[Thor Joachim Haga]

I realize that if we do individual composer threads on any of these at any point, I would have to copy/paste everything I wrote here (that’s the drawback of doing threads on nations). But anyway, a few more thoughts on Kilar:

In addition to re-listening to my five (DRACULA, KÖNIG DER LETZEN TAGE, DEATH AND THE MAIDEN, THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY and THE NINTH GATE), I discovered that I actually had LE ROI ET L’OISEAU – which Nick mentioned earlier – on my harddrive; I just hadn’t imported it to iTunes for some reason. I think I can understand why I opted not to at some point – the waltzes and polkas and marches and stuff are a bit grating. But the rest of the material is really lovely; it’s staying in my iTunes.

Additionally, I’ve discovered a few more titles: The recent double-header of POZNE POPULUDNIE (1965) and WILCZE ECHA (1968) on GAD Records- the first a lovely jazz score for what appears to be a 4-way domestic drama, and the latter an amusing western score – Polish Americana, with some suspense tracks that are rather harsh, but add varitety.

I finally gave PAN TADEUSZ (1999) a proper chance, and it’s really good. Same with the 14-minute IL SOLE NERO from 2007, in the last part of his career.

According to Discogs, there are 63 Kilar albums out there (across both film and classical), so I have long way to go. Plus, he’s done, what, 150 film scores, so a lot remains unreleased. But something to do at a later point in time.