President Andrzej Duda awarded the Order of the White Eagle to Jerzy Maksymiuk, conductor, composer and pianist. The artist became famous among musicians for the phrase he eagerly repeated before rehearsals: “Gentlemen, postpone weddings and cancel funerals.” His style is, like his personality, a mixture of perfectionism and exuberance.
Jerzy Maksymiuk was born on April 9, 1936 in Grodno. He studied composition with Piotr Perkowski (diploma in 1962), piano with Jerzy Lefeld (diploma in 1964) and conducting with Bogusław Madey (diploma in 1969) at the State Higher School of Music in Warsaw.
In 1972, he headed the Polish Chamber Orchestra (POK). The band gave concerts under his baton all over the world in such prestigious halls as Carnegie Hall and Wiener Verein. The contract with the EMI record label was also a success. Maksymiuk was the director of the Polish Chamber Orchestra until 1984. Then he became the head of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow (he held the position until 1993). The Polish Chamber Orchestra then changed its name to Sinfonia Varsovia and invited Yehudi Menuhin, who served as the first guest conductor for many years.
Maksymiuk has always promoted contemporary music. He is one of the founders of the Polish Society of Contemporary Music. He took part in the Warsaw Autumn festival many times. He received the “Orfeusz” award twice for outstanding performances. He premiered approximately 200 contemporary works. In recognition of these achievements, Strathclyde University in Glasgow honored him with the title of Doctor of Letters. The Elgar Society awarded him a prestigious gold medal for popularizing the music of Edward Elgar.
In one of the interviews, the conductor said that his greatest regret in life was not taking on the premiere of Kilar’s “Orawa” when the composer suggested it to him. The premiere took place in Zakopane in 1986. Maksymiuk has performed this piece many times, including: in an unusual arrangement with Sebastian Karpiel-Bułecka, Janusz Olejniczak, Jan Młynarski and Atom String Quartet during the Głosy Gór concert, with which he performed, among others, at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Maksymiuk is also a composer, the author of about 40 pieces. “I have the greatest talent for composition, but it’s late to prove it, because everyone says: +Who is Maksymiuk? Well, conductor+” – he complained in the film “Maksymiuk. Concerto for two”. The album “Perfekcjonista” includes his piece “Liście dziniegdzie falling” for chamber orchestra and piano (2011). The piano part is performed by the artist himself. Maksymiuk, quoted by Marcin Majchrowski from Radio Dwójka in the text accompanying the album, confessed that he owes the title of his song to “his infatuation with the way Debussy named songs.”
Claude Debussy is Maksymiuk’s favorite composer. In an interview with PAP in 2016, the conductor said that he appreciated him for “creating ethereal, delicate music based on new harmony.”
From 1983, Maksymiuk served as artistic director of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Both with this ensemble and with the Polish Chamber Orchestra, he has performed many times at the world’s largest classical music festival – BBC Proms. Together with the Polish Chamber Orchestra, they recorded for EMI Abbey Road in London, where, as Maksymiuk recalled, 14 albums were created. In various interviews he said that once the orchestra passed the Beatles at the studio door and that he had to delay the start of the rehearsal because the ladies from the orchestra were talking to Paul McCartney.
“When Neville Marriner came to Warsaw in 1982 with his orchestra (Academy of St. Martin in the Fields – PAP note), Maksymiuk, for whom Marriner was God (he said about the Polish Chamber Orchestra: +Note, there was orchestra, that we must watch out for it!+) decided to host the orchestra because the authorities at that time were not eager to receive guests from the West in a dignified manner. A reception for several dozen people (two orchestras) was held in Bristol. Maksymiuk paid for it when he said goodbye him to thank the Minister of Culture for the wonderful banquet,” says one of the anecdotes found on the artist’s website. In the film “Maksymiuk. Concert for Two”, Maksymiuk visits Neville Marriner, who recalls that in his youth, Maksymiuk was nicknamed Mad Max.
“I strive for the orchestra, under my baton, to bring out not only the credo of the piece and its most important moments, but also to present itself in all its glory. This means arduous rehearsals, the result of which will be the extraction of the beautiful individual and collective sound of the instruments, rhythmic unification, maintaining sometimes at a dizzying pace, delighting the audience,” Maksymiuk told PAP in 2023.
The conductor became famous among musicians for the phrase he eagerly repeated before rehearsals: “Gentlemen, postpone weddings and cancel funerals.” His style reflects his personality – it is a mixture of perfectionism and exuberance. “Basically, I’m not suitable for this profession because I’m too nervous and excitable, I have to be absolutely prepared, and there’s no time for +absolutely+. Getting too deep into the score is as bad as not knowing the score. Musicians fall asleep,” he said in the film. “Maksymiuk. Concerto for two” while preparing “Eroica”.
“If something is not exactly as it sounds in my head, it won’t be such a problem. And anyway, it may sound in my head that it is difficult or impossible to do, so what should I do? Cut off my head and watch how people play, but not the character it allows me a lot. It means not that the music is different, but if it is not performed properly, I can’t stand it,” he explained.
“Maestro Jerzy Maksymiuk is a Renaissance artist. A conductor, composer, pianist, captivating both artistically and behaviorally. It is impossible to be indifferent to Jerzy Maksymiuk. He fully occupies his rightful place in contemporary culture, I would even jokingly say that he permanently resides in pantheon of beauty and fame,” the general and artistic director of the Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra told PAP in 2023. Jerzy Semkow Piotr Baron. “Each of his works written or performed (or sometimes both at the same time) leaves the listener deeply moved and touched,” he added. “Maestro Jerzy takes no prisoners. He penetrates and explores music to the end, infecting both the performers and the audience with his enthusiasm,” he noted. (PAP)
Authors: Anna Kruszyńska, Olga Łozińska
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