“DANCE OF DEATH”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 765, 11 September 1929, Page 11

“DANCE OF DEATH”

Song Unites Husband And Wife POLISH REFUGEES A dramatic story of his reunion with his wife in Sydney, each of them being under the belief that the other had been executed by Bolsheviks, was told by M. Stefan de Polotynski, a Polish musician, who is now living at Brisbane. M. Polotynski is a pianist and general . musician, with splendid credentials from various European countries, and was a pupil of Paderewski. His wife is a coloratura soprana, and both have been heard with pleasure in Sydney, Brisbane and other cities of Australia. They have also broadcast. He described conditions in unhappy Russia and Poland during the Bolshevik outbreaks, and said that his name appeared among a list of executed prisoners. He had been an officer in the Polish army and his wife had done Red Cross work. She joined a Red Cross party going south through Turkestan, and had a terrible journey across the glaciers, through North Tibet, and the Gobi Desert, to Pekin. She eventually came to Australia and shared a flat with a Frenchwoman. “Dance of Death” Meanwhile M. Polotynski, who had been liberated, also visited Australia. He had composed “The Dance of Death,” which had been played in several European countries, and he had conducted orchestras at Moscow, Kieff and St. Petersburg. In Sydney he had played his composition several times on the piano at concerts. Going to one of these concerts, the Frenchwoman heard “The Dance of Death” played, and returning to the flat told her young companion about it, and described the pianist. Wife Fainted The Polish woman fainted, and a doctor was called. When he heard all the details, the doctor called on M. Polotynski and asked him would he visit the unconscious woman, who had been so affected by the news of his composition. Visiting the flat with the doctor, he found his W'ife, whom he had believed to be dead, and when she recovered consciousness she recognised her husband, whom she also had believed to have been executed. At first the poor woman thought she had dreamed of the reunion, and she told the doctor that she had been to the other world and had seen her husband. Soon, however, complete consciousness returned, and both forgot all their trials in the joy of having recovered each other.