Conductor, composer, and violinist. Born on 18 October 1879 in Daugavpils (Latvia), died on 10 June 1953 in Katowice.

He was a student of the Music Institute in Warsaw in 1891-96, studying composition with Zygmunt Noskowski and the violin with Stanisław Barcewicz. He began his career as a violinist immediately upon graduation. In 1896, he joined the Teatr Wielki Orchestra in Warsaw, where he worked until 1904, and from 1901 was also the concertmaster of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. During this time he composed music as well, also with success. As early as 1898, his "Sonata in A minor op. 2" for violin and piano (1894) won first prize in the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Composition Competition in Leipzig, and in 1901 in the Count M. Zamoyski Competition in Warsaw he won first prize for his "Trio in F minor op. 10" for violin, cello and piano (1901). He debuted as a conductor at the Warsaw Philharmonic in the 1904-05 season.

In 1905, with Karol Szymanowski, Ludomir Różycki and Apolinary Szeluto, he founded the composer group "Młoda Polska" / "Young Poland" and Spólka Nakładowa Młodych Kompozytorów Polskich [Young Polish Composers' Company], sponsored by Prince Władysław Lubomirski, aimed at promoting contemporary Polish music. He was a conductor of the first concerts it organized. In 1908-11 he was a conductor with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, and then - in the 1912/13 season - at the Hofoper in Vienna.

He spent the years 1914-21 in Russia - first in St. Petersburg (1914-19), and then in Moscow. He conducted the orchestras of the Muzikalnaya Drama theatre, the Mariinsky Theatre and the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, and also the State Orchestra (from 1917) and the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra in Moscow (in the 1920/21 season). In 1921-24 he was a conductor with the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, performing with the group in cities that included Paris, London, Brussels and Monte Carlo. Between 1923 and 1934 he was again the chief conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. He also worked as a teacher - in 1927-30 he taught composition at the Warsaw Conservatory. In 1934, he founded the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Warsaw, which he headed until 1939. Among other events, he performed with it at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937, where the orchestra won a gold medal.

After World War II broke out, in November 1939 Grzegorz Fitelberg left Warsaw and moved to Paris. A year later he went to Buenos Aires, where he was a conductor at the Teatro Colón in the 1940/41 season. He spent the subsequent war years - 1942-45 - in the United States, where he worked mainly on instrumentation and conducting, giving concerts in such cities as New York as well as Montreal and Toronto.

He returned to Europe in 1946, and in the following year was made head of the Polish Radio Great Symphony Orchestra in Katowice. In 1950-51, he was also a professor at the State Higher School of Music in Katowice.

For his artistic activity, Grzegorz Fitelberg was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Polonia Restituta Order (1928), the Gold Cross of Merit (1932), the Commander's Cross with Star of the Polonia Restituta Order (1947), and the Order of the Banner of Labour First Class (1950). In 1951 he received a State Award First Degree.

A National Competition for Composers and International Competition for Conductors named after him has been held in Katowice since 1980.

Fitelberg learned to play the violin. His teacher at Warsaw's Institute of Music was one of the most famous Polish violinists - Stanisław Barcewicz. He also completed a course in composition with a well-known Polish composer - Zygmunt Noskowski. Barcewicz got his former student a job as violinist of the opera orchestra, which Fitelberg soon left to assume the position of bandmaster of the second violins in the orchestra of the Warsaw Philharmonic. However, he was more attracted to composition, and this was the field in which he started achieving greater success. It looked as though he would be a very good composer, he won prizes at competitions, while his greatest work, the symphonic poem "Pieśń o Sokole / Song of the Falcon op. 18" from 1905 was described by Adolf Chybiński, a great Polish musicologist, as follows:

"After listening to the 'Falcon' three times, one feels an uncontrollable desire to listen to it all the time, especially since more and more extraordinary, beautiful elements of this work are revealed, a wonderful manifesto of the victory of free spirit over bondage and humiliation. Fitelberg has excellent knowledge of the orchestra and is able to extract from it some very deep emotions that pierce one to the marrow - everything he writes proves at every step that the composer is not illustrating Gorky's poem in cold blood, but that he is working under pressure from an inner necessity; this is music written with heart's blood. Fitelberg the artist, meanwhile, has created a wonderful instrumentation, themes that are constantly interesting (combinations of several motifs), and particularly an extremely sophisticated harmonization which, however, never gives the impression of artificiality".

In the 1904/1905 season, when Fitelberg appeared at the Warsaw Philharmonic as the conductor of the world premiere of his "Symphony No. 1 in e minor op. 16", he seemed to have caught the conducting bug. He continued to practice the art of composition until 1914, but he gained international fame as a conductor. And it was as a conductor that he contributed to Polish music in an unprecedented way. Soon after Fitelberg's death, Witold Lutosławski had this to say about his attitude towards new Polish music:

"He showed curiosity, sometimes enthusiasm, towards every new score in which he saw an indication of talent. The great majority of world premieres of Polish works were conducted by Fitelberg. One could even say that many works were performed at all only thanks to him, given other conductors' unwillingness and often lack of competence with regard to new Polish musical output. Fitelberg's talent, his excellent knowledge of the contemporary language of music, his enthusiasm for newly written works, for truly creative attempts, provided young composers with huge encouragement. Towards new Polish music, Fitelberg played the role of a genuine propaganda institution without which it would have been hard for artists to develop their talents in those times, and to gain the necessary experience. Without any exaggeration, one can say that Fitelberg made a huge contribution to the Polish composing output of the time. ... One needs to realize that it was not until Fitelberg that recent Polish music began to be known around the world. One may even doubt whether the work of Karol Szymanowski would have found its way to world concert stages just by the fact of having been published in print by Universal Edition, if it had not been for Fitelberg's frequent performances of this music, filled with artistry and very suggestive, at dozens of concert venues in Europe and America".

In 1948, Fitelberg and the Polish Radio Great Symphony Orchestra in Katowice presented the world premiere of Lutoslawski's "Symphony No. 1". In 1975 the composer recalled:

"With his usual enthusiasm, [Fitelberg] began preparing the premiere of my first symphony, which was also my first larger symphonic piece, a work summarizing many previous years and, as such, of primary importance to me at the time. These were times when, for most people playing in an orchestra, a succession of 3/4 and 5/8 bars was a completely unnecessary oddity, and a chord containing more than 5 different sounds (and - God forbid - more than one minor second) - an intolerable irritation of the listener's hearing. It is not hard to guess the orchestra's reaction to my symphony during the first rehearsals. I had a hazy feeling at the time that instead of long-awaited satisfaction I was in for unknown and painful misery. Meanwhile… The orchestra, perhaps having given in to Fitelberg's unwavering conviction, after endless rehearsals achieved incredible precision of execution of my score, played the work a number of times in Poland and abroad and - the most valuable thing to me - expressed its appreciation through the words of its illustrious members".

Compositions:

• "Romance without Words in D major op. 11 for violin and piano" (1892)
• "Sonata No. 1 in a minor for violin and piano op. 2" (1894)
• "Berceuse for violin and piano" (1897)
• "Chanson triste for piano" (before 1900)
• "Mazurka for violin and piano" (1900)
• "Romance Without Words in A major op. 11 for violin and piano" (1900)
• "Trio in f minor for violin, cello and piano op. 10" (1901)
• "Sonata No. 2 in F major for violin and piano op. 12" (1901)
• "Concerto in D minor for violin and orchestra op. 13" (1903)
• "Canzoneta for symphony orchestra" (1903)
• "Symphony No.1 in e minor op. 16 for symphony orchestra" (1904)
• "Four Lieder for voice and piano op. 23" (1905-07)
• "Song of the Falcon op. 18, symphonic poem for great orchestra" (1905)
• "Prelude and Lied 'The Swan' op. 19 for voice and piano" (1906)
• "Kennst du das Land, lied for voice and pia8" (1906)
• "In the Spring op. 17, overture for orchestra" (1906)
• "Vor Meinem Fenster... for voice and piano" (1907)
• "Abend for voice and piano" (1907)
• "Schlafend Trägt Man Mich... for voice and piano" (1907)
• "Six Lieder for voice and piano op. 22" (1907)
• "Five Lieder for voice and piano op. 21" (1907)
• "Symphony No. 2 in A major op. 20 for symphony orchestra" (1907)
• "Meine Lippen... for voice and piano" (1907)
• "Über die Welt Hin... for voice and piano" (1907)
• "Melancholie for voice and piano"(1907)
• "Protesilas and Laodamia op. 24 for voice and orchestra" (1908)
• "Polish Rhapsody op. 25 for great orchestra" (1913)
• "Lieder op. 27 and op. 28" (1914)
• "Rhapsody No. 2 for orchestra" (1914)
• "In the Depths of The Sea op. 26, musical tableau in the form of an overture for great orchestra" (1914)
• "Recitativ for clarinet and piano" (1918)
• "Joyful March for symphony orchestra" (1953)

Source: Polish Music Information Center, Polish Composers' Union, July 2002.

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