Mieczysław Karłowicz - “Smutna opowieść“

Mieczysław Karłowicz (1876-1909) Symphonic poem “SORROWFUL TALE“ (“Smutna opowieść“), op. 13 (1908) Performed by: New Zealand Symphonic Orchestra Conductor: Antoni Wit The piece is illustrating the thoughts going through the mind of a suicidal person. He/she is depressed and tired with life, but the happy memories keep coming back, causing the emotional struggle. Unfortunately the will of life fails and the hero kills himself... For some music historians this piece was supposedly one of the proofs, that the composer’s untimely death in Tatra mountains (an avalanche) was in fact a suicide. However the theory is very unlikely, according to his close friends and family, and has been proven wrong by his fellow mountainers. Today it is mostly assumed, that the piece was inspired by death of a writer and a friend of Karłowicz family - Józefat Nowiński (author of the play “The White Dove“, to which the composer wrote