On May 29-June 3, the Sinfonietta Cracovia returns to the U.S for the first time since 2011 for a 3-city tour. Performing music by Philip Glass and Wojciech Kilar, the program celebrates two great 20th century composers who were equally successful in writing contemporary classical works as they were in scoring film music. We spoke with the Richard Guerin, head of Philip Glass’ record label Orange Mountain Music, about the upcoming tour, what makes Sinfonietta Cracovia the perfect ensemble to perform this repertoire, Wojciech Kilar, and more.
Why center a program around Glass and Kilar? What do they have in common musically and how do their compositions complement each other?
When the possibility for this concert came up for Sinfonietta Cracovia to combine the music of Philip Glass and Wojciech Kilar in a concert, it felt like a natural fit. Not only was there a compatibility of the musics of these two amazing composers, but there was layer upon layer of connection.
Firstly, both Glass and Kilar studied in Paris under the most famous teacher of the 20th Century, Nadia Boulanger. That in itself could mean a little or a lot – but anyone who studied with her can tell you that with her, it means a lot. She was one of those amazing figures in music history.
Secondly, possibly the biggest issue for being an artist in the 20th and 21st centuries is “how to earn a living?” It’s not quite as simple as that but a more precise way of putting it would be: “where is the line between art and commerce?” Both Glass and Kilar jumped back and forth over this imaginary line. In a practical sense, we can hear it in the music; there isn’t a lot of difference between the sound of their art music and the sound of their commercial music. Both composers are immediately identifiable through their musical voice. This goes back to Boulanger.
The third part of this is that their paths crossed in a very interesting way on the big screen. In the final scene of the 1998 film The Truman Show, when Truman is finally breaking out of his cage he takes to sea. At that moment, you hear very beautiful original music by Philip Glass called “Raising the Sail.” When Truman finally reaches the end of “his” world, the music stops. A moment later he has a catharsis and it’s at this moment that Kilar’s music seamlessly appears.
To my point, Glass thought so much of his “Raising the Sail” that it ended up being the basis for the slow movement of his first piano concerto (a concert work). Whereas the Kilar music we hear is called “Requiem Father Kolbe”...a concert work which actually also originated as film music in a film called “A Life for a Life.”
So in both Kilar and Glass there are incredibly strong musical voices that emerged from a common teacher, and those musical voices were applied to both realms of art music and main stream cinema. It’s part of what Sinfonietta Cracovia will be exploring in their concerts.
What’s the orchestra’s connection to Philip Glass? How do you approach playing music by an American composer versus Kilar, who’s native to Poland?
Artistically, the conductor Katarzyna Tomala-Jedynak will be able to comment about the journey the orchestra has been on, having presented this music in different countries around the world. But there’s also a larger connection. In 2014 I traveled with Philip Glass to Krakow for performances of his “Complete Piano Etudes” at the Sacrum Profanum Festival. Krakow is an amazing place with non-stop festivals - from a Jewish Music Festival to the world’s largest Film Music Festival. In the context of the Sacrum Profanum Festival, I recall Glass telling me that “the sacred and the profane turn out to be the same thing!” One of the people I first connected to while in Poland was Agata Grabowiecka. She worked for the Krakow Festival Office – working a lot on the film music festival - and later became the director of Sinfonietta Cracovia.
So when we talk about playing “music by American composers,” it needs to be understood that probably more American music gets played in Krakow than any other place in the world; we are talking about the great American composers of film music. Agata has a deep commitment to that. And if you have ever been there, you can see the amazing culture they have built around embracing those American film composers as real artists. Sadly that’s not the case here in the USA.
But really this is an international event, and cinema is an international art form. If a composer only known for art music becomes an international success, and that may or may not be true of Philip Glass, but largely if you are a living composer, the only chance you have to be heard on an international level is through cinema. So there is an “international style” of performing this kind of music.
With that said, part of what I love about Wojciech Kilar is that he is very much a Polish composer. When Francis Ford Coppola wanted music to evoke Transylvania, he simply went to what he thought was a dark corner of Eastern Europe and found this perfect kind of music for his imagination. It turned out to be Kilar’s music...the kind of music he had been writing for decades. In that way, Kilar’s music already existed, it was just waiting for a canvas like Coppola’s Dracula in order to shine.
What Sinfonietta Cracovia brings to both Glass and Kilar is an understanding of how to play the music of both composers, and how to play both kinds of music.
What would prompt an avid concert-goer to come hear the Sinfonietta Cracovia? What is distinctive about the ensemble?
What this concert is really about is playing music that people want to hear. So much of 20th century art music was tied up in politics, “Schools of Composition”, nationalism...etc. The most admirable thing about both Philip Glass and Kilar – more important than anything else – is that these are composers who truly found their own way. It’s not about “compromising” or not, it’s about writing the music you want to write. To do that you either have to find or make those opportunities. Philip Glass’ voyage from dozens of odd jobs that took him well into his 40s is well-documented. That was the price he had to pay to keep his independence – and for his music to keep its independence too.
Kilar is similar in that way. He was an almost exact contemporary with composers Gorecki and Penderecki. Neither of them did film scores whereas Kilar dived in head-first. He always said he had three areas of composition: concert music, film music, and sacred music. He never wrote an opera. I don’t know for a fact but I think film music for Kilar was a way of keeping his independence during a very dangerous time for artists in Poland behind the iron curtain. In other words, his daring music could hide in plain sight. Earning a living with film music probably saved his life, and it was good music! On the other hand, I visited his home and Kilar lived a quite modest life.
I was thrilled in 2022 when the Krakow Film Music Festival awarded the Wojciech Kilar Award to Philip Glass. The award is given to a film composer “who has remained true to the traditional art of composition.” We can debate what that means, about what place film music takes in the history of music, but in the debating of these things the point emerges that good music – regardless of where it comes from – is good music and has a chance at being remembered.