Szpilman worked for the Polish public broadcaster both before and after World War II.
On Sunday, Polish Radio 2, the broadcaster's music and arts channel, commemorated the anniversary with a special concert in collaboration with the Jewish Historical Institute.
The programme featured a cross-section of Szpilman's works, including A Small Overture and the Concertino for Piano and Orchestra, which he composed while confined in the Warsaw Ghetto.
The concert also included a selection of Szpilman's songs arranged for orchestra.
The Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw was led by conductor Michał Klauza, with pianist Paweł Kowalski performing as the soloist in the Concertino.
Born in 1911, Szpilman studied piano and composition in Warsaw and Berlin. He worked at Polish Radio for four years until September 23, 1939—when he performed Chopin’s music live on air for the final time before the station ceased operations due to German bombings.
Szpilman was later forced into the Warsaw Ghetto along with his parents, two sisters and brother—all of whom perished in the Holocaust.
By securing work as a musician, he avoided deportation to a Nazi extermination camp. He eventually escaped to the non-Jewish side of Warsaw and, in the final months of the war—after the collapse of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising—found refuge in the city’s ruins.
He survived thanks in part to assistance from Polish friends and German Army officer Wilm Hosenfeld.
After the war, Szpilman served as director of Polish Radio’s music department until 1963.
Władysław Szpilman. Photo: PAP/Stanisław Dąbrowiecki
He later launched a concert career, performing both as a soloist and in a duo with Polish-born American violinist Bronisław Gimpel.
He also co-founded the Warsaw Piano Quintet, which gave around 3,000 concerts worldwide and recorded for Polish Radio, the BBC, Radio Sweden and several German broadcasters.
Szpilman composed some 500 songs—many of which became popular hits—as well as several symphonic works that remain in the concert repertoire to this day.
He died on July 6, 2000 at the age of 88.
Szpilman’s wartime memoirs were made into the Oscar-winning film The Pianist, directed by Roman Polanski and starring Adrien Brody.
(mk/gs)