Grzegorz Fitelberg

Grzegorz Fitelberg studied at Chopin University of Music. Training under Zygmunt Noskowski and Stanisław Barcewicz is recorded. The recorded working language is Polish. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are classical music. Places of work recorded in the authority are Warsaw and Katowice. Residence is recorded at Saint Petersburg. Employment is recorded with Chopin University of Music, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw. Distinctions recorded are Officer of the Legion of Honour, Gold Cross of Merit, Officer of the Order of Polonia Restituta and Work Flag Order, 1st class.

Fitelberg was born into a Jewish family (father Hozjasz Fitelberg, mother Matylda Pintzof, sister Leja Wacholder, 1881–1941, were all murdered in the Holocaust), in Dvinsk, Russian Empire (now Daugavpils, Latvia). Between 1906 and 1907, he performed several times at the Berlin Philharmonic. In 1908 he conducted in the Warsaw Opera, and between 1912 and 1913 in the Vienna State Opera. During the first war he collaborated with Ballets Russes; he conducted the first performance of Igor Stravinsky's Mavra at the Opéra Garnier in Paris. From 1921 to 1934 he was the chief conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, where he extensively promoted new music. In 1935 he organized the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 1940 Fitelberg and his fiance, Zofia Helene Reicher, received visas from Aristides de Sousa Mendes, to cross into Portugal. This enabled the couple to escape to Brazil. Between 1940 and 1941, he conducted at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Throughout his career, he performed in various locations worldwide including Paris, Monte Carlo, Brussels, Vienna, Dresden, Leipzig, Moscow, Bristol, London, The Hague, Buenos Aires, New York, Montreal and Toronto. He spent the rest of World War II in exile in the United States. He returned to Europe in 1946. In 1947, he succeeded Witold Rowicki in leading the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, based in Katowice in the Silesian region. He also performed with his orchestra in Warsaw, Wrocław, Kraków and in Czechoslovakia (1948), Romania and Hungary (1950). He remained director of the orchestra until his death. in the 1950–1951 academic year he was a professor at the State Higher School of Music in Katowice. He died in Stalinogród, Poland in June 1953. His body was buried in the Avenue of the Meritorious at the Powązki Military Cemetery.

His son was the Polish-American composer Jerzy Fitelberg, who predeceased him. His second wife, Halina Schmolz, was a ballet dancer who died in 1939, from wounds suffered during the bombing of the Poniatowski Bridge. Their home, Willa Fitelberga, has been restored.

Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 13 (1902–1903) Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 16 (1904) Song of the Falcon (Pieśń o sokole), Symphonic Poem, Op. 18, after Maxim Gorky (1905) Overture No. 1, Op. 14 (1905) Overture No. 2, Op. 17 (1906) Symphony No. 2 in A major, Op. 20 (1907) Protesilaus and Laodamia, Symphonic Poem, Op. 24 (1908) Polish Rhapsody, Op. 25 (1913), Rhapsody No. 2 (1914) From the Depths of the Sea (W głębi morza), Symphonic Poem, Op. 26 (1914).

Sonata for violin and piano in A minor, Op. 2 (1894, the work received the I.J.Paderewski Prize in 1898) Romances sans paroles, 2 pieces Op. 11 for violin and piano: in D major (1892) and A major (1900) Piano trio in F minor, Op. 10 (1901) Sonata No. 2 for violin and piano in F major, Op. 12 (1901)