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

Today (5.00 pm August 1st 2023) I watched the extraordinarily moving and symbolic commemoration of the Warsaw Uprising on television simultaneously in the many ceremonial venues (including boats on the Vistula)  of the Warszawa Pamieta.  Someone once  asked me to express the nature of Poland in one word. I replied 'Resistance' . Such was the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.  What a huge commemorative event this has developed into …. but  I have  rather  mixed feelings  concerning leadership after studying this ill-fated heroism in detail for my book. The aircraft display flew directly over my home in Mlociny which was in Command Structure Area II - the northern districts Zoliborz and Bielany …. amazing really…..to hear and see these aircraft so close at low altitude vibrating the atmosphere on this poignant day of memories …. Rain was singularly appropriate for the melancholy of the recollection - a very few valiant survivors still struggle on with diminishing life.   The conflagratio