Dariusz Przybylski. A courageous passéiste
ALEKSANDER LASKOWSKI
Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences
Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Przybylski also seems to share with Wolfgang Rihm a similar approach to the role and function of ‘New Music’. Wolfgang Rihm has been called an Olympian of contemporary music (cf. Büning, 2013). He chiselled the musical thinking to the extent that he is no longer considered a Nischenphänomen – a composer belonging to the niche of New Music. And his output spans many genres – from orchestral pieces through operas, chamber and solo music, both vocal and instrumental, as well as film music. His music belongs in the subscription concert halls and major festivals more than in contemporary music festivals. This cannot yet be said about Dariusz Przybylski. However, his work seems to be heading in the same direction. For a relatively young composer today to be so form-oriented, even sound-oriented as Przybylski, is a brave aesthetic stance in the times when the received notion that music must be sound is called into question, as in Barrett’s recent book (2016).