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

I was recently privileged to be invited to attend the final concert in the final week of the first course of the Paderewski Piano Academy in Bydgoszcz in Poland. Readers of my reviews will know in the past I have covered two Paderewski Piano Competitions in detail in this city.  In short these academy courses train young pianists to play concertos with orchestra. In this case the indefatigable  Toruńska Orkiestra Symfoniczna (Toru ń  Symphony Orchestra). Their dedication to this extraordinary task of work is second to none.  It is a vital training for young pianists. Professional concert careers can now only be constructed with impressive concertos included in the repertoire of any young pianist. Competition is that strong. Solo recitals are no longer sufficient for building a concert career.  These courses are the only ones in the world offering such a specific disciplined training with eminent professors of music. I attended two final concerts in two different but

From Chopin to Paderewski 31.08 FRIDAY 8.00 p.m. Moniuszko Auditorium at the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera Symphonic concert YAARA TAL piano BENJAMIN GROSVENOR piano WARSAW PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA JACEK KASPSZYK conductor                                                                             [Photographs by W. Grzędziński and D. Golik/NIFC]                                                                                                               A chance to 'discover' another work by the once famous Polish composer, Aleksander Tansman (1897-1986), once considered as important as Szymanowski. The magnificent violin concerto we heard earlier in the festival cemented him in my mind as an outstanding composer inexplicably rather overlooked in the West at least by popular opinion. The cultural iron curtain perhaps operating as a psychological and prejudicial barrier once again. Tansman was a distinguished Polish composer born in Łódz and