„Nieoficjalna nasza kolonia nad Morzem Śródziemnym”, czyli Zygmunta Mycielskiego notatki z podróży do Izraela

Abstract

At the end of 1959, Zygmunt Mycielski travelled to Israel at the invitation of Israeli musicians. He was very much affected by this trip, curious about the country and the people who made it. As he noted in his diary: ‘I would like to contribute to establishing closer contacts with this unwritten, largely Polish colony on the Mediterranean (17–18 X 1959)’. He hoped for meetings with musicians from Poland, who had already left for Palestine before the war to form an orchestra organized there by Bronisław Huberman. Mycielski looked carefully at Israel, and passed on his observations after his return in several reports written for the „Przegląd Kulturalny” (Cultural Review). Not all of them concern music, nor were they eventually published, for which Mycielski argued with the editors, and as a result – outraged by the censorship – he stopped writing to the journal at all. In my article, I take a look at both published and unpublished Mycielski’s accounts of his trip to Israel, presenting his vision of that country, especially in terms of musical life, bringing also the context of the current political situation in Poland and mutual Polish-Israeli relations.