Home » Entertainment » Jan Krenz is dead. He collaborated with Andrzej Wajda. He was 94 years old

Jan Krenz is dead. He collaborated with Andrzej Wajda. He was 94 years old

The legend of Polish film music, Jan Krenz, is dead

“I was a child of happiness and I cannot complain about the fate that opened various doors to my so-called career” – said in an interview with Elżbieta Markowska, former director of Polish Radio 2, Krenz.

“I lived three quarters of this century, and the greater the baggage of the past, the more I look at all the events, good and bad, all of these together create reflections. It is difficult to come to any unambiguous conclusions here, but I would say, contrary to many people who say : oh God, if I would like to be young once again, I say without coquetry that I would not want to be young again and make all these mistakes, all these searches. It seems to me that from the perspective of many, many years a man has normal and more and more true outlook on life “- he added.

He assessed that when the war ended, his generation of musicians “was called by fate to create everything that was actually destroyed by the war and the uprising”.

Who was Jan Krenz?

Jan Krenz was born on July 14, 1926. During the occupation, he studied under Zbigniew Drzewiecki (piano) and Kazimierz Sikorski (composition). In 1945-47 he studied music in the conducting class with Kazimierz Wiłkomirski and in the composition class with Sikorski at the State Higher School of Music in Łódź, obtaining a diploma with honors.

He made his debut at the Philharmonic in Łódź on January 6, 1946. In 1947-49 he was the conductor of the Poznań Philharmonic, in 1949-1951 he was associated with the Great Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, where he collaborated with Grzegorz Fitelberg.

The years 1953-67 saw intense activity at the head of the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, including recordings, concerts, numerous premieres of works by Polish composers, regular participation in the Warsaw Autumn festivals and trips abroad, which made this orchestra a well-known and respected group in the world. In 1963, the triumphant and longest in the history of Polish orchestras tour of the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra (55 concerts) through the then Soviet Union, Mongolia, China, Japan to Australia and New Zealand.

In the 1960s, he was the first conductor of the Denmarks Radio Orchestra in Copenhagen, which was the result of his successes in Scandinavia. The years 1968-73 are the years of cooperation with the Grand Theater in Warsaw and premieres that went down in the history of Polish opera, incl. “Othello”, “Elektra” and “Boris Godunov”.

He was also conductor of the Danmarks Radio orchestra in Copenhagen, collaborated with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony in Tokyo, and guest conductors of such ensembles as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Staatskapelle Dresden, Leningrad Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.

In 1979, he signed a three-year contract as Generalmusikdirektor in Bonn. He enlarged the Orchester der Beethovenhalle to 122 musicians and staged, among others, a three-act version of Lulu Berg and Moniuszko’s The Haunted Manor with leading Polish performers. He made his debut as a composer during the occupation with the “String Quartet” at a private underground concert. He practiced chamber, vocal and symphonic works.

In the 1980s – after a 15-year break – he returned to composition (“Missa breve”, “Musica da camera”, “Epitaphion”, “Symphony No. 2”, “Sinfonietta per fiati”, “Symphony No. 3”). From 1983 to 1985 he collaborated with the Dutch Radio in Hilversum. He regularly participated in the “Warsaw Autumn” International Festival of Contemporary Music, receiving twice – in 1969 and 1974 – the “Orpheus” Award for performances of Polish music, and at festivals in Edinburgh, Bergen, Prague, Montreux, Osaka and Vienna.

In September 2005, he took the position of artistic director and first conductor of the Krakow Philharmonic, which he held until July 2008.

He is the author of theater and film music (including for the films “Kanał” Andrzej Wajda and “Eroica” and “Bad luck” Andrzeja Munka).

Krenz has won many awards, incl. he received the Golden Cross of Merit (1952), the State Award of the second degree (1955), the Music Award of the City of Katowice (1957), the Award of the Polish Composers’ Union twice (1968 and 1996), the State Award of the first degree (1972), the Diamond Baton Award on the occasion of 70th Anniversary of Polish Radio (1995), Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, Gold Medal “For Merit to Culture Gloria Artis” (2005) and numerous international awards for recordings. In 2011, he was awarded the Honorary Coryphaeus of Polish Music award by the Institute of Music and Dance. In 2018 he received an honorary doctorate from the Academy of Music. Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz in Łódź.

Jan Krenz was 94 years old.

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