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

    The conflagration of Warsaw 17.00 August 1st.1944 The abandoned.... The valiant men... This uprising must never be forgotten and will not be despite the indelible controversy surrounding it It also explains the experience that lead to the valiant devotion to the Ukrainian cause                                                                                                                                           Getty images This is also a nation of truly remarkable Polish women  Independent, powerful, determined, loyal, intelligent, courageous,  and  beautiful... And their children..... Extract from: Chapter 4 ' Warsaw the Phoenix ' from  A Country in the Moon: Travels in Search of the Heart of Poland  by Michael Moran (Granta, London 2009) English version       (Version in Polish in green) Abandoned by the Allies in thrall Stalin, the effort was valiant but hopeless.  Essentially the Warsaw Rising of August 1944 was fought against the SS and the Wehrmacht by the Army in

  THANK YOU FOR LOOKING AHEAD TO NEXT YEAR ! This is a rather late nostalgic appreciation, a remembrance of a past operatic performances that were staged during this remarkable festival. I have been travelling a great deal recently associated with the classic car Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este on Lake Como and the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations in London. Also went on to Edinburgh and the discovery of a remarkable Polish historic figure, the famous nineteenth century concert virtuoso violinist Felix Yaniewicz, closely associated with the foundation of the modern Edinburgh Festival. More of that extraordinary creature in a subsequent post!  The distinguished history of the Warsaw Chamber Opera and its present fine productions support its long-established high reputation. As I watched, the memories crowded, random in their shape and relationship. The process of thought was like an artist in mosaic I once observed in Ravenna, contemplating mounds of coloured glass, his tweezers i