Karol Szymanowski was born in 1882 in Tymoszowka, Ukraine, and died in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1937. He was of Polish origin and belonged to a very musical family. He is related to the most famous Russian pianist and pedagogue Heinrich Neuhaus, who was the teacher of Svjatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels. He admired the German composers Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, and Max Reger, but Szymanowski was a great fighter against conservatism.For this purpose, he even started a music publishing house in 1905 to print the compositions of “Young Poland.” Between 1910 and 1914, he lived in Vienna and came into contact with the European mainstream of new music, and he traveled in Italy, where he came to appreciate Mediterranean culture.

Szymanowski made a long journey through different styles of composing, searching for a modern style that would correspond to the newly found freedom of Poland—starting from influences by Chopin and his Russian contemporary Alexander Scriabin, being influenced by folklore in similar ways to Bartók and Stravinski. Szymanowski spent World War I in his hometown writing philosophical texts, and then lived in Warsaw, where he was also director of the Conservatoire and Academy there. Later in life, he spent much time in sanatoriums due to bad health, but nevertheless continued to travel a lot. He gained international acclaim for his piano and his symphonic works.

It is difficult to imagine that Szymanowski wrote the Preludes op. 1—nine tone poems without words that speak directly to the human heart—when he was only 18 years old. Although he admired Chopin and Scriabin, his style was nevertheless quite his own: the harmonic language is saturated to the brim, melodies are of an intensity that only a young Slav soul can master. His style is not easy to define: post- or neo-romantic, with some chords showing maybe jazz and light music influences. It expresses various feelings and moods: nostalgia, longing, tenderness, anger, sadness. In fact, this is the quintessence of the European music of the 19th and early 20th centuries: to express subjective human moods and feelings. Later Szymanowski’s music style changed a lot, influenced by his contemporaries. His intellectual and analytical approach reminds one of Schoenberg, Webern, and Hindemith; the folklore influence, of Bartók, Kodály, and Stravinsky; the language orientation, of Janácek. After the Preludes, he wrote Variations op. 3 and op. 10, one fantasy, Etudes op.
4 and op. 33, and three sonatas. The most “modern” compositions are Maski op. 34 and Metopy op. 28, which are a “more bone and less flesh” music than his early works.

Prelude No. 1 is a kind of nocturne, with an inverted left hand accompaniment—the arpeggio chords go downward to reach the lowest note at the end of each bar, supporting a simple repetitive, plaintive melody.
Prelude No. 2 is more like a story, expressing longing and love, and maybe rebellion against loss.
Prelude No. 3 is a short prayer; the sound could be translated into the image of a stained glass window of an old church.
In Prelude No. 4, scurrying and hurrying pervades the searching mood, never arriving to a goal in its rhythmically entwined labyrinth.
Prelude No. 5 represents the dramatic peak of the cycle. This is the only really rapid piece. The rhythm with its syncopations, suppressed first beats, and “two against three” notes gives a message of decision and indecision at the same time. It is like someone who is very angry and desperate, losing his head.
Prelude No. 6 expresses congealed sorrow; it is music in which time stands still from immense pain.