Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) was a Polish composer and pianist, one of the most important musical figures in Poland after Chopin. Born in what is now Ukraine, he absorbed late Romantic, impressionist and modernist influences before developing a more nationally inflected style.

His works include symphonies, violin concertos, piano music, songs, chamber works and the opera King Roger. His violin music became especially important through performers such as Paweł Kochański and Joseph Szigeti.

Szymanowski’s music is sensuous, harmonically rich and often ecstatic, moving from perfumed modernism toward a sharper engagement with Polish highland folk materials. It has colour, heat and spiritual ambiguity.

He remains a central voice of early twentieth-century European music. Szymanowski’s best works seem to burn with incense, mountain air and dangerous light.