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

  To honour the memory of my great uncle, the renowned Australian pianist Edward Cahill (1885-1975), the 2023 Sydney International Piano Competition have generously awarded the EDWARD CAHILL BEST PRELIMINARIES ROUND 1 RECITAL Donated by the Friends of Chopin Australia https://www.thesydney.com.au/support-us/our-sponsors-and-donors/ https://www.friendsofchopin.org.au/ You may read more about him, refer to my recent biography of his extraordinarily glamorous life and listen to his playing here: http://www.michael-moran.net/paderewski-book.htm and https://scholarly.info/book/the-pocket-paderewski-the-beguiling-life-of-the-australian-concert-pianist-edward-cahill/

One does not have rare musical experiences in terms of performance and cultural ambiance often these days. A brutal war clouds the cultural and creative horizon in a type of deadly suffocating miasma.  However, on Wednesday April 26th,  we were given the spiritually refreshing,  culturally delightful, thought provoking and uplifting recital by the outstanding Belgian pianist Marie François. This intimate recital for a small audience was her final gesture in commemorating a  musical adventure she had set up  with great imagination  for herself in Warsaw. All young pianists should spend some time in Poland if they wish to truly penetrate the essence of Fryderyk Chopin's music and play it with a deeper musical meaning rather than the all too common virtuosic emptiness. Over 21 days she studied, developed and practiced many of Fryderyk Chopin's Nocturnes - this genre was her primary focus. She also recorded a daily podcast so we could follow her development and discoveries. Guests

  And so the circles of brutality resume their merciless course….. Will humanity never change its self-destructive, murderous, imperial urges ? Collective narcissism of the most ruthless, paranoid and evil kind. Surely the grimmest of ironies today is that Volodymyr  Zelenskyy is Jewish ….. Mariupol, Ukraine 2022 or Warsaw, Poland 1943 ? Just now I  cannot help reflecting on the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, living as I do where these tragic events occurred not so very long ago. I decided once again to read what I had written in my Polish book about this particularly valiant and frantic moment in the tumultuous history of this miracle of a city, Warsaw. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is often confused by travellers to this country, understandably unfamiliar with Polish history, with the equally tragic Warsaw Uprising that began on 1 August 1944. In fact the parallels of the present merciless situation in Ukraine and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 are even clearer.  As an Australi