Classical Music in Poland and the Europe of Chopin - From the Reviewer's Notebook

Click on photographs to enlarge Debutant tableau vivant and performance by Przemyslaw Pankiewicz of the Chopin Polonaise Op. 40 No:1 ' The Military' that opened the Warszawski Bal Debiutantow The Debs dancing a splendid Mazur - one of a number of spirited Polish dances during the evening which included an oberek and a krakowiak as well as innumerable Viennese waltzes In recent years there has been an attempt to resuscitate some of the old aristocratic traditions of the great noble families in Poland. This charity ball known in Polish as the Warszawski Bal Debiutantow is under the patronage of the Polish Association of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and is in its sixth year. The beneficary will be the newly established Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Equipment Rental Centre which is located in a finely restored Vodka Distillery known as   Koneser situated in the fascinating and developing bohemian artistic area of Warsaw known as Praga, an historic...

Click on to enlarge  The author busking at the Steinway with the great pianist Artur Rubinstein in the main street of Lodz, Poland  2010  I thought you might  like to read my personal view of Fryderyk Chopin, my feelings concerning the challenging interpretation of his music and an account of the period he spent in Warsaw as a young man before left Poland forever. In this chapter there is also just a hint of my burgeoning romance with a beautiful Polish lady that took a very serious turn one romantic spring evening at Zelazowa Wola, the birthplace of the composer not far from Warsaw. The chapter is offered in both the English and Polish versions. Chapter 12   Frycek and the Prism of Reminiscence  extracted from A Country in the Moon: Travels in Search of the Heart of Poland by Michael Moran (Granta, London 2009) Download the chapter free ...

I am attempting to read myself into understanding and getting a 'feel' for the period of my next book - what one might call a  'travel biography' of the glamorous but now forgotten Australian concert pianist Edward Cahill - quite a task but rewarding. Just sharing a few of my recent discoveries with you. I share my Uncle Eddie's love of Chopin and although I never did manage to become a concert pianist although I tried very hard. I vicariously live the life of one through this project at least through writing about the performance of this composer's music (there is a significant chapter on Chopin in my most recent book A Country in the Moon: Travels in Search of the Heart of Poland ). Again I live in Warsaw which is crammed to bursting with Chopiniana at present leading up to the International Piano Competition in October.   Radio 2 here (known as Dwojka ) unashamedly plays many obscure and well- known recordings of the composer with highbrow commentary ...