Szymanowski: Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp minor

Introduction

In 1909 the Berlin journal “Signale fur die Musikalische Welt” held a competition for a piano work. Szymanowski, tempted by the high value of the prize (1000 marks), selected one of his old fugues, written while still a student with Noskowski, quickly added a Prelude and sent it to Berlin. As a result he won one of the ten prizes; in accordance with the terms of the competition, the ten prize-winning works (out of 874 submitted) were later published in a special album. Szymanowski was the only winning composer to achieve world fame in the future.