It appears difficult, indeed impossible, to find a clear place for Wladyslaw Szpilman, the person or his work, in the history of 20th century music. We can only come closer to him by refraining from attempts to categorise him. This is due on the one hand to his remarkable biography: the severity and intensity of the emotional shocks and deprivations that shaped Szpilman, a survivor of the holocaust, exceed anything we would be capable of understanding. On the other hand, the musical language ref...