Mieczysław Sołtys

Mieczysław Sołtys was born and died in Lviv (Lwów), in 1863 and 1929 respectively, and spent almost his entire career within the musical life of his native city. A composer, conductor and educator, he is useful for understanding Polish musical life at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century outside the country's major centres.

His training combined local experience with a period in Paris. In Lviv he studied piano and composition with Mikuli; in the French capital he refined his composition under Saint-Saëns and his counterpoint and organ playing under Gigout. On his return he took over the editorship of the journal Wiadomości Artystyczne and, in 1899, the directorship of the city's conservatory and musical society, posts he held until his death. As head of the society he conducted numerous symphonic concerts, with a repertoire ranging from Bach to Strauss, and he also worked as a journalist and organiser.

His music was, on the whole, academic and somewhat old-fashioned until 1910, with an early Romantic idiom rooted in Moniuszko. Afterwards his technique evolved towards bolder harmony and richer melody of a Wagnerian cast. Among his works are the operas Panie Kochanku and Babińska, the opera Opowieść ukraińska, the symphonies in B flat minor and D major, and the symphonic poem W ucieczce.