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

After the great success of Armide I was interested to attend this performance of mainly dance sequences or interludes  from the Rameau operas Dardanus and Pygmalion. This would be an all Polish rather than co-production.  Romana Angel,t he distinguished dancer, choreographer and founder of the famous  Cracovia Danza ,  the only professional Court Ballet in Poland, was the Director and choreographer of the production. The Australian conductor Benjamin Bayle directed  Musicae Antiquae Collegium Vasoviense. Marlena Skoneczko designed the flowing rather Boucher-style costumes. The librettist of Rameau's third tragedie en musique  was Le Clerc de la Bruère who was a dilettantish young nobleman of twenty-three who among his country pursuits of hunting and riding, indulged literary activities. He died of smallpox in 1754 in Rome at the age of thirty-eight. We were not presented with the entire opera (the plot has definite limitations and has rather senseless infantile aspects) bu

For me this truly beautiful recital lodged in the heart, impervious to the ravages of fashion and time.  Ewa Pobłocka presented herself from the outset as a servant to this immortal music. Within this cavernous space in a wintry, clammy Warsaw, she created an atmosphere of warm contemplative intimacy with a solitary lamp illuminating the music desk of the piano, the main chandeliers in the hall extinguished, a spot-lamp shining on a cascade of platinum hair. Yet this was no theatrical gesture but a privileged invitation to us as listeners to join her company on her birthday for a few precious hours spent in calm spiritual communion as this fine musician explored her treasured Book I of  Das Wohltemperierte Klavier.  I was reminded of a similarly contemplative, moving late recital by Sviatoslav Richter I attended in the half light of  Blythburgh   parish church on the Suffolk coast  during the Aldeburgh festival  now  many years and musical experiences ago. Bach presented the

Canoes drawn up on the beach of the tiny fishing community of Manuwata, Trobriand Islands. Milne Bay Province I must confess to being irritated by this post-colonial coverage of the Benedict Allen 'lost in the jungle' story currently fascinating the UK press.  A useful corrective to the current exaggerated 'macho' view of PNG  If you wish to have a balanced cultural view of this truly beautiful and in many respects peaceful land, in particular the island provinces of the Bismarck Archipelago,  you may like to read this book of mine which was short-listed for the final Thomas Cook Travel Book Award in 2004. The great Polish travel journalist and humanist  Ryszard Kapuściński had planned to visit these provinces shortly before he died. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyond-Coral-Sea-Travels-South-West/dp/0006552358/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1511257769&sr=1-1&keywords=beyond+the+coral+sea In those days there were no satellite phones,