Renaud et Armide by Nicolas Poussin (1629) Dulwich Picture Gallery, London It is a rare event to see an authentic period performance of
a French Baroque opera in Warsaw in modern times. Even rarer is a performance
of Armide, the last spectacle
by the Italian-born French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687). The recent
fraught history of Warszawska Opera Kameralna since the passing of its former Artistic
Director Stefan Sutkowski makes an objective assessment an additional challenge.
One must admire the fortitude in the attempt to resuscitate and renew the
artistic inspiration of this company. Will the artistic traditions of this
distinguished organization survive into the future? To properly judge the performance of such a work it is
necessary to briefly examine the musical meaning of such stage productions to a
seventeenth century audience which was rather different in motivation and
expectation to ourselves. Under their Apollonian Sun King Louis XIV, France
enjoyed an unsurpasse…
A reproduction of a fragment of a picture depicting Chopin painted by Ludomir Sleńdziński (1951?)
Welcome to the 72nd International Chopin Festival at the lovely Polish town of Duszniki Zdrój, a charming spa in Silesia on the mountainous Czech-Polish border not far from Wrocław.
In this 72nd year of the festival, the artistic director Piotr Paleczny (his 25th anniversary in this position) has assembled a quite remarkable array of famous, musically outstanding and charismatic pianists, many of them prize-winners in international competitions. Most of the greatest pianists playing on the international stage today have appeared at Duszniki Zdroj, many at the very beginnings of their pianistic careers or shortly after winning major international competitions. 72nd. Duszniki International Chopin Piano Festival4 August
Friday20.00Inauguration recital Nelson FreireNotickets5 August
Saturday
Welcome to the 71st International Chopin Festival at the lovely Polish town of Duszniki Zdrój, a charming spa in Silesia on the mountainous Czech-Polish border not far from Wrocław.
In this 71st year of the festival, the artistic director Piotr Paleczny has assembled a quite remarkable array of famous, musically outstanding and charismatic pianists many of them prize-winners in international competitions. Most of the greatest pianists playing on the international stage today have appeared at Duszniki Zdroj, many at the very beginnings of their pianistic careers or shortly after winning major international competitions. A modicum of 'ancient' history first. Part of the way through his studies Joseph Elsner recommended that Chopin ‘take the waters’ or 'go into rehab' not far from where Elsner was born in the small Silesian spa of Bad Reinerz (now Duszniki Zdrój). Originally on the Prussian-Bohemian frontier, the village is now in the south-west of Poland on the border wit…