18th Chopin and His Europe Festival 14-31 August 2022, Warsaw, Poland
18th Chopin and His Europe Festival
14-31 August 2022
Warsaw, Poland
This year, there will be over 30 concerts, and among them piano recitals by masters of piano, including Bruce Liu, the winner of the 2021 Chopin Competition. World-famous orchestras and chamber players will give as many as 16 concerts. We did not forget about vocal music: outstanding soloists will perform with recitals, and opera lovers will be given opportunity to listen to the concert performance of Un giorno di regno, ossia il finto Stanislao by Giuseppe Verdi.
Programme of the Festival in Detail
https://festiwal.nifc.pl/en/2022/kalendarium/
Most of the concerts of the Festival will be available to watch via free streams on the YouTube channel of The Fryderyk Chopin Institute. Selected concerts will be broadcast by Polish Radio Channel 2
View of Warsaw from the Terrace of the Royal Castle by Bernardo Bellotto (1722-1780) called Canaletto from the collection of the National Museum. Photo: National Museum in Warsaw |
Introduction to this Extraordinary Festival
unique in its European scope
by
Stanisław Leszczyński
Artistic Director
The 18th Chopin and His Europe Festival will open with three great artists of Polish Romanticism: Chopin, Mickiewicz and Moniuszko. At the outset, we will hear Widma by Stanisław Moniuszko, a cantata which is a musical version of the second part of Dziady. It is a very clear gesture towards this epoch – rather special for our Polish culture and celebrated this year.
The work,
created in the mid-19th century, is an example of the fascination with the text
by Mickiewicz, the essence of the Polish interpretation of Romanticism, its realization
in non-existing, but vivid national identity of Poles – both in Polish lands
and in exile. It exemplifies force and longing, it brings mystery and an
element of mysticism, originating from traditional ritualism. But primarily, Widma,
tells a story of one of the iconic texts of Polish literature (and at the same
time one of the most distinctive Polish Romantic texts) with great music. The
work is a priceless treasure of Polish cultural heritage.
In August
2022 this work will be performed, together with another cantata by Moniuszko, Nijoła,
under the baton of Fabio Biondi, who – fascinated by this composition –
is shocked how Moniuszko remains a greatly underappreciated artist on international
stages and in the concert halls of Europe. After the enthusiastic reception of his
operas, he will perform and record Widma and Nijoła with the
soloists of the Podlasie Opera and the Philharmonic Choir and the
Europa Galante Orchestra.
There will be much more Moniuszko in the festival programme: we have planned
two concerts with his songs, performed by Olga Pasiecznik with Ewa
Pobłocka, Mariusz Godlewski with Radosław Kurek (both as part
of the promotion of The Institute’s new records) and Dorothee Mields
with Tobias Koch; a very interesting element connected with Moniuszko
will be also present in the programme with the concerts by the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra, performing the Overture to Paria, and Sinfonia
Varsovia, which is going to perform Moniuszko’s Pearls by Zygmunt
Noskowski, i.e. symphonic orchestrations of Moniuszko’s songs.
The programme axis of the Festival is traditionally based on
the music of Fryderyk Chopin whose work is the essence of Polish
Romanticism, emotionally being its essence. His works will be performed by
outstanding pianists and great ensembles on contemporary and historical
instruments; there will be fascinating contexts as well. Etudes and Nocturnes
will be interpreted by Jan Lisiecki, Preludes by Aimi
Kobayashi, Bruce Liu will perform the ‘La ci darem la mano’ Variations from
Don Giovanni, which were so enthusiastically reviewed during the
Competition and – together with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under
the baton Vasily Petrenko – the Concerto in F minor Op.21. The Concerto
in F minor Op.21will also be performed by Kate Liu, but also… for
the first time in the version for guitar, by Mateusz Kowalski and the Collegium
1704 under Vaclav Luks. Cyprien Katsaris will present works
by friends and pupils of Chopin together with extensive fragments of Don
Giovanni by Mozart arranged by Bizet, recorded in a complete version for
The Fryderyk Chopin Institute. We will also hear – performed by the Orchestra
of the Polish National Philharmonic under the direction of Andrzej
Boreyko – Fuego Fatuo by Manuel de Falla, a work for the stage
entirely based on orchestrated music by Chopin. The piano concerto by Andrzej
Panufnik will find a new interpretation by Alexander Gadjiev. The Beethoven
Academy Orchestra under Jean-Luc Tingaud will perform works by
E.T.A. Hoffmann, Cesar Franck and Feliks Nowowiejski. And these are only
selected fragments of the rich programme…
Undoubtedly, everyone – the audience as well as we, the organisers – is waiting
for the performances of the most interesting personalities of last year’s
Chopin Competition, the new elite of world pianism. In addition to the already
mentioned winner Bruce Liu, Alexander Gadjiev and Aimi Kobayashi,
there will be performances by Kyohei Sorita, Martin Garcia Garcia, Leonora
Armellini, Jakub Kuszlik and J J Jun Li Bui – all with highly
interesting programmes, featuring, in addition to Chopin, Beethoven, Bach,
Debussy, Rameau, Liszt... We will also welcome the 2010 winner, Yulianna
Avdeeva, and the talented Ukrainian pianist Dinara Klinton. Alim
Beisembayev, the winner of last year’s piano competition in Leeds, will also
perform – for the first time at the Festival.
Other highlights of the Festival will certainly be the concerts by Maria
Joao Pires (with the Basel Chamber Orchestra conducted by Trevor
Pinnock) and the European Union Youth Orchestra conducted by Gianandrea
Noseda and Francesco Piemontesi as well as performances by the Belcea
Quartet (together and separately) and the Apollon Musagète Quartet...
The magical world of authentic sound and ‘historically
informed’ musical interpretation will be brought to us this year by pianists Kristian
Bezuidenhout, Tobias Koch, Dmitry Ablogin, Tomasz Ritter, Aleksandra Świgut,
clarinetists long associated with the Festival: Lorenzo Coppola and Eric
Hoeprich as well as violinists Alena Baeva and Chouchane
Siranossian. Internationally renowned orchestras will play: our leading
ensemble of historical performance, {oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna, Europa
Galante, Collegium 1704 and – in a very special way – the Orchestra of
the Eighteenth Century, which has accompanied the Festival since its first
edition. We will hear Henryk Wieniawski’s Concerto in F-sharp minor and
Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major in its original
version, with Jan Lisiecki sitting at the historic piano for the first
time.
And a few words about Polish music, especially one that is still little recognized,
the best presentation of which is always our mission and a privilege at the
same time. This year, the programme will focus on Polish Romanticism: Józef
Władysław Krogulski’s Miserere (Collegium 1704), Karol
Kurpiński’s Clarinet Concerto (reconstructed in a different way than
last year, this time interpreted by Eric Hoeprich and The Orchestra
of the Eighteenth Century), August Fryderyk Duranowski’s Violin Concerto
and Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński’s Duo for Clarinet and Piano. There will
also be Romantic music from Germany (Winterreise with Matthias Goerne
and Leif Ove Andsnes), France (Gounod and Franck, whose 200th anniversary
of his birth is celebrated this year), the Czech Republic (Reicha, Dvorak),
Scandinavia (Sibelius) and England (Elgar).
As part of this year’s edition of the Festival, over 30 concerts are planned to
take place in the most important halls of Warsaw. We hope that this time the
pandemic will not limit the number of the viewers and listeners that we can
invite for the events. Regardless, most of the concerts will be streamed and
broadcast by Channel 2 of Polish Radio.
The Fryderyk Chopin Institute
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