 – 06 April 2006)

Augustyn Bloch, William Wordsworth [unknown Polish translator]: Wordsworth Songs [excerpt]. Andrzej Hiolski, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Polish Chamber Orchestra [1976]

John Gielgud (14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000)

William Shakespeare: Sonnet 56 [Sweet love, renew thy force]. John Gielgud [1961]

Tadeusz Baird (26 July 1928 – 2 September 1981)

Tadeusz Baird, William Shakespeare [translated by Maciej Słomczyński]: Sonet 56 [Sweet love, renew thy force] (Cztery sonety miłosne do słów Williama Szekspira [Four Love Sonnets on words of William Shakespeare], No. 3). Andrzej Hiolski, Jan Krenz, Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Krakow [1978]

Karol Szymanowski, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz [AKA Eleuter]: Slońce! Slońce! (Król Roger [King Roger]). Andrzej Hiolski, Mieczysław Mierzejewski, Orchestra of the Warsaw State Opera House [1965]

Karol Szymanowski (03 October 1882 – 29 March 1937)
and his lover Aleksander Szymielewicz (13 August 1912 – 02 September 1944)

Gustav Mahler, Friedrich Rückert: Liebst du um Schönheit (Rückert-Lieder). Andrzej Hiolski, Helena Christenko [live Krakow 1998]

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