"Polonia" Overture in C major - Richard Wagner

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Grzegorz Nowak.

I - Adagio sostenuto - Allegretto - Tempo I - Allegro molto vivace - Allegretto - Presto: 0:00

Wagner's "Polonia" Overture was composed between May and July of 1836, it was premiered in the winter of 1836-7. Wagner apparently took the manuscript with him to Paris in 1839. He thought it had been lost during his visit, but it was returned to him by conductor Jules Pasdeloup in 1869. Despite his appreciation for the work, it wasn't published until 1908, 25 years after his death in Venice.

In 1831, the great Polish uprising of 1830 was crushed by Tsarist troops, and in the repression that followed thousands of Poles fled the country and spread through the capitals of Europe, where for years they cut colorful figures of nationalist freedom-fighters in operetta-like costumes. On January 8 of the following year one such group arrived in Leipzig, where it was greeted by crowds of jubilant admirers, including the excitable seventeen-year-old Wagner.

The young man was much taken in particular by the swashbuckling Count Vincenz Tyskiéwicz, whom he visited on an almost daily basis and who took the brilliant lad under his wing. On May 3 the Poles remaining in Leipzig gathered to celebrate their abortive “Constitution Day.” Wagner was the only non-Pole among them. In later years, when he came to write his autobiography, he vividly recalled their fiery speeches, their nationalist fervor and their debilitating homesickness.

The work is structured in a modified sonata form. It opens with a slow and severe introduction, introducing materials further exposed later, including a Polish folksong that would become Poland's national anthem "Poland Is Not Yet Lost". A turbulent crescendo leads us to the main allegro. A solemn and noble main theme is presented, based on the folksong, contrasted my a more melodic second theme. Follows a dramatic development, in which the bombastic nature of the music reminds us of the nationalistic component. The recapitulation brings back the main themes, leading us to a triumphant coda on the main theme.

Picture: "Portrait of John III Sobieski" (c1680) by the Polish-Lithuanian painter Daniel Schultz.

Musical analysis partially written by myself. Sources: https://bit.ly/3U61V5C and https://bit.ly/3gW5s8k

To check the score: https://bit.ly/3U7iNZN