Duszniki Zdrój International Chopin Festival 80th Anniversary Programme, 1 - 9 August 2025. Detailed reviews of fourteen past festival posts (2010 - 2024)
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Duszniki Zdrój formerly Bad Reinerz in Silesia
Please read and remember as we continue the intense enjoyment of this creative side of the coin of human nature
World-renowned musicians and pianists have been assembled to play at the
80th Anniversary
Duszniki-Zdrój International Chopin Festival
1-9 August 2025
Detailed Program
The book of the festival in both English and Polish with detailed artists biographies and detailed programmes plus interesting essays on Chopin and quotations from his letters are available to download here. Simply too detailed to post here
https://app.box.com/s/8kqacwwufq3zr70ekldbxja8o3jp4s1z
Official Website: http://festival.pl/en/front-english/
The biography and tragically cancelled brilliant, imaginative, unique and fascinating recital programme intended to be given by Sergei Babayan on August 2 appears below at the beginning of these reviews Due to illness
You will
need to scroll down
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The Chopin Manor where the recitals take place |
Recital Reviews
Photographer: Szymon Korzuch
Profile of the Reviewer Michael Moran : https://en.gravatar.c atom/mjcmoran#pic-0
Reviews have been posted in reverse order of live performance (latest recital first) to save listeners the labour of scrolling down after each recital to read the latest review
Many people have mentioned that my reviews are, in the current mnemonic, TLTR (Too Long To Read). With some reluctance I shall try to reduce the length to accommodate reading on a mobile phone which seems to be the ubiquitous technology for much of life's activities in 2025. With my conviction of the prime importance of social, historical and creational context in assessing compositions and composers prior to the performer's interpretation, I will find this rather difficult but needs must I suppose.
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The drive to Duszniki from Warsaw is far more comfortable than years ago (460 kms 5-6 hour drive). Having successfully surmounted a worrying house alarm glitch, I pressed on. However there were wild storms on the way with torrential rain and periods of glorious sun and blue sky - climate change turbulence ? The spray thrown up by vast lorries made life more than a little complicated for this GT driver. Taking a leaf from the behavioral road book of Michelangeli, Karajan and Rachmaninoff, but singularly and sadly lacking even the merest shadow of their musical genius, I at least drove a shared passion, my Jaguar XKR.
Plenty of time now to prepare for the festival ! There is no heatwave here, in fact it is rather cold especially at night and showers much of the day. This has changed to constant warm sunshine (12 August).
Incidentally, I have been reading a fascinating book (in English translation by the indefatigable John Comber) recently published by the NIFC (National Chopin Institute) entitled Chopin's Travels. The volume was written and edited from many unknown primary sources by Henryk F. Nowaczyk. Among many other recondite subjects, formerly 'hidden details' of Chopin's journey to Duszniki Zdroj, are contained in the riveting chapter The summer of 1826 in Reinerz and are of immense interest. Bad Reinerz was the name of the Silesian spa Chopin visited long before the geographical reassignments of World War II.
https://sklep.nifc.pl/en/produkt/77460-chopins-travels-glosses-to-a-biography
Final concert
AUGUST 9 8.00 PM
KATE LIU
Pianist Kate Liu has garnered international recognition, notably winning
the third prize in the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition
in Warsaw, Poland. She also received the Best Mazurka Prize, as well as the
Audience Favourite Prize awarded by the Polish public through Polish Radio.
Since then, she has toured internationally, performing at some of the world’s
most renowned venues and collaborating with orchestras around the globe.
As a distinguished soloist, Kate has been presented in numerous prestigious
halls, including the Seoul Arts Center, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Warsaw
Philharmonic, La Maison Symphonique de Montréal, Carnegie Hall’s Weill
Recital Hall, Severance Hall in Cleveland, Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.,
Shanghai Concert Hall, Osaka Symphony Hall, and the Phillips Collection. Esteemed
orchestras she has collaborated with include the Warsaw Philharmonic,
Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra,
Cleveland Orchestra, Daegu Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic,
Hilton and Head Symphony Orchestra. She is a regular invitee to the ‘Chopin
and His Europe’ Festival in Warsaw, and in 2024 she was the recipient of the
Olivier Berggruen Prize as part of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival.
In 2025, she released her debut album featuring Beethoven and Brahms
sonatas with Orchid Classics.
Born in Singapore, Kate began her piano studies at the age of four and
relocated to the United States at age eight. She studied at the Music Institute
of Chicago under Emilio del Rosario, Micah Yui, and Alan Chow. Early in
her career, she achieved first prizes in the Third Asia-Pacific International
Chopin Competition and the New York International Piano Competition.
Kate holds a bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, as well as
a master’s and Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, where she studied
with Robert McDonald and Yoheved Kaplinsky.
Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
Nocturne in F- Major Op. 15 No. 1 (1830–1832)
James Huneker (1857-1921), the renowned American music critic, writer and pianist, author of a book devoted to Chopin, wrote of the Nocturne genre:
‘Something of Chopin’s delicate, tender warmth and spiritual voice is lost in larger spaces. In a small auditorium, and from the fingers of a sympathetic pianist, the nocturnes should be heard, that their intimate, night side may be revealed. […] They are essentially for the twilight, for solitary enclosures, where their still, mysterious tones […] become eloquent and disclose the poetry and pain of their creator.’
The Nocturnes surely must be imagined as a musical poetic reflection and internal emotional agitation that takes place at night when the imaginative mind operates in relative silence and isolation at a different and sometimes fantastical level of consciousness. Chopin lived in a world without electricity. Just imagine this for a moment … The Nocturnes should retain a sense of improvisation in the internal exploration and discovery of sensibility.
The first dozen bars of the Nocturne in F minor Op.15 No.1 were written into the album of Elizabeth Sheremetev. The opening theme is melancholic and elegiac in which Liu adopted a contemplative tempo and ‘sang’ affectingly on the piano. The moment she begins to play we are convinced of her musicality and more than that. This delicate, fey lady is a musical phenomenon and an extraordinary pianist. I have written of her remarkable recitals often over the years on this website.
During the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Competition, Warsaw, 1-23 October 2015 she was placed 3rd. At that time I had the curious vision of an immensely precocious Chopin savant whilst listening and watching her. Without doubt, hers always becomes one of the most extraordinary Chopin recitals. This pianist seems to be in touch with some force outside of herself, transfigured by the music magnetically and metaphysically, taken over by a musical 'voice' and almost cosmic natural force, if that does not sound too fanciful. She connects us to 'The force that through the green fuse drives the flower' in the words of that great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.
Listening to her I was reminded of a description of a Chopin performance. In Paris he acquired new aristocratic students in 1847 such as the immensely talented Maria Aleksandrovna von Harder (1833-1880), a precocious 14-year-old Russian-German pianist from Saint Petersburg. She took lessons from Chopin almost every day during 1847 and up to his departure for England in April 1848.
She wrote: '....when he was in pain, Chopin often gave lessons by listening in the office adjacent to the drawing-room .... his hearing, sensitive to the subtlest shadings, immediately recognized which finger was on a given key.' In 1853 Hans von Bülow described her playing to Liszt, an approach that she surely must have partly imbibed from Chopin '...one of a kind . . . full of all the whispers . . . phenomenal, transient and sudden changes in tempo, unlike what you usually hear in concert halls. Luminous, interwoven, wonderful melodies emerged like miraculous swan songs.'
Nadia Boulanger was once asked what made a great as opposed to an excellent performance of a piano work. She answered 'I cannot tell you that. It is something I cannot describe in words. A magical element descends.' This is certainly the case with Kate Liu.
This atmosphere of poetic nostalgia in this nocturne soon gave way to a depiction of the dark night of the soul and turbulent emotions. The contrast in atmosphere was profoundly meaningful and at times intensely lyrical. Liu seemed to explore the darker regions of the heart in a dramatic fashion. These agitated passages led the narrative back into the melancholy aura from which they emerged.
Berceuse in D-Flat Major Op. 57 (1844)
This work can surely be considered ‘music of the evening and the night’. The Chopin Berceuse is possibly the most beautiful lullaby in absolute music ever written. The manuscript of this cradle-song masterpiece belonged to Chopin's close friend Pauline Viardot, the French mezzo-soprano and composer.
Perhaps this innocent, delicate and tender music was inspired by his concern with her infant daughter Louisette. George Sand wrote in a letter ‘Chopin adores her and spends his time kissing her on the hands’ Perhaps the baby caused Chopin to become nostalgic for his own family or even reflect on a child of his own that could only ever remain an occupant of his imagination.
Liu's interpretation with her sensitive and musical fingers, contained a poignant tenderness, refinement and poetry replete with the purity of innocence. The work hovers hesitatingly between piano and pianissimo.
The Berceuse, composed and completed at romantic Nohant in 1844, appears to constitute a distant echo of a song that Chopin’s mother sang to him: the romance of Laura and Philo, ‘Już miesiąc zeszedł, psy się uśpiły’ [The moon now has risen, the dogs are asleep]. (Tomaszewski). In view of this tender genesis of infancy, it is well known Chopin loved children and they loved him.
For me the work does speak of a haunted yearning for his own child, a lullaby performed in his sublimely imaginative mind, isolated and alone. No, not a common feeling about the work and possibly over-interpreted on my part, but what of that ....
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| The Black Lake - Duszniki Zdroj |
Sonata in B-Flat Minor, Op. 35 (1839)
The great Polish musicologist Tomaszewski describes the opening movement of this sonata Grave. Doppio movimento perceptively: ‘The Sonata was written in the atmosphere of a passion newly manifest, but frozen by the threat of death.’ A deep existential dilemma for Chopin speaks from these pages written in Nohant in 1839. The pianist, like all of us, must go one dimension deeper to plumb the terrifying abyss that this sonata opens at our feet.
Grave-doppio movimento
Liu was not hesitant is conceiving a train of melancholic thought from the outset. The 'Grave' indication was not cursorily executed but set an appropriate tone in granite tempo and deliberation for the entire work. One felt it was the disturbed mind facing the reality of death. The doppio movimento contained within immense dark thoughts and żal, confronting us with our demise. żal, an untranslatable Polish word in this context, meaning melancholic regret leading to a mixture of passionate resistance, resentment and anger in the face of unavoidable fate. Here we were occupied in musical imagination with a moderate yet horrified contemplation that was profoundly atmospheric in its contrast of dreams and grim reality - much the way life presents itself.
Scherzo
'In the midst of life we are in death' emerged as an undiminished sentiment, a message only temporarily assuaged by the lyric and poetic contrasting nature of the Trio. I felt that Liu was miraculously expanding this entire work to monumental proportions.
Marche funébre
Liu gave particularly long silences between movements which gave time for reflection and to fully absorb the dark emotions and implications about to be unfolded before us. The deliberate tempo gave immense existential weight to the utterance, avoiding the customary inflated dynamics for the crude, operatic effects. The lyrical cantabile possessed a true feeling of the desperate reality of memory and dream. Liu created an astonishing sense of floating mystically above reality in the dream world of scarcely graspable recollection.
The effect she created was hypnotic and immanent. The return to cavernous reality was as if we had been thrust down, down into a deep, lugubrious water of the well of grim reality. This was not a 'performance' of the work in essence but a living experience that drew you into its orbit of tragedy and the true nature of human destiny.
Finale. Presto
I felt this movement more as a frantic, hysterical panic of the mind, the disorientated mental reaction in the face of death. 'Wind over the graves' is far too prosaic an interpretation. More a musical stream of consciousness expressed in baroque counterpoint of superb virtuosity.
This was a most remarkable
transcendental performance of a familiar sonata that transported this listener
at least into a far more profound dimension of feeling and existential significance than
the conventional interpretations we are accustomed to hearing.
INTERMISSION
ERIC LU 9.00 PM
Eric Lu won the first prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2018,
at the age of 20. The following year, he signed an exclusive contract with Warner
Classics and has since collaborated with some of the world ’s most prestigious
orchestras and presented in major recital venues. Recent and forthcoming
orchestral collaborations include the London Symphony, Chicago Symphony,
Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Seattle
Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony,
Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic,
Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestre National
de Lille, Royal Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Bournemouth
Symphony, Iceland Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, Shanghai Symphony at
the Proms, and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, amongst others. Conductors he
collaborates with include Riccardo Muti, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Ryan Bancroft,
Marin Alsop, Duncan Ward, Vasily Petrenko, Edward Gardner, Sir Mark Elder,
Thomas Dausgaard, Ruth Reinhardt, Earl Lee, Nuno Coelho, and Martin Fröst.
Active as a recitalist, he is presented on stages including the Cologne
Philharmonie, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London,
Leipzig Gewandhaus, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, San Francisco Davies Hall,
Cal Performances, Aspen Music Festival, BOZAR Brussels, Fondation Louis
Vuitton Paris, 92nd St Y in New York, Seoul Arts Center, Chopin and his Europe
Festival, Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall and Sala São Paulo. In 2024, he
appeared for the sixth consecutive year in recital at Wigmore Hall London.
Eric ’s third album on Warner Classics was released in December 2022,
featuring Schubert Sonatas D. 959 and 784. It was met with worldwide critical
acclaim and named Instrumental Choice by BBC Music Magazine ’s, which
wrote, ‘Lu’s place among today ’s Schubertians is confirmed’. His previous
album of the Chopin 24 Preludes and Schumann ’s Geistervariationen was
hailed as ‘truly magical’ by International Piano.
Born in Massachusetts in 1997, Eric Lu first came to international attention
as a prize-winner of the 2015 Chopin International Competition in Warsaw,
aged just 17. He was also awarded the International German Piano Award in
2017 and Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2021. Eric was a BBC New Generation
Artist in 2019–2022. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, studying
with Robert McDonald and Jonathan Biss. He was also a pupil of Đặng Thái
Sơn and has been mentored by Mitsuko Uchida and Imogen Cooper. He is
now based in Berlin and Boston.
Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
I think I am gradually beginning to grasp the mysteries of Chopin's Polish mazurkas, which variety of Mazovian dance (Mazur, Kujawiak and Oberek) to identify, which rhythm and mood, be it nostalgic, rumbustious or otherwise. A little info about the Mazurkas was included in the “Chopin Express”, Issue 13 (October 2010) by its editor Krzysztof Komarnicki :
A trap called 'Mazurka'
Chopin’s
Mazurkas are a mixture of simplicity and subtlety. They are drawn from a folk
pattern but are full of nuances that must be executed properly, or else
artistic disaster is just round the corner. What are the dangers, then?
You cannot properly play a dance you have never danced. You need to know where a leap and when a landing is, and you must remember that a dancer can’t stop in mid air. “Mazurka” actually describes the group of dances consisting of Mazur, Kujawiak and Oberek. Each species has different steps, tempos and accents. You need to know and recognize each one, as Chopin often makes use of all of them within a single movement.
Mazurkas
are notated in 3/4 time, like waltzes, but you play them in a different way –
the trick is to put the accents in the right places. Rhythm is another trap:
Chopin notates similar rhythms with or without rests, and you play those
differently: the dancers have their feet on ground where there are no rests,
and they jump if the rests are present.
Polish folk music knows no polyphony. Chopin was well aware of that, but sometimes there are several melodies sounding at the same time, as if his mind was teeming with musical thoughts. It is not counterpoint in the sense of Bach.
Mazurkas, Op. 56 (1843–1844)
In 1843, Chopin composed three new mazurkas. They delight us but are often surprising.
No. 1 in B Major
Lu interpreted this nostalgically in terms of reminiscent thoughts passing through the mind, fragments of memories magically bound together.
No. 2 in C Major
Lu brought out the intensely rustic character of this mazurka. Ferdynand Hoesick - Polish bookseller and publisher, writer, literary historian, and musicographer (1867-1941) described it as follows: ‘The basses bellow, the strings go hell for leather, the lads dance with the lasses and they all but wreck the inn’.
No. 3 in C Minor
This mazurka has the character and shape of a dance poem. Lu presented the nostalgic reflections with strong memories of the dance dominating the themes which emerge organically from one another. He expressed the polyphony here with rare musical perception.
Piano Sonata in B Minor, Op. 58 (1844)
This sonata is one of the greatest masterpieces in the canon of Western piano music. Lu opened the sonata dramatically and polyphonically but with immense clarity and controlled power which is a hallmark of his execution at the keyboard. The opening Allegro maestoso was dramatic but revealed poetry and moving lyricism. One should feel that Chopin was embracing the cusp of Romanticism, yet at the same time hearkening back to classical restraint - le climat de Chopin as his favourite pupil Marcelina Czartoryska described it. The Trio did have a beautiful legato cantabile that made the piano sing.
The Scherzo revealed all the glistening articulation Lu was capable of being energetic with a Mendelssohnian atmosphere of Queen Mab fairy lightness. The Trio again displayed a warm Chopin cantabile.
The transition to the Largo was not sufficiently expressive and Lu was rather heavy for my conception. Here, however, we began with him an exquisite extended nocturne-like musical voyage taken through a night of meditation and introspective thought. This great musical narrative, an emotional landscape we travelled through, an extended and challenging harmonic structure, was presented as a poem of the reflective heart and spirit. I felt his playing was tonally refined and transported us with spiritual introspection, enveloping us in a mellifluous dream world.
The Finale. Presto ma non tanto was certainly a tremendously powerful expression in its headlong flight though the threats and obstacles that life heartlessly throws up before us. He approached this movement with tremendous virtuosity which benefits its emotional impact, not unlike a rhapsodic narrative Ballade in character. Again Tomaszewski cannot be bettered:
Thereafter, in a constant Presto (ma non troppo) tempo and with the expression of emotional perturbation (agitato), this frenzied, electrifying music, inspired (perhaps) by the finale of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony…’
Rondo in C Major, Op. 73 for two pianos (1828)
It is so rare to hear this sparkling work for two pianos, especially performed by two outstanding artists such as Kate Liu and Eric Lu. I heard it once before at Duszniki in August 2022 with Lucas & Arthur Jussen.
With Elsner (Chopin's teacher), composition studies began with the polonaise, but it was immediately followed by rondos and variations (Tomaszewski)
As we have seen, in 1825 the fifteen year old Chopin wrote and published his first rondo. As a young man, he was composing in the glittering and Hummel-influenced, modish style brillante. These early works (along with others) are utterly delightful, graceful and charming to my mind and do not deserve to be downgraded by 'serious commentators' as simply youthful, virtuosic pieces demonstrating the ‘classical’ aspect of his compositional training in Warsaw. They are being presently being resuscitated.
This 1828 Rondo in the version for two pianos demonstrated once again the extraordinary audience communication and synchronization of this 'family' duo. Eric and Kate brought all the delight I was searching for in this unashamedly joyful, style brillante, music-making work. The virtuosic display element remained elegant and refined in the musical writing. I found the cantabile and figurative writing quite wonderful in Chopin's youthful attachment to extrovert display at the keyboard. This was taken full advantage of by the spontaneous character and electrical energy of these two artists. A highly entertaining and musical performance that lifted the spirits out of the 'slough of despond' into which the planet has fallen! Wild audience response!
AUGUST 9 4.00
KRZYSZTOF WIERCIŃSKI
Fryderyk
Chopin (1810–1849)
Rondo in
C minor Op.1 (1825)
This rarely performed
youthful work was an absolute delight. In a rather remarkable and inspired
decision (to my mind) decision, he decided to present it. This work was
written by fifteen-year-old ‘Frycek’ and published in 1825. The rondos indicate
familiarity with the rondos of the Viennese Classics by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven
and lesser luminaries. The work was dedicated to the wife of the Lyceum
rector, Samuel Bogumił Linde. It was profitably lithographed by Antoni
Brzesina, the principal music retailer and publisher in Warsaw since the establishment
of the Congress Kingdom. So Chopin even in his early work had premonitions of financial
reward from his compositions.
The dazzling and
fashionable style brillante was somewhat of an obsession with
the young pianist Fryderyk on the pianos of the day. However, later in life the
scherzos, ballades and études avoided the genre of the free-standing rondo.
They are now considered as youthful or virtuosic pieces indicating the
‘classical’ aura of his training in composition.
This is not to say they
should be glided over without due attention. There is evidence that his later mature
work was influenced by these early forays into glittering virtuoso passagework
and figuration. His later harmonic embellishments and rich ornamentation hark
back to his earliest work and traces were carries over. Also the contrasting
sections indicate structural similarities later in his compositional style. The
youthful compositions are more recently being given more serious and deserved
attention. Young Chopin observed features of the style brillante in
rondos by the gloriously blithe Hummel and also Weber. This gave him the model
for shaping the pianistic luster of his own works
This Op.1 Rondo is already marked by graceful, elegant and brilliant writing and can be highly entertaining if performed with the correct feel for context and period. All of this was achieved by Krzysztof Wierciński. He had a fine sense of period style, scintillating articulation and transparent polyphony. There was a great deal of sparkling youthful energy and sound. Krzysztof Wierciński brought the alluring, sparkling tone and refined touch of the style brillante to the work convincingly. He was charming, elegant and stylish
It was clear that
Krszysztof had a cultivated taste for the youthful Chopin brought up in an
entirely aristocratic environment in early nineteenth-century Warsaw.
Preludes
from Op. 28 (1838–1839)
No. 19
in E-Flat Major
This
approach I found somewhat conventional but none the worse for that
No. 20
in C Minor
Many alternative
approaches are possible here
No. 21
in B-Flat Major
I found
myself searching for more character and personal expression in his presentation
No. 22
in G Minor
A forceful
and authoritative presentation which was correct and appropriate
No. 23
in F Major
This interpretation
was beautifully expressive
No. 24
in D Minor
The
psychological turbulence he brought to this interpretation was compositely
convincing
Prelude
in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 45 (1841)
A
sensitive melancholic atmosphere that was emotionally appropriate was created
by Krzysztof Wierciński
with a particularly alluring and refined conclusion ppp
Waltzes, Op.
64 (1847)
He is one
of the few young pianists I have heard that instinctively understands the
slight affectation and idiomatic rhythm associated with Chopin waltz.
No. 1
in D-Flat Major
Excellent
interpretation - amusingly stylish and accurate
No. 2
in C-Sharp Minor
Pleasantly
expressive with attractive evidence of a personal vision
No. 3
in A-Flat Major
An expressive interpretation replete with
hopes and memories
Scherzo
in B-flat minor Op.31 (1836)
This Scherzo is
a marvelously dramatic work with an authentic feeling of narrative
and complex swings of mood and heightened emotion coupled with
poetic meditation.
Krzysztof Wierciński presented this work as a truly electrifying
drama. His LH was particularly strong and the urgency he conjured up became
irresistible. I felt the extended triplet had particular urgency
The brilliant Polish musicologist
Mieczyslaw Tomaszewski writes of this scherzo: 'The new style, all Chopin’s
own, which might be called a specifically Chopinian dynamic romanticism, not
only revealed itself, but established itself. It manifested itself à la Janus,
with two faces: the deep-felt lyricism of the Nocturnes Op.27 and the
concentrated drama of the Scherzo in B flat minor.' Friedrich Niecks,
the German musical scholar and author, found the Trio evocative of
the Mona Lisa’s thoughtfulness, a mood full of longing and
wondering.
Arthur Hedley thought about the work’s ecstatic lyricism,
before concluding in a way even more appropriate today in the age of
recording: ‘Excessive performance may have dimmed the brightness of
this work, but should not blind us to its merits as thrilling and convincing
music.’
Jean-Jaques Eigeldinger in the Chopin 'bible' Chopin -
Pianist and Teacher as seen by his pupils mentions on p.84-85:
The repeated triplet group that appears so simple and innocent
could scarcely ever be played to Chopin's satisfaction. 'It must be a
question' taught Chopin. He felt it never played questioningly enough,
never soft enough, never round enough (tombé), as he said, never
sufficiently weighted (important). 'It must be a house of the dead',
he once said [...in his lessons]
I saw Chopin dwell at length on this bar and again at each of its appearances. Is this a question by Hamlet with a tempestuous but ambiguous answer ? 'That is the key to the whole piece,' he would say yet the triplet group is generally snatched or swallowed. Chopin was just as exacting over the simple quaver accompaniment of the cantilena as well as the cantilena itself. 'You should think of [the singer] Pasta, of Italian song! - not of French Vaudeville.' he said one day with more than a touch of irony.' [his pupil Wilhelm von Lenz]
Vanessa Latache (Head of Keyboard at the Royal College of Music, London) in an illuminating masterclass on this Scherzo at Duszniki in August 2022 with Krzysztof Wierciński, observed that the notes of any musical work 'need to lift off the page'. The opening triplet as an existential, even diabolical question.
At the time of composition this work must have been deeply shocking and revolutionary. Frederick Niecks quotes Robert Schumann who wrote of the Chopin Scherzos (the Italian word scherzo meaning 'joke') 'How is 'gravity' to clothe itself if 'jest' goes about in dark veils?'. She advised utilizing a degree of capriciousness to create the emotional ambiguity often present at the centre of Chopin's energetic despair. Think horizontally not vertically and harmonically in cantabile and chorale sections.
As an encore he captured the Chopin Grande valtz brillante in E-flat major Op.18 with excellent rhythm, style, sparkle, elegance and tremendous verve. A most enjoyable, even outstanding performance with a deep understanding of Chopin, which in fact applied to the entire recital. A particularly promising young pianist.
INTERMISSION
5.00 PM
MATEUSZ DUBIEL
Having graduated in 2023 from Anna Skarbowska’s piano class at secondary
music school in his home city of Bielsko-Biała, the artist is now studying with
Mirosław Herbowski at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Cracow.
Dubiel is the winner of the 51st and 53rd National Fryderyk Chopin Piano
Competitions in Warsaw (2022, 2025) as well as of several international
competitions for young pianists, including ‘Arthur Rubinstein in Memoriam’
(Bydgoszcz, Poland, 2021), ‘Jeune Chopin’ (Lugano, Switzerland, 2023), and
the Baltic Competition in Gdańsk (2023). He has participated in masterclasses
taught by Profs Michel Beroff, Piotr Paleczny, Kevin Kenner, Andrzej Jasiński,
Arie Vardi, and Angela Hewitt.
The artist has played recitals at home and abroad, including at Warsaw’s
Royal Castle, the Birthplace of Fryderyk Chopin at Żelazowa Wola, the
Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music in Lusławice, Cavatina Hall
in Bielsko-Biała, the Pomeranian Philharmonic in Bydgoszcz, as well as in
Japan, the United States, Paris, Vilnius, Hamburg, Cologne, and on Majorca.
He has appeared in Polish Radio Chopin’s Marathon of Chopin’s Music as well
as at the Young Pianists’ Chopin Interpretations Festival in Konin-Żychlin,
where he won the 1st prize (2022).
His accolades include the IKAR Award for Culture and Art from the President
of Bielsko Biała City (2021), scholarships from the Polish Children’s
Fund, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and the ‘Young Poland’
programme.
Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
Mazurkas Op. 41 (1838–39)
A few general thoughts concerning Chopin mazurkas in general as they are such a vital musical form to penetrate to the heart of this composer. I feel the mazurkas are recalled dances, memories of past joys with a significant weight of melancholic nostalgia. These reminiscences of dance and associated experience are all viewed through the obscuring veils of past time, a musical À la recherche du temps perdu. The gauze of memory descends. The mazurkas were published as sets and Chopin himself may have had some organizational musical mystique, a musical or philosophical connection in grouping them together in their compositional arrangement in collections.
Of course Chopin was a perfect mimic, actor, practical joker and enthusiastic dancer as a young man, tremendously high-spirited. He once wrote a verse describing how he spent a wild night, half of which was dancing and the other half playing pranks and dances on the piano for his friends. They had great fun! One of his friends took to the floor pretending to be a sheep! On one occasion he even sprained his ankle he was dancing so vigorously.
He would play with gusto and 'start thundering out mazurkas, waltzes and polkas'. When tired and wanting to dance, he would pass the piano over to 'a humbler replacement'. Is it so surprising his teacher Józef Elzner and his doctors advised a period of 'rehab' at Duszniki Zdrój to preserve his health which had already begun to show the first signs of failing? This advice may not have been the best for him, his sister Emilia and Ludwika Skarbek, as reinfection was always a strong possibility there. Both had died not long after their return from the 'cure'.
Many of his mazurkas would have come to life on the dance floor as improvisations. Perhaps only later were they committed to the more permanent art form on paper under the influence and advice of the Polish folklorist and composer Oskar Kolberg. Chopin floated between popular and art music quite effortlessly.
No. 1 in E minor
Chopin composed mazurkas all his life. The great Polish musicologist Tomaszewski tells us that In the E minor Mazurka we hear a distinct Polish echo: the melody of a song about an uhlan (cavalry) and his girl, ‘Tam na błoniu błyszczy kwiecie’ [Flowers sparkling on the common] (written by Count Wenzel Gallenberg, with words by Franciszek Kowalski) – a song that during the insurrection in Poland had been among the most popular. Chopin quoted it almost literally. Dubiel captured the nostalgia of remembrance so common in Chopin's music successfully, also when Chopin heightened the drama to the tragic.
No. 2 in B major
The Mazurka in B major was most likely composed at Nohant, although bears a feeling of the period on Majorca. ‘The first four bars and their repetitions’, said Chopin, ‘are to be played in the style of a guitar prelude, progressively quickening the tempo’. Next to the piano, the guitar was Chopin's favourite instrument and the one that his teacher Elsner chose to serenade him when he left Warsaw by the Wola gate in 1830. I was unsure if Dubiel was aware of the guitar background to the piece when his playing was tonally and so attractively idiomatically pianistic.
No. 3 in A flat major
The euphonious intonations and rhythms of the Cuyavia region, in north-central Poland, situated on the left bank of Vistula inspired Chopin. Dubiel gave a satisfying and idiomatic interpretation of this musical geographical background. Such an attractive, lyrical rhythm.
No. 4 C sharp minor
This piece was composed during the first summer at Nohant. It is one of the most beautiful of Chopin's mazurkas, resembling a miniature dance poem. It seems to arise out of silence and ends the same way.
The Hungarian pianist and teacher Stephen Heller (1813-1888) noted: ‘What with others was a refined embellishment, with him was a colourful bloom; what with others was technical fluency, with him resembled the flight of a swallow.'
Dubiel again rendered the poetry of the reminiscence of Chopin warmly as the composer's memory expanded and intensified during the mazurka. He became emotionally involved in his playing which lifted the interpretation above the conventional. The conclusion returned us to the dream from which the piece originally materialized
Scherzo in E Major, Op. 54 (1842–1843)
Then he performed the rarely played Scherzo in E major Op.54. This scherzo is not dramatic in the demonic sense of other scherzi, but lighter in ambiance. The outer sections are a strange exercise in rather joke-filled fun with a darkly concealed centre of passionate grotesquerie. The work mysteriously encloses a deeply felt and ardent nocturne in the form of a longing love poem, suffused with a sense of loss. Dubiel was able to express the complexity of these emotions with conviction and skill. He delighted us both with the beauty of his tone and his lightness of transparent articulation.
Playfulness with hints of seriousness and gravity underlie the exuberant mood of this scherzo. Dubiel maintained this difficult expressive balance very well, only slightly missing the emotional ambiguities that run like a vein though the work. The central section (lento, then sostenuto) in place of the Trio, gives one the impression so often with Chopin, of the ardent, reflective nature of distant love. Dubiel was rather moving in a beautiful but not sentimentally indulgent cantabile which can be so tempting for pianists.
The image of the glittering turtle shell took hold of me in the Scherzo. A variegated surface concealing a complex interior. The internal irrationality and neurotic dislocation evident within this piece tended to escape Dubiel at times as his virtuosity rather dominated the organic life within the piece that the surface carapace was concealing. Chopin seduces one inside his work but one must become sensitive to his gestures. Dubiel yet brought a sense of glowing triumph and the will to continue with life in the passionate, rather glittering phrases that close the work.
Heinrich Heine, a German poet who idolized Chopin, asked himself in a letter from Paris: ‘What is music?’ He answered ‘It is a marvel. It has a place between thought and what is seen; it is a dim mediator between spirit and matter, allied to and differing from both; it is spirit wanting the measure of time and matter which can dispense with space.
Waltz in A-Flat Major, Op. 42 (1840)
A most stylish, elegant and energetic performance with excellent waltz rhythm.
N.B. (A mild but intrusive squealing from a smoke alarm tended to obscure proceedings and possibly broke his concentration for some minutes)
Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-Flat Major, Op. 61 (1845–1846)
The Polonaise-Fantaisie contains all the troubled emotion and desire for strength in the face of the multiple adversities that beset the composer at this late stage in his life. This work, the first in the so-called ‘late style’ of the composer, was written during a period of great suffering and unhappiness. He laboured over its composition. What emerged is one of his most complex of his works both pianistically and emotionally.
Dubiel gave us a thoughtful and brilliant performance of this mature Chopin work in many ways. I could not help reflecting, however, that increased life and musical experience would deepen his appreciation of the extraordinarily varied scenes and feelings, emotional content and reflections, contained within this great work.
Chopin produced many sketches for the Polonaise-Fantaisie and wrestled with the title. He wrote: ‘I’d like to finish something that I don’t yet know what to call’. This uncertainty surely indicates he was embarking on a journey of compositional exploration along untrodden paths. Even Bartok one hundred years later was shocked at its revolutionary nature. The work is an extraordinary mélange of genres and styles in a type of inspired improvisation that yet maintains a magical absolute musical coherence and logic.
Chopin leads us through a succession of extraordinary scenes and events. They pass in successive train through the imagination of any listener or pianist who can selflessly give himself in a meditative trance to this hypnotic music, the composition flickering on the screen of the mind. One has an imaginative experience bordering on the cinematic.
He
completed it in August 1846. The reception was one of confusion and even
upset. As Jachimecki stated: ‘the piano speaks here in a language not
previously known’. Frederick Niecks’s judgment was that the
Polonaise-Fantasy ‘stands, on account of its pathological contents,
outside the sphere of art’.
The Dream
A
change came o’er the spirit of my dream
The
Wanderer was alone as heretofore,
The
beings which surrounded him were gone,
Or
were at war with him; he was a mark
For
blight and desolation, compass’d round
With
Hatred and Contention; Pain was mix’d
In
all which was served up to him, until,
Like
to the Pontic monarch of old days,
He
fed on poisons, and they had no power,
But
were a kind of nutriment; he lived
And
made him friends of mountains: with the stars
And
the quick Spirit of the Universe
(excerpt)
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Lord Byron's Dream (1827)
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Tate Gallery London |
Dubiels's encore of the Chopin Berceuse was one of deep tenderness and refinement in tone and touch. He is certainly one of the rising tide of brilliant young Polish pianists in 2025 with a promising future ahead.
24th NATIONAL PIANO MASTERCLASS
9th AUGUST
JAN WEBER CHAMBER MUSIC HALL
10.00 AM
PROF. CLAUDIO MARTÍNEZ-MEHNER
Born in Germany in 1970, Claudio Martínez-Mehner began his music studies
at an early age with Amparo Fuster, Pedro Lerma and Joaquin
Soriano
at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Musica in Madrid. In
addition to his
piano studies, he played the viola in the Spanish National
Youth Orchestra
as well as the violin, viola, and harpsichord in the Chamber
Orchestra of
the German School.
He continued his studies at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in
Moscow and
with Professor Dmitri Bashkirov at the Escuela Superior de
Musica Reina Sofia
in Madrid, afterwards in Germany at the Hochschule fur Musik
in Freiburg
(completing his Master-of-Performance course in 1994), the
Fondazione per
il Pianoforte in Como (Italy), and with Vitaly Margulis and
Leon Fleisher at
the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore (USA). In
addition, he participated in masterclasses conducted by
Murray Perahia, Fou
Ts’ong, Alexis Weissenberg, Karl-Ulrich Schnabel, Dietrich
Fischer-Dieskau,
Mstislav Rostropovich, and Gyorgy Kurtag, among many others.
For almost
a decade he received invaluable advice from Professor Ferenc
Rados.
At a young age, Claudio Martínez-Mehner won the first prize with special
mention in the German competition ‘Bundeswettbewerb Jugend
Musiziert’.
He reached the finals of the International Piano Competition
Paloma O’Shea
in Santander, Spain (1990) and won first prizes in the
international competitions
Pilar Bayona in Zaragoza, Spain (1992), Fondation Chimay in
Belgium
(1993), and Dino Ciani in Milan, Italy (1993).
As a soloist he has performed in most major cities in
Europe, the United
States, Russia, Central America, Japan and Korea, with
orchestras such as the
Munich Philharmonic, the Moscow Philharmonic, Filarmonica
della Scala, the
Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonic, the
Orchestra della
Svizzera Italiana, the Norddeutsche Rundfunk, Philharmonia
Hungarica, and
most major Spanish orchestras. Martínez-Mehner is also an avid chamber
music player, who has performed with numerous ensembles in
Europe and Asia.
At present he is a piano professor at the Hochschule fur
Musik in Basel and
the Hochschule fur Musik und Tanz in Cologne. He teaches
masterclasses in
Europe, Asia, and the USA.
Participant: ANTONI KŁECZEK
Throughout, there were a staggering number of illuminating references to other works by Chopin, the illustrative extracts all played with full spontaneous accurate virtuosity and knowledge from memory! Not only Chopin - Brahms Ballades, Liszt .... Martínez-Mehner is undoubtedly a type of musical genius.
AUGUST 8 8.00 PM
Vocal recital
OLGA
PASICHNYK NATALIA PASICHNYK
(voice) (piano)
OLGA PASICHNYK
She was born into a family of academics in
Ukraine and completed
her vocal studies at Kyiv Conservatory. During her
postgraduate
studies at Warsaw’s Chopin Academy (now
University) of Music, she made
her stage debut at Warsaw Chamber Opera (1992), followed
four years later
by an appearance at the Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris
as Pamina in
Mozart’s The Magic Flute.
Her repertoire comprises more than fifty highly critically
and publicly
acclaimed parts in operas by Monteverdi, Gluck, Handel,
Mozart, Weber, Bizet,
Rossini, Verdi, Puccini, Debussy, Poulenc, and contemporary
composers, sung
on the world’s most renowned and prestigious stages as well
as recorded for
music labels, the radio, and television. She has appeared at
the Opera National
de Paris – Opera Bastille, Palais Garnier, Theatre des
Champs-Elysees,
Theatre Chatelet, Salle Pleyel in Paris, Concertgebouw Amsterdam,
the Berlin
Komische Oper, Konzerthaus and Philharmonie, Elbphilharmonie
Hamburg,
Teatro Real and Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid, the
Bayerische Staatsoper
and Munchner Philharmonie in Munich, the Palais des
Beaux-Arts
and Theatre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, Theater an der
Wien, Grand
Theatre de Geneve, the Finnish National Opera, the Flemish
Opera, Tokyo
Suntory Hall, Teatr Wielki – the Polish National
Opera in Warsaw, as well as
the Bregenzer Festspiele. She also performs a vast chamber
repertoire and
sings recitals with her pianist sister Natalya Pasichnyk.
Olga has taken part in numerous concerts of symphonic and
oratorio
music in renowned venues throughout Europe as well as in the
United States,
Canada, Israel, China, Japan, and Australia. She has
frequently appeared with
the greatest orchestras, including Boston Symphony, the
Belgian National
Orchestra, the Orquestra Nacional de Espana and Orquesta
Sinfonica de RTVE,
The English Concert, Wiener Symphoniker, Orchestre
Philharmonique de
Radio France, Orchestre National de France, Les Musiciens du
Louvre-Grenoble,
Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin, the Freiburger
Barockorchester, the
Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century,
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, and
NDR Bigband, under such masters of the baton as Fabio
Biondi, Ivor Bolton,
Andrzej Boreyko, Frans Bruggen, Jean-Claude Casadesus,
Marcus Creed,
Charles Dutoit, Mark Elder, Rene Jacobs, Vladimir Jurowski,
Roy Goodman,
Christopher Hogwood, Heinz Holliger, Philippe Herreweghe,
Jacek Kaspszyk,
Kazimierz Kord, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Marc
Minkowski,
John Nelson, Kazushi Ono, Andrew Parrott, Krzysztof
Penderecki, Trevor
Pinnock, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Marcello Viotti, Antoni
Wit, and Massimo
Zanetti, among others.
The artist has recorded more than sixty CDs and DVDs under
such labels
as CD Accord, Dabringhaus und Grimm (MDG), Harmonia Mundi,
Naxos,
and Opus 111.
NATALIA PASICHNYK
She has given
performances in the most renowned venues throughout
Europe, in the United States, Japan and Argentina. She also
records extensively
for the radio, television, as well as such music labels as
BIS Records,
NAXOS, OPUS 111, Pro Musica Camerata, Musicon, and others.
Her album
Consolation – Forgotten Treasures of the
Ukrainian Soul (BIS
Records) won
the highest critical praise and was hailed by the German Mittelbayerische
Zeitung as Discovery of the Year.
Natalya was Sweden’s first artist to
receive the Gold Medal of Global Music
Awards (2024). She also won prizes in the Fifth Nordic Piano
Competition
in Nyborg (Denmark, 1998), the Cincinnati World Piano
Competition (USA,
1999), and the Umberto Micheli International Piano
Competition in Milan
(Italy, special prize, 2001).
A faculty member and teacher at the Royal College of Music
in Stockholm,
Pasichnyk is a recipient of the prestigious Anders Wall
Music Prize (2000), the
Stockholm City Award for her contributions to the Swedish
capital’s cultural
life (2017), the Church of Sweden’s
Culture Prize for her project Rethinking the
Well-Tempered Clavier, and the Bo Bringborn
Music Prize for her achievements
(2024). She was twice listed by Sweden’s
largest music magazine OPUS (2014,
2022) among the most influential figures in Swedish culture.
Natalya frequently serves on the juries of international
piano competitions
and conducts regular masterclasses. She is the founder (in
2014) and head of
the Ukrainian Institute in Sweden, as well as artistic
director of several music
festivals, including the European Festival ‘Ukrainian
Spring’.
In June 2021, she obtained a DMA doctoral degree for her
project dedicated
to George Crumb’s Makrokosmos,
and in June 2023 – a PhD in artistic studies
from the Grieg Academy at the University of Bergen.
* * * * * * * * *
In this recital I will not analyze the performance of each of the many songs with their music and texts by great and more modest composers and poets, suffice to say they were performed with great sensitivity, elegance, profound musicality and tact.
Also many were affecting and stirring Ukrainian songs with which I am completely unfamiliar. Olga and Natalia Pasichnyk offered them as a tribute and comfort to the victims of the cruel war now in progress.
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| Olga Pasichnyk |
Fryderyk
Chopin (1810–1849)
/ Pauline Viardot Garcia (1821-1910)
Mazurkas (a selection), set to words by Louis Pomey (1848)
Aime-moi, Op. 33, No. 2
Berceuse, Op. 33, No. 3
Seize ans! Op. 50, No. 2
Coquette, Op. 7, No. 1
The remarkable woman Pauline Viardot, considering her contemporary fame, is a largely forgotten figure today. I will redress this a little if I may, as through her charisma and genius she influenced a great many composers to write in the genre we now so readily refer to as 'Romantic'.
Pauline Viardot was born into a distinguished a extremely famous family of Spanish opera singers. Her father Manuel Garcia was sought after throughout Europe. Pauline showed formidable musical promise and exceptional talent at the piano. She had her heart set on being a concert pianist, being highly praised by her teacher Franz Liszt and also in her compositions and musical theory by Hector Berlioz. A woman composer at this time was highly unusual.
However, much to her regret, her mother steered her away into a singing career as a soprano although she remained an accomplished pianist all her life. In 1839 she made her opera debut to great critical success as Desdemona in Rossini’s Otello in London. She was courted by many famous artists of the day including Alfred de Musset but in the end married Louis Viardot the Director of the Théâtre Italien in Paris in 1840, 21 years her senior.
This marriage arrangement was encouraged by Viardot’s close friend, George Sand, who advised her to marry for financial survival. The marriage, while practical, was a romantic sacrifice for Viardot. She maintained a love affair for most of her adult life with Ivan Turgenev, the Russian author. Some of her most well known songs were transcriptions of 12 Chopin mazurkas. Beyond her song output, Viardot composed four operettas (three with with libretti by Ivan Turgenev), an opera, Cendrillon, chamber music, and several small-scale piano works.
Her singing career blossomed until she became know as 'the enchantress of nations' and after capturing the heart of Turgenev during a season in St. Petersburg in 1843, he took up residence in her home, adoring her till his death! Chopin, Gounod, Saint-Saëns and Berlioz thought her a divine presence on the stage. She held inspiring and famous musical salons for the cognoscenti when the family moved to Baden-Baden. They had remarkable drawing parties together there as a group.
“There is nothing more interesting, nothing more moving than to feel that you have an entire audience in the hollow of your hand, laughing when you laugh, weeping when you sob, and shaking with anger. PAULINE VIARDOT-GARCÍA (1821-1910)
For seven years, between 1839 and 1846, picturesque Nohant near Paris became the summer retreat of Fryderyk Chopin and George Sand. And while Sand conceived novels and plays, Chopin composed. They entertained famous artists such as Franz Liszt, Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert, and the painter Eugène Delacroix. One respected and talented guest was this renowned Spanish mezzo-soprano, Pauline Viardot.
The Chopin mazurka transcriptions originated in the summers of 1841-43 and 1845-46 at Nohant, during Viardot’s visits with her husband Louis. These summer holidays were the perfect setting for studying music during the day and organizing 'salon' concerts in the evening. Viardot and Chopin developed a close friendship, based on artistic respect and temperamental affinities. During her visits to Nohant she played duets and studied music with Chopin.
She was fascinated by the Polish language and gave performances of Chopin songs in their original Polish version. Enchanted by the Chopin mazurkas, Viardot arranged a selection of these for voice and piano. She commissioned a minor French poet (Louis Pomey) to write lyrics for a number of them. She, in turn, ornamented and improvised on freely them and the result was a set of beguiling, unashamedly sentimental 'salon' pieces. Chopin and Viardot publicly performed the set in Paris 'salons' and during the composer’s last public appearance in London.
Lieder recitals have become so rare in modern times in comparison to instrumental concerts. This must come from the shocking decline of music-making in the home and the disappearance of the 'salon'. A modern concert hall can never be as conducive to elegant intimacy and poetic reverie as a serious nineteenth century ‘salon’ might have been, seasoned with intellectual conversation, an aristocratic audience, family portraits, paintings, Caucasian rugs, French tapestries and Murano chandeliers.
In time she became a closer friend of Georges Sand at Nohant (Sand based her novel Consuelo on Viardot) and spent many joyful hours there and of course met Chopin often there. A feeling of 'fellow souls' seemed to arise between them as their temperaments had a certain affinity. Chopin admired her playing and gave her piano lessons - compensating somewhat for what she considered her lost vocation. He also advised her on her vocal compositions and her settings of his mazurkas as songs.
She no doubt talked to him about Spanish music and one might speculate that perhaps the inspiration for the Boléro was Chopin's friendship with the French soprano. However, the work does contain Polish polonaise elements and other inspirations have been advanced. The rift between Chopin and Sand in July 1847 put an end to the pastoral idylls Chopin and Viardot enjoyed at Nohant. Pauline tried to get Chopin and Sand back together but...
After Chopin's death Pauline wrote to Georges Sand:
I came to know of his death from strangers who had come to ask me very formally to participate in a Requiem which was to be given at the Madeleine for Chopin. It is then that I realized how deep my affection was for him…. He was a noble soul. I am happy to have known him and to have obtained a little of his friendship.
George Sand failed to attend Chopin’s funeral but Pauline sang from Mozart's Requiem at the graveside as his body was lowered into the earth at Pére-Lachaise in Paris.
Pasiecznyk gave a sensitive, poetic, nostalgic and and times lively performance of all these works. In the small dworek it was not difficult to conjure up the intimate and civilized charms of another age listening to this beautiful voice.
Although
Natalia Pasiecznyk is a fine chamber musician I felt the need of a more
appropriate sound palette on a period instrument to accompany this voice in
this particular repertoire. At Nohant both Chopin and Viardot
would have played Sand's Pleyel pianino. These are superb, intimate and
refined upright pianos. Considering they were a popular domestic instrument
among the affluent citizens and artists of the day (Sand, Delacroix, Mme.
Hanska, Franchomme, Princess Marcelina Czartoryska and countless others owned
them) too often they are neglected as they are visually rather unprepossessing
compared to the Grands.
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A rare daguerreotype of Pauline Viardot at the piano |
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Pauline
Viardot-Garcia photograph
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Pierre Petit (1832–1909) French photographer Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849) I have often wondered what prompted Chopin to set the rather undistinguished rustic poetry of Stefan Witwicki (1801-1847) to such beautiful melodies and what it might tell us about his sensibility and taste - but then he was in the bloom of youth. This passionate lover of the operas of Bellini hardly cared for these particular musical children, yet they are moving in a youthfully ardent way. Olga Pasichnyk sang these songs with all the beautiful inflection, poetry and eloquence that years of experience performing them have brought. The lyrical Chopin melodic accompaniment played by Natalia Pasichnyk was subtle and merged to a poignant musical symbiosis with her sister. |
Zyczenie (A Maiden's Wish) was popular in his day and remains so in ours. Smutna rzeka (Troubled Waters) is a dark and tragic song. Certainly the Mickiewicz and marginally the Zaleski poems offer much finer fare. Of course, Chopin sang so gloriously in his absolute piano music, perhaps mere words seemed too concrete for his musical imagination and fine poetic discrimination became unnecessary.
Songs, Op. 74 (a selection)
Poseł (The Messenger, words
by Stefan Witwicki) (1830)
Życzenie
(A
Maiden’s Wish, words by Stefan Witwicki) (1829)
Smutna
rzeka (Troubled
Waters, words by Stefan Witwicki) (1831)
Melodia
‘Z gor, gdzie dźwigali’ (Bound ‘neath Their Crosses, words by Zygmunt
Krasiński) (1847)
Śliczny
chłopiec (My
Beloved, words by Bohdan Zaleski) (1841)
Dwojaki koniec (The Lovers, words by Bohdan Zaleski) (1845)
'Życzenie' ('A Maiden's Wish') Op.74.No.1 [1829?]
A MAIDEN’S WISH
Stefan Witwicki
If I were the sun in the sky,
I wouldn’t shine, except for you —
Not over waters or woods,
But for all time
Beneath your dear window and only for you,
If I could change myself into the sun.
If I were a little bird from that grove,
I wouldn’t sing in any alien land —
Not over waters or woods,
But for all time
Beneath your dear window and only for you.
Oh, why can’t I change myself into a little bird?
Stefan Witwicki (1801-1847) was a Polish romantic poet, publicist and author. He was nicknamed 'Mr. Merry' after his greyhound, with whom he enjoyed walking around Nowy Świat in Warsaw.
Karol
Szymanowski (1882–1937)
 |
Karol Szymanowsky painted by 'Witkacy' |
Kurpie Songs, Op. 58, to folk texts (a selection) (1930–1932)
Bzicem
kunia (Whip the Horse)
Zarzyjze,
kuniu (Neigh, Horse)
Wysły
rybki (The Fish Are Gone)
Ściani dumbek (Oh, the Oak Is Felled)
INTERMISSION
Mykoła Łysenko (1842–1912
Садок вишневий
коло хати (Cherry
Orchard by the Cottage, words by Taras Shevchenko)
Айстри (Asters, words by
Oleksandr Oles)
Смутної
провесни (Early
in the Sad Spring, words by Lesya Ukrainka)
Мені однаково (It’s All the Same to Me, words by Taras Shevchenko
Wasyl Barwiński (1888–1963
Сон (Dream, words by
Heinrich Heine, transl. Ahatanhel Krymsky)
Ой, люлі, люлі, моя дитино (Hushaby, My Baby, words by Taras Shevchenko
Wiktor Kosenko (1896–1938
Mow,
mow (Говори,
говори, sł. V. Lichaczow, tłum. W. Leftija)
Smutno
mi (Сумний
я, sł. M. Lermontow, tłum. L. Perwomajski)
Jak na
niebie gwiazdеczki (Як
на небі зіроньки, sł. W. Zalizniak)
Zakukała
kukułeczka Закувала зозуленька, słowa ludowe)
Oni stali milcząc (Вони стояли мовчки, sł. W. Strażew, tłum. B. Mordań)
AUGUST 8 4.00 PM
Chamber concert
MARCIN
ZDUNIK (cello)
SZYMON NEHRING (piano)
One of the greatest pianistic talents of the younger
generation, Nehring is the
only Pole to have won the first prize in the Arthur
Rubinstein International
Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv. This success paved the
way for him
to perform in the world’s most important venues.
He has appeared, among
others, at the Carnegie Hall, Tonhalle Zurich, Elbphilharmonie
Hamburg,
the Palau de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona, the Auditorio
Nacional de
Musica in Madrid, the Berlin Konzerthaus, DR Koncerthuset in
Copenhagen,
Vienna’s Musikverein, Munich’s
Prinzregententheater and Herkulessaal, as
well as the Berlin Philharmonie.
The artist has performed with the majority of Polish
symphony orchestras,
including Warsaw Philharmonic, the Sinfonia Varsovia, the
Polish National
Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR) in Katowice, the Polish
Sinfonia
Iuventus Orchestra, and the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, as
well as symphony
orchestras from Bamberg, Hamburg, and Hartford, the
Orchestre
Philharmonique de Marseille, Orchestre Pasdeloup, and the
Orchestra of
the Eighteenth Century, under such conductors as Jerzy
Maksymiuk, Jacek
Kaspszyk, Grzegorz Nowak, Antoni Wit, Sylvain Cambreling,
Karina
Canellakis, Pablo Heras-Casado, Marzena Diakun, Lawrence
Foster, Omer
Meir Wellber, Giancarlo Guerrero, John Axelrod, and David
Zinman.
Nehring’s discography includes both Chopin concertos
(with the Sinfonietta
Cracovia under Jurek Dybał and Krzysztof Penderecki).
2024/2025
has seen two new releases featuring this pianist, one
dedicated to musical
minimalism, the other – inaugurating a cycle of
Chopin recordings for the
Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, to be continued in the
next season.
Forthcoming is an album of Karol Szymanowski’s
music with NOSPR
under Marin Alsop.
Appearances this season include Vienna’s
Konzerthaus, Prague’s Rudolfinum,
Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle, and a tour of Japan.
Nehring graduated from Prof. Stefan Wojtas’s
class at the Feliks Nowowiejski
Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. He developed his abilities
with Boris
Berman at Yale University, New Haven (2017–2019).
MARCIN ZDUNIK (cello)
Polish cellist, soloist and chamber musician, whose
repertoire ranges from
the Renaissance to most recent works. He is also an
improviser, arranger, and
composer, invited to appear at such prestigious music
festivals as London’s
BBC Proms, ‘Progetto Martha Argerich’
in Lugano, as well as ‘Chopin and
His Europe’ in Warsaw.
As a soloist he has performed in such well-known venues as
New York’s
Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Konzerthaus, London’s
Cadogan Hall and Prague’s
Rudolfinum. He has frequently appeared with such excellent
orchestras as
Warsaw Philharmonic, the Prague and European Union Chamber
Orchestras,
the Sinfonia Varsovia, and the City of London Sinfonia,
under such major
conductors as Andrey Boreyko, Antoni Wit, and Andres
Mustonen. A major
part of Zdunik’s artistic career is
taken up by collaborations with inspiring
musicians including Nelson Goerner, Rafał Blechacz,
Krzysztof Jakowicz,
Bomsori Kim, Szymon Nehring, Aleksander Dębicz, Katarzyna
Budnik, and
Jakub Jakowicz. During the ‘Chamber Music Connects
the World’ festival,
he had the honour to perform with Gidon Kremer and Yuri
Bashmet.
The cellist’s numerous accolades garnered in international
music competitions
and festivals include the first prize, Grand Prix, and nine
other awards
in the 6th Witold Lutosławski International Cello
Competition in Warsaw. His
discography, which includes Fryderyk-awarded albums,
comprises music
by Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Haydn, Robert Schumann,
Mieczysław
Weinberg, and Paweł Mykietyn, as well as Fryderyk Chopin’s
chamber works
(recorded with Szymon Nehring and Ryszard Groblewski).
Composing music is a major aspect of Marcin Zdunik’s
artistic work.
His recent compositions include Cello Concerto ‘Ghosts of
the Past’, Piano
Quartet and Piano Trio, the cantata Cor Jesu for
tenor, choir, and orchestra,
Da Pacem Domine for solo cello and seven
cellos, as well as theatre music.
Zdunik’s teachers included such outstanding musicians
as Andrzej Bauer
and Julius Berger. He also studied musicology at the
Institute of Musicology,
University of Warsaw. He teaches cello classes at the Stanisław
Moniuszko
Academy of Music in Gdańsk and the Chopin University of
Music in Warsaw.
In April 2021 he was granted the title of Professor of Arts.
Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
They
opened their concert with a most pleasant and engaging transcription of the Chopin
Waltz in A minor Op.34 No.2 and the familiar Waltz in C minor Op.64. No.2.
Sonata in G Minor for piano and cello, Op. 65 (1846–1847)
Allegro
moderato
Scherzo
Largo
Finale. Allegro
The cello sonata was written for and dedicated to Chopin's close friend, the renowned cellist Auguste Franchomme. Following some initial optimism, after some work developing sonata with Franchomme, the usual disillusion with his compositions set in.
The work began to give him anguish, grief and arduous challenges as no other piece before - well, the first movement has two hundred pages of sketches and notes of intense creative work, failures and trials! This is hardly surprising as Chopin was exploring, even inventing a forward thinking 'late style', a novel harmonic world and idiom more akin to that of German models such as Schumann, Mendelssohn and even the later Brahms. The high emotionalism of Franck is also prefigured. And yet at times the extremely demanding piano writing hearkens back to the youth of his piano concertos. Also his relationship with George Sand was undergoing severe pressure owing to her increasing antagonism at Nohant towards her son, the painter Maurice. This could account partly for its overall intensely meditative and introspective psychic landscape. It was the last work to be published in his lifetime.
Fortunately for us Chopin was an obsessive letter writer and wrote enormously long, generous and newsy letters to his family in Warsaw (with a quill dipped in ink dried with fine grain sand remember!). They indicate the remarkable encyclopedic nature of his roving mind. 'I am in some strange world ... I am in an imaginary space.' He is far more than a great composer this man, a genius.
On Sunday, 11 October 1846 from George Sand's domain Ch de Nohant, he sat at the little table next to the piano to write when 'they' had gone out for a drive. He wrote, in a type of internal stream of consciousness monologue, of the fine vendage or grape harvest especially in Burgundy, of countryside rambles on which he was not particularly keen, an eccentric dog named Marquis who refuses to eat or drink from gilded bowls and impulsively overturns them.
He also described, among other scientific wonders, of his marveling at the discovery of a new planet (Neptune) by the French astronomer Urbain le Verrier merely by astronomical mathematical calculation. Musical reflections and gossip dominate concerning the fascinating history of Covent Garden Opera in London, the Paris Opera (and news of two ladies dueling over the young, handsome baritone Coletti). He also writes of the activities of the Royals and their lavish activities with 17 carriages.
He profoundly laments the death of the giraffe in Warsaw zoo (Europe in the nineteenth century was fascinated by this extraordinary animal which inspired all sorts of poems, paintings and interior decoration, including pianos!). Chopin expresses a wish not to be reminded of death.
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French print of a giraffe from 1849
I would like to fill my letter with the best news, but I know nothing other than the fact that I love you and love you. I play a little, write a little. Now I am satisfied with my Cello Sonata, the next time not. I throw it into the corner, then I gather it up again. I have three new Mazurkas...' After salutations and embraces for everyone [...] It is five, and already so dark that I practically can't see. I will end this letter. [...] I embrace you most heartily, and I kiss Mama's little hands and feet. Ch.
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George Sand describes his behavior during the white heat crucible of his creations: 'He shut himself up in his room for whole days, weeping, walking about, breaking his quills, repeating or altering a bar a hundred times, writing it down and erasing it as often, and starting over the next day with a scrupulous and desperate perseverance. He would spend six weeks on one page, only to return to it and write it just as he had on the first draft.'
The sonata is a great masterpiece and our duo were at home with the introspective, passionate intensity of this mature work. The pattern of lyrical themes transformed into passionate utterances in the extensive opening Maestoso movement were accomplished with convincing, compelling, energy and expressiveness. Soul searching and emotional resistance were present at once. The phrasing was as passionate as one would anticipate.
Nehring was impressively accomplished in the virtuosic, formidable piano part as Chopin's melodic gift soared effortlessly above us on the cantabile cello. The typically Chopinesque Scherzo was painted in all its shifting moods and jagged dance rhythms so well on the piano. The 'trio' that lies at the centre is one of the most beautiful melodies Chopin ever wrote for cello. It wings above a gently oscillating piano accompaniment. This was most ardent music-making.
The beauty of the poignant, ardent Largo cantilena on the cello became a moving and consoling contemporary commentary on the tragic situation humanity finds itself beset in the war-torn present. Here is a deeply romantic love poem.But energetic life returns in the dotted rhythms of the Finale. Allegro which then modulates into melancholic reflections. The tempestuous coda, concluding in C minor, offers no great consolation to the tragedy that has unfolded. The arabesque phrasing created imagery in my mind depicting a love scene set in a picturesque Italian spa. The heart speaks as in the moving yet passionate Chekov story The Lady and the Little Dog. There was an exciting, dramatic building to an emotional climax of high voltage heat.
Nehring and Zdunik were successful on all levels at communicating the deep national and personal sadness that pervades this work. Chopin and Sand at the time were suffering the unraveling of their extraordinary love, the disintegration of their creative literary and musical world and its former fruitful symbiosis.
Chopin
always brings to my mind the poetry of John Keats (1795-1821). The final stanza
of his Ode on Melancholy (1820) seems so appropriate for this
late work of Chopin - and not only this work.
She
dwells with Beauty—Beauty that must die;
And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips
Bidding
adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,
Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips:
Ay,
in the very temple of Delight
Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine,
Though
seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue
Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine;
His
soul shalt taste the sadness of her might,
And
be among her cloudy trophies hung.
INTERMISSION
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Polonaise in C Major for piano and cello, Op. 3 (1829–1830)
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Chopin sketched by Princess Eliza Radziwill at Antonin en route to Duszniki Zdroj 1826. |
They then might listen to excerpts from the surprisingly complex music that his host, Prince Antoni Radziwiłł, had composed to Faust (Mephisotopheles and Gretchen - music of the sacred and profane). In the evening Chopin showed off his skills as a pianist and duetted with the cellist prince.
But above all, he composed. He was working on the Trio in G minor Op.8, which would be dedicated to Antoni Radziwiłł, and also the Introduction and Polonaise brillante in C major, Op. 3. Chopin knew and loved the cello repertoire, especially the superb playing of the renowned cellist Jozef Merk in Warsaw.
And more to Tytus: ‘While I was staying with him, I wrote there an alla polacca with a cello part. Nothing but baubles to dazzle, for the salon, for the ladies. I wished you see, that Princess Wanda learn to play it. I was supposed to have been giving her lessons during that time. A young thing, 17 years old, pretty, and, by my word, it was nice to help her place her little fingers on the keys. But all joking aside, she has a lot of genuine musical feeling, such that you don't have to tell her to make a crescendo here, a piano there, and 'faster here, and slower there', and so forth.' (At the time she was actually 21 and Chopin was only 19 himself!)
More of Chopin’s
works were transcribed for cello and piano. The Prelude No. 2 in A- minor, No.4 in E minor and No.6 in B minor were all affectingly rendered.
Grand Duo Concertant in E Major on a theme from Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera ‘Robert le diable’ for piano and cello
B 70 (1832–1833)
The Grand Duo concertant in E major (1838) by Chopin based on themes from Robert le diable by Meyerbeer for four hands, originally written in Paris for piano and cello. The work is one of the most marginal works in the Chopin oeuvre. His friend the cellist Auguste Franchomme played it and supposedly gave him constructive advice on the cello writing. Hm…
Schumann treated the Duo rather favourably, emphasising in his review its ‘grace and refinement’, but calling its style ‘low’ and ‘salon’. Is this necessarily a negative matter considering the almost too serious attitude to the choice of classical music we sometimes choose to perform. To quote the title of a piece from Schumann's Kinderszenen that I would apply to many present concert programmes - Fast zu Ernst (Almost too serious). At the same time, he wondered how much Chopin there was in this music and how much Franchomme. He arrived at the conviction that the latter’s role was mainly to nod at the former’s suggestions. In the extant manuscript, though the piano part is written in Chopin’s hand, the cello part is in the hand of Franchomme.
The elaborate writing for piano in style brillante is a real treat and clearly meant by Chopin to please his fashionable Parisian audience rather than make them think. The Grand Duo Concertant was dedicated to a sixteen-year-old young lady, Miss Adèle Forest. She was the daughter of an amateur cellist friend of Franchomme’s and a pupil of Chopin.
We were given charming melodies but the overall effect was not as joyfully and romantically uplifting as the great works performed at the outset. The encore was the deeply moving Lento con gran espressione Nocturne in C sharp minor WN 3
AUGUST 7 8.00
PM
PIOTR ANDERSZEWSKI
Regarded as one of the outstanding musicians of his generation, Piotr Anderszewski
appears regularly in recital at many of the major concert venues
around the world.
Throughout his career he has concentrated mostly on the classic German/
Viennese repertoire encompassing Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and
Webern. He is also drawn to 20th-century Central European music, particularly
that of Szymanowski and Janaček. He chooses his repertoire carefully,
only playing pieces to which he feels he can contribute in an original and
personal way.
Anderszewski has played with many of the world's great symphony orchestras,
though in recent years he has placed special emphasis on simultaneously
playing and directing. In this manner, he has recorded Mozart with
the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and
the Sinfonia Varsovia, as well as Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.
Piotr Anderszewski's discography has grown slowly but steadily over the
years. Since 2000 he has been an exclusive artist with Warner Classics (previously
Virgin Classics). His first recording for
the label was Beethoven's Diabelli
Variations, which went on to receive a number of prizes. He has also recorded
Grammy-nominated discs of Bach's Partitas 1, 3 and 6 and Szymanowski's
solo piano works, the latter likewise receiving a Gramophone award in 2006.
His recording devoted to works by Robert Schumann received the BBC Music
Magazine’s Recording of the Year award in 2012. Other Gramophone awards
have followed in 2015 for Bach English Suites and in 2021 for his specially
selected set of 12 Preludes and Fugues from Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier,
Book 2. A live performance of the Preludes and Fugues from Hamburg's
Elbphilharmonie has since been released on DVD. His latest CD is dedicated
to piano works by Janaček, Szymanowski, and Bartok.
Anderszewski has collaborated with various instrumentalists, including
Viktoria Mullova, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, and
the Belcea Quartet. He also performs with his sister, the violinist Dorota
Anderszewska, and has occasionally appeared with writers and actors in
special projects. As a lieder partner, he has worked with Matthias Goerne
and is preparing future recitals with Ian Bostridge.
Anderszewski’s artistic life has been the subject of several documentaries
by the film maker Bruno Monsaingeon. Piotr Anderszewski plays Diabelli Variations (2001) explores
Anderszewski's particular relationship with Beethoven's
iconic work. Unquiet Traveller (2008) is an unusual artist portrait,
capturing Anderszewski's reflections on music, the composers with whom
he has a particular affinity and his Polish-Hungarian roots. In 2016 he found
himself behind the camera directing Warsaw is My Name, a film dedicated
to the city of his birth.
* * * * * * * * * *
The highlight of the festival! The recital by Piotr Anderszewski, as an icon and legend in his own time, was richly anticipated at Duszniki. Every true musician in the audience with a romantic sensibility was breathless in imaginative flight as Anderszewski was about to deeply link us to the heart of these late Brahms masterpieces. I felt sure he had rearranged the order of performance in the programme book according to some inner secretive labyrinth of feeling, a dark art of interpretative narrative known only to himself.
I will write in rather general terms about the
twelve compositions, only occasionally individually. As we entered the manor at
the beginning of the recital, we spontaneously discovered the revised programme
on a printed leaflet laid on our chair.
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
'By the way, has it struck you that I have clearly said my farewell as a composer?’, Brahms asked his publisher, Fritz Simrock, in September 1894.
For some years Brahms had regarded his life’s work as over. He confided to his friend Eusebius Mandyczewski (the future editor of his collected works) that his recent attempts at large-scale projects had come to nothing, and that he was now perhaps too old to continue. The following year, in what had become his favourite summer resort of Bad Ischl in the Salzkammergut region of Austria, Brahms wrote his will. But in 1892, again in Ischl, Brahms began work on the twenty piano pieces that make up the four collections published as his Opp 116-119.
Much of the music of Brahms’s final years seems to be permeated with apprehensions of death. He saw many of those closest to him die: his sister Elise and his long-standing friend Elisabet von Herzogenberg in 1892; the singer Hermine Spies (at the age of only thirty-six) the following year; and in 1894 the Bach biographer Philipp Spitta, the pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow and the surgeon Theodor Billroth.
Klavierstücke Op. 119 (1893)
Intermezzo in B Minor
The sound Anderszewski drew from the piano was a sound glowing with refinement, tone, richness and texture from his first touch on the superb Shigeru Kawai instrument.
Strength in adversity was expressed here, yet overall the spirit remained joyful
The last piano work of Brahms was written in Bad Ischl in 1893. It is in four 'movements' although Anderszewski played only two in this segment.
Clara Schumann wrote in her diary after receiving the pieces Op. 118 and Op. 119
'It really is marvelous how things pour from him; it is wonderful how he combines passion and tenderness in the smallest of spaces.'
In a letter from May 1893 to Clara Schumann, Brahms wrote of the first in B minor :
I am tempted to copy out a small piano piece for you, because I would like to know how you agree with it. It is teeming with dissonances! These may [well] be correct and [can] be explained—but maybe they won’t please your palate, and now I wished, they would be less correct, but more appetizing and agreeable to your taste. The little piece is exceptionally melancholic and ‘to be played very slowly’ is not an understatement. Every bar and every note must sound like a ritard[ando], as if one wanted to suck melancholy out of each and every one, lustily and with pleasure out of these very dissonances! Good Lord, this description will [surely] awaken your desire!
This Intermezzo in B minor is emotionally unsettled, full of the reflective anguish of past unrequited love, moments of anger and resistance followed by final resignation. These are moments of Arcadian bliss followed by happy memories of calm refection cultivated in the consoling refuge of age. Anderszewski was most affecting in this work and clearly understood the inner emotional life of it.
I can only describe the mood of the Intermezzo in C major with the opening stanza of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem as Anderszewski presented it
To a Skylark
Hail to thee blithe spirit!
Bird thou never wert-
That from heaven or near it
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art
You cannot be taught to feel. You cannot be taught sensibility. The ability to express with integrity a wide range of human emotions comes only from within the heart. It is a gift of God made up in music of innumerable microscopic hesitations and accelerations, indeterminate fluctuations of dynamic and phrasing, subtle variations of articulation, a wide palette of colours and nuance, a tone and touch that emerge organically from within the soul. Such profound and refined musical gestures are instinctive aspects of character and cannot be learned. Piotr Anderszewski possesses all of these characteristics.
Wilhelm Furtwängler once said that 'an interpreter can render only what he has first lived through.'
Klavierstücke Op. 118 (1892)
Intermezzo in A Minor
Intermezzo in A Major
The autumnal Brahms 6 Klavierstücke Op.
118 (1893) have always been close to my heart. In a letter to the
conductor and composer Franz Lachner Brahms wrote (concerning the 1st Movement
of the Second Symphony): 'I am, by and by, a severely melancholic
person …black wings are constantly flapping above us'.
Dedicated to Clara Schumann, they were written at Bad
Ischl during his summer sojourn and are probably his most well-known piano
compositions nowadays. Julius August Philipp Spitta, a German musicologist,
wrote to Brahms of these miniatures after receiving the score, 'They are the
most varied of all your piano pieces and perhaps the richest in content and
depth of meaning …'. Concentrated, intense and expressive, this group are a
portrait of his internal emotional landscape.
.jpg)
View of Bad Ischl with the imperial villa in the foreground, steelplate engraving, 19th century - L. Rohbock / A. Fesca
(Copyright courtesy of Schloss Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.)
These are among the last compositions by Brahms and he
seems to have conceived them as a coherent whole. It is hard to overlook the
presence of the spectre of death that inhabits them. The group speaks volumes
to me of the transient nature of human existence, but more of a proud
philosophical resignation to the inevitability of destiny than a sensationalist
expression of terror, despair and melancholy in the face of our mysterious
journey to oblivion.
The passionate outbursts of the first Intermezzo
in A minor has such an affirmation of life in those rich chords, then
the fading away and decay. Anderszewski expressed passionate recollections with
intense regret. In the second sensitively played Intermezzo in A major,
he savoured the desperate yearning and eloquent harmonic transitions of
the Andante teneramente, the expressive dynamic variations and
poetry, so lovingly embracing the long legato lines of transient affections.
This ardent work has all the rhapsodic yearning and longing of a nocturne on
the nature of mortality and lost love.
Fantasien Op.
116 (1892)
Intermezzo.
Andante in A Minor
Capriccio.
Allegro passionato in G Minor
Intermezzo. Adagio in E Major
Intermezzo Andante con grazia ed
intimissimo sentimento in E minor
Fantasias, Op 116 is a curious title for a collection of pieces consisting of three capriccios and four intermezzos. Brahms had used the same labels of ‘capriccio’ and ‘intermezzo’—again to indicate a division between agitated and more serene pieces—for the individual numbers of a similar collection he had composed some fourteen years before; these earlier pieces had appeared under a more neutral banner as eight Klavierstücke, Op 76.
Anderszewski seemed to understand that words are utterly insufficient to describe the pure music of emotion, those regretful contemplations expressed in music over lost love. These emotions become eloquent in the sarabande-like melancholy of the Intermezzo. Andante in A Minor with its fleeting, shadowy middle section. Passionate regrets take hold of the soul and heart in the Capriccio. Allegro passionato in G Minor with its grandiose trio. The Intermezzo. Adagio in E Major is in the style of a nostalgic, bittersweet minuet. Andante con grazia ed intimissimo sentimento is the evocative marking of the in E minor Intermezzo which Brahms originally called a nocturne. This composition is one of his most perfect and moving of these 'miniatures'. I felt a hesitant unrequited heart plagued by arrhythmical missing beats.
I
felt Anderszewski captured such rarefied feeling very well indeed, intimacy
retained as requested by the composer. I was transported into that other
world Brahms explores, beyond the physical into the metaphysical
and spiritual.
Intermezzi Op.
117 (1892)
Andante con moto in C-Sharp Minor
The Op.117 Intermezzi are unsurpassed
in the expression of profound sadness and dejection. This work, containing passionate
musical denials and sacrifice, was composed in 1892. They are intensely poetic
and introspective works which Brahms thought of as 'three
lullabies for my sorrows'.
The Andante con moto in C-sharp minor is
thought to be inspired by Gottfried von Herder’s poetic lines 'Oh woe!
Oh woe, deep in the valley…' with its rather angular yet mysteriously
rich atmosphere. When Brahms unsurprisingly sent this set of Intermezzi to
Clara Schumann, she wrote 'In these pieces I at last feel musical life
stir once again in my soul.
Anderszewski adopted a reflective tender touch with a
great deal of poetic sensibility for these masterpieces, expressive of regretful
emotions. They speak directly to the heart of the turbulent emotions of
unrequited love and romantic loss.
His phrasing, tempo, dynamics were all profoundly
expressive. Regrets were recalled, those griefs that cannot be reversed. He
carried us into different emotional layers and shifting moods ranging from
remorse to anger to resignation. The nostalgic remembrance of past joys and
dark thoughts was close to unbearable in this conduit, this direct communication
with the composer.
Klavierstücke Op.
119 (1893)
Rapsodia
in E-Flat Major
Anderszewski brought a cry
of resistance against destiny or fate in his conception of this work. I felt
much 'masculine' anger and regret here. He seamlessly joined this to Intermezzo Op.
117 (1892) Andante non troppo e con molto espressione in B-Flat
Minor. One felt that the love that carried one aloft into magical space
could not be experienced ever again. Beautiful cantabile. One felt the
inflexibility of destiny like iron shackles even with gentle gestures of tenderness.
Defiance, resolution certainly yet philosophical acceptance of destiny lay at the heart of this work. Anderszewski brought a magnificent fluctuating melancholic mood of acceptance together with an almost joyful defiance as he built a valedictory cathedral of the human emotional landscape, a type of existential expostulation at the conclusion 'Yet I am!'
Intermezzo Op.
117 (1892)
Andante
non troppo e con molto espressione in B-Flat Minor
(See above description of Op.117)
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The profound expression of the aged Brahms, a face etched by experience of life |
Klavierstücke Op.
118 (1892)
Intermezzo in E-Flat Minor
Anderszewski was heart-breakingly poignant in the opening to the conclusion of this first part of his recital. The valedictory final piece of this Op.118 is an integrated meditation on the acceptance of destiny and fate. The Intermezzo in E-flat minor begins with the theme of the Dies Irae of the Christian requiem. The spectre of death enters and recurs in the work in various guises.
Here we begin to inhabit another world far beyond this one. A strenuous, heroic
yet tragic averral of the force of life briefly emerges but the terminal expression
of resignation in death concludes pianissimo. Anderszewski, taking us with him, inhabited the world of a metaphysical medium in this scarcely bearable
extinction of life.
(See also above historical description of Op.118)
INTERMISSION
In the introduction of the score for the Fourteen Bagatelles op. 6, Béla Bartók described his compositional style as 'a reaction against the exuberance of the romantic piano music of the 19th century, a style stripped of all unessential decorative elements, deliberately using only the most restricted technical means.' The Bagatelles were composed in 1908 and reflect Bartók’s elaborate new musical language which evolved between 1904 and 1908.
This was a combination of folk and contemporary techniques and ideas. These years also indicate the beginning and the development of his folk music interest and the evolution of a new compositional style for piano catalyzed by his ethno-musicological research.
Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
14 Bagatellen fur Klavier, Op. 6 Sz. 38 (1908)
1. Molto
sostenuto
2. Allegro
giocoso
3. Andante
Creation of a dream in astonishing sound
4. Grave
5. Vivo
Anderszewski presented the lively aspects of a charming life
6. Lento
Dreams gave way to grey reality
7. Allegretto
molto capriccioso
Anderszewsky presented this as slightly neurotic
8. Andante
sostenuto
The triumph of creative imagination
9. Allegretto
grazioso
He presented this with elements of psychological disconnection
10. Allegro
A rather manic and violently muscular interpretation
11. Allegretto
molto rubato
We
were able to take a breath after the previous transports
12. Rubato
The
irregularity of this piece was really quite extraordinary with Anderszewski
13. Elle
est morte. Lento funebre
A
lugubrious and dark presentation
14. Valse:
Ma mie qui danse. Presto
The
final glorious affirmation of life. Is the pianist requested in the score to
call out in triumph at the conclusion of this most extraordinary work ? Did I simply imagine these things from Anderszewski ?
This was a truly sublime performance that elevated Bartok and his new, reduced and concentrated compositional style to the expressive heavens of immortality.
I had first heard Anderszewski perform this work at the 19TH CHOPIN AND HIS EUROPE FESTIVAL in Warsaw in August 2023. In this magnificent performance tonight, conjoined surprisingly, musically and creatively with Brahms, I could present an analysis of each under the fingers of Anderszewski. However, my feelings have not greatly changed in the interim. For brevity, I will choose those pieces that moved me greatly both in 2023 and now (above).
In 2023 the sheer sound palette and refinement of his performance of the Andante was astonishing. The Lento and Andante sostenuto were emotionally deeply expressive. The Allegro betrayed such exuberant energy! The Rubato gave me a deep sense of spontaneous yet calm improvisation and invention at the moment of performance.
The last two Bagatelles refer to Bartok's recently sundered relationship with the beautiful 19 year old violinist Stefi Geyer Elle est morte. Lento funebre ('She is dead') and Valse: Ma mie qui danse. Presto ('My love dances'). In these two pieces Anderszewski was intensely effective in communicating the mystery, poverty and melancholy of death and then the exuberant expression of the older man's unrequited love. Yet there remained a final glorious affirmation of life.
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| The young and beautiful Stefi Geyer (1888-1956) |
Acclaimed
for his exceptional artistry and technical mastery, pianist Philipp
Lynov
has achieved international recognition by winning first prize at the 2024
Xiamen
International Piano Competition in China, second prize at the 2025
Singapore
International Piano Competition and the first prize at the 2023
Takamatsu
International Piano Competition in Japan. He is also the first
prize
winner of the 11th Paderewski International Piano Competition 2019
in
Bydgoszcz, Poland, where he was also honoured with multiple special
awards,
including the Prize for the Best Interpretation of a Commissioned
Piece
by Michał Dobrzyński.
Philipp
Lynov has performed as a recitalist, chamber musician, and
concerto
soloist in various cities across Russia, Germany, Austria, Poland,
Spain,
Italy, Israel, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, USA, Australia, China,
Singapore,
and Japan.
As
a soloist, he has performed with numerous orchestras, including Seto
Philharmonic
Orchestra (Japan), Central Conservatory of Music Symphony
Orchestra
(China), Metropolitan Festival Orchestra (Singapore), the Deutsches
Symphonie-Orchester
Berlin (Germany), the Pomeranian Philharmonic
Orchestra
(Poland), Chamber Orchestra ‘Capella Bydgostiensis’ (Poland),
Region
of Murcia Symphony Orchestra (Spain), Orquesta Sinfonica de Malaga
(Spain),
Orchestra Antonio Vivaldi (Italy), Astana Symphony Philharmonic
Orchestra
(Kazakhstan), and with most major Russian orchestras.
He
has worked with prominent conductors such as Naoto Otomo, Takuo
Yuasa,
Jingzhan Li, Chan Tze Law, Stanley Dodds, Ernesto Colombo, Kai
Bumann,
Jakub Chrenowicz, Anton Shaburov, Vladislav Bulakhov, Erzhan
Dautov,
and many others.
Throughout
the years, Philipp has received guidance through masterclasses
from
extraordinary artists such as Andreas Staier, Francois-Frederic Guy,
Dmitry
Alexeev, Alexander Melnikov, Dina Yoffe, Akiko Ebi, Ronan O’Hora,
Caroline
Hong, Jun Kanno, Hyoung-Joon Chang, Mikhail Voskresensky, Anna
Malikova,
Elena Levit, Alexander Kobrin, Uta Weyand, and many others.
Philipp
Lynov graduated from the Tchaikovsky State Conservatory in
Moscow,
where he studied with Prof. Eliso Virsaladze. Since October 2022,
Philipp
has continued his studies with Prof. Claudio Martinez Mehner and
Nina
Tichman at the Hochschule fur Musik und Tanz Koln, Germany, where
he
is currently pursuing a Konzertexamen degree.
* * * * * * * * * *
Prokofiev 4 Etudes, Op. 2
These formidable and demanding works simply exploded over us. I felt it was a staggeringly virtuosic, self-confident and brilliant performance the like of which I have rarely if ever heard. Utterly convincing in its power to excite and move.
If this young man matures and deepens his musical penetration and interpretative depth I predict he will evolve as a truly powerful pianistic force on the horizon.
I looked forward to this recital with immense anticipation and excitement.
Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-Flat Major, Op. 61 (1845–1846)
Again I make no apology for repeating my introduction to this and other works as such background facts do not change although the interpretative approach by various pianists is always completely different. Lynov chose a Fazioli instrument, a superb choice and used only once during this festival.
The Polonaise-Fantaisie contains all the troubled emotion and desire for strength in the face of the multiple adversities that beset the composer at this late stage in his life. This work, the first in the so-called ‘late style’ of the composer, was written during a period of great suffering and unhappiness. He laboured over its composition. What emerged is one of his most complex of his works both pianistically and emotionally.
Chopin produced many sketches for the Polonaise-Fantaisie and wrestled with the title. He had written: ‘I’d like to finish something that I don’t yet know what to call’. This uncertainty indicates surely he was embarking on a journey of compositional exploration along untrodden paths. Even Bartok one hundred years later was shocked at its revolutionary nature. The work is an extraordinary mélange of genres and styles in a type of inspired improvisation that yet maintains a magical absolute musical coherence and logic. He completed it in August 1846.
The opening tempo is marked maestoso (as with his two concerti)which indicates ‘with dignity and pride’. I was impressed with Lynov's 'searching' phrasing of the opening, the dreamlike, poetic fantasy of his opening phrases of considered expressive emotion contrasted with the passionate expression which immediately sets the atmosphere. I felt the piece was being searched for and discovered as a type of improvisation which I feel it needs. The invention fluctuates as if with the irregular circulation of the heart and the blood.
Lynov touched many polyphonic and normally concealed expressive structures and was clearly moved by this remarkable music. There is much rich counterpoint and polyphony which Lynov explored here (of which Chopin was one of the greatest masters since Bach). This work also conveys a strong sense of żal, a Polish word in this context meaning melancholic regret leading to a mixture of passionate resistance, resentment and anger in the face of unavoidable fate. Yes, a complex work written when Chopin was moving towards the cold embrace of death.
Nocturne in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 27 No. 1 (1835)
This nocturne is elegiac in atmosphere. The framework of the piece is filled with what might be termed expectant, elegiac pondering. In the ostensible calm of this melody, Arthur Hedley hears hesitation and anxiety, and in the unusual sound of the peculiarly shaped (far-flung) accompaniment – a mood of deep night and mystery. There soon follows an eruption of violent music, full of passion, in a different tempo, a different metre and a different key. It swells to a climax that sounds like a revolt or a protest. Then another climax, after which the music of elegiac musing returns – that unforgettable recitative, full of dramatic tension were handled well with compassion but no loss of intensity. The performance was both highly sensitive and expressive, what one might call the variations of despair.
Attempts have been made to interpret the substance of this nocturnal tale. A rather rash stab at it was made by Jan Kleczyński, who discerned an echo of some gloomy story played out in the scenery and the atmosphere of Venice. An interpretation was also proffered by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, who found in this variety of Chopin’s nocturnes: ‘a nocturnal pondering of faithfulness or love – combined with nocturnal contemplation of the homeland’.
Mieczysław Tomaszewski
Mazurkas, Op. 30 (1836–1837)
No. 1 C Minor
No. 2 B Minor
No. 3 D-Flat Major
Nr 4 C-Sharp Minor
One needs to examine the nature of dancing in Warsaw during the
time of Chopin. Almost half of his music is actually dance music of one sort or
another and a large proportion of the rest of his compositions contain dances.
Dancing was a passion especially during carnival from Epiphany to Ash Wednesday. It was an opulent time, generating a great deal of commercial business, no less than in Vienna or Paris. Dancing - waltzes, polonaises, mazurkas - were a vital part of Warsaw social life, closely woven into the fabric of the city. There was veritable 'Mazurka Fever' in Europe and Russia at this time. The dancers were not restricted to noble families - the intelligentsia and bourgeoisie also took part in the passion.
Chopin's experience of dance, as a refined gentleman of exquisite manners, would have been predominantly urban ballroom dancing with some experience of peasant hijinks during his summer holidays in Żelazowa Wola, Szafania and elsewhere. Poland was mainly an agricultural society in the early nineteenth century. At this time Warsaw was an extraordinary melange of cultures. Magnificent magnate palaces shared muddy unpaved streets with dilapidated townhouses, szlachta farms, filthy hovels and teeming markets.
By 1812 the Napoleonic campaigns had financially crippled the Duchy of Warsaw. Chopin spent his formative years during this turbulent political period and the family often escaped the capital to the refuge of the Mazovian countryside at Żelazowa Wola. Here the fields are alive with birdsong, butterflies and wildflowers. On summer nights the piano was placed in the garden and Chopin would improvise eloquent melodies that floated through the orchards and across the river to the listening villagers gathered beyond.
Of course he was a perfect mimic, actor, practical joker and enthusiastic dancer as a young man, tremendously high-spirited. He once wrote a verse describing how he spent a wild night, half of which was dancing and the other half playing pranks and dances on the piano for his friends. They had great fun! One of his friends took to the floor pretending to be a sheep! On one occasion he even sprained his ankle he was dancing so vigorously!
He would play with gusto and 'start thundering out mazurkas, waltzes and polkas'. When tired and wanting to dance, he would pass the piano over to 'a humbler replacement'. Is it surprising his teacher Józef Elzner and his doctors advised a period of 'rehab' at Duszniki Zdrój to preserve his health which had already begun to show the first signs of failing? This advice may not have been the best for him, his sister Emilia and Ludwika Skarbek, as reinfection was always a strong possibility there. Both were dead not long after their return from the 'cure'.
Many of his mazurkas would have come to life on the dance floor as improvisations. Perhaps only later were they committed to the more permanent art form on paper under the influence and advice of the Polish folklorist and composer Oskar Kolberg. Chopin floated between popular and art music quite effortlessly.
Lynov embraced the four Chopin Mazurkas Op. 30 (1836-37). Around 1835, Chopin began working on two new sets of mazurkas, which were published as Op. 30 and Op.33. In each of the sets, he placed four mazurkas; and in each, the last mazurka, closing the opus, brought an atmosphere breath of grand music – the dance miniatures grew into dance poems.
The first, in C minor is inspired by a kujawiak, which is particularly apt to be played in tempo rubato. I found Lynov sensitive, idiomatic and expressive. The key of C-Minor in the nineteenth century was associated with the sighing of a love-sick soul. No. 2 in B minor with Lynov was most expressive evoking fond idiomatic memories. Lynov gave No. 3 in D flat major a rather rustic mien. I appreciated greatly No. 4 in C sharp minor greatly which was a fine performance in mazurka style and rhythm of a magnificent mazurka.
Andante spianato & Grande Polonaise Brillante in E-Flat Major, Op. 22 (1834–1835)
The difficulties concealed in the Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise in E flat major Op. 22 (1834–5) are easy to underestimate. Chopin often performed the Andante spianato (smoothly without anxious tension) as a separate piece in his rare recitals. Lynov controlled his beautiful tone, appropriate tempo and refined cantabile touch admirably. He also managed the balance impeccably. The Andante has both the character of a nocturne and a lullaby and as such is replete with the tender expressiveness and sentiment Lynov adopted.
The Grande polonaise brillante with its opening or 'Call to the Floor' was as if on horns and in its its super glittering style brillante, the polonaise is a dramatic gesture. Hardly anyone playing Chopin waltzes has any idea of ballroom dancing in the nineteenth century. Chopin in his youth was mad about dancing, a fine dancer and also an excellent dance pianist playing into the small hours, hence his need for 'rehab' at Bad Reinherz – now Dusznki Zdrój. Certainly Chopin waltzes are not meant to be danced but the sublimated idiom remains. Chopin waltzes nearly always open, except say the Valse triste, with an energetic and declamatory fanfare or 'call to the floor' for the dancers. A slight pause and then the scandalous Waltz begins
Lynov adopted a spirited opening with strong rhythm and splendid, clear articulation. The style brillante was much brought into play. His phrasing was stylish and eloquent and the fiorituras were quite breathtaking in lightness and lace-like structure. In the upper register the Fazioli instrument rang like joyful bells. His musical understanding of this work was one of forward irresistible movement and impetus. The fortissimos were not at all ugly in the waves of sparkling tone. The strong, reliable L H held the whole structure together.
The essential nature of the style brilliante, of which the Grand Polonaise Brillante Op.22 is an essential and outstanding representative of Chopin’s early Varsovian style, seems rather a mystery to modern pianists who are not Polish. Jan Kleczyński writes of this work: ‘There is no composition stamped with greater elegance, freedom and freshness’. The style involves a bright, light touch and glistening tone, varied shimmering colours, supreme clarity of articulation, in fact much like what was referred to in French as the renowned jeu perlé.
Lynov came quite some way along that road certainly - but there are also vital expressive elements of charm, grace, taste, affectation and elegance to be considered too. The work is a fascinating piece of theatre which perhaps is as this work should be considered in many respects. It is not deeply philosophical but an utterly enjoyable brilliant confection written by a high-spirited young Pole named Fryderyk Chopin, a lover of dancing and acting. One must not forget that Chopin astonished Vienna by his pianism but perhaps even more by the elegance of his princely appearance.
INTERMISSION
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Miroirs, M. 43 (1904–1905)
Oiseaux tristes (Sad Birds)
In his autobiographical sketch Ravel said of this piece:
'It evokes birds lost in the oppressiveness of a very dark forest during the hottest hours of summer.'
Ricardo Viñes initially performed this piece on January 6, 1906 and it was also dedicated to him. The work may have been inspired by a story that Viñes told Ravel about meeting Debussy, where he heard the composer say that he wished to write a piece in a form so free that it would feel like an improvisation. His initial epiphany for this piece came during a walk in the forest of Fontainebleau. There are two planes of vision: in the first the birds are singing and below the threatening atmosphere of the dark forest.
Lynov created a superb sound on the Fazioli which enabled one to listen to the internal harmonies explored by Ravel. A truly superb impressionist interpretation. With his magical ringing yet yearning tone and touch he accomplished the difficult impressionistic eloquence and delicate expressive resonance of the repeated figuration of the opening fingering with great sensitivity. One could see in the mind's eye the rainbow of birdsong above the dark impenetrable green foliage hovering below. The feeling of highly imaginative improvisation was always present.
Alborada del gracioso (The Dawn of Graciousness)
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| La Gamme d’amour - Antoine Watteau, circa 1717 [National Gallery, London] |
This familiar musical movement was inspired of course by Spanish music. Guitar, castanet rhythms and repetitions. Lynov was magnificent in his full capture of a perfect and evocative infectious Spanish rhythm. It was high in incandescent, passionate southern energy peculiar to the Iberian Peninsula. Rhythmically in cross rhythms Lynov was tremendously effective with a true 'biting touch' and brilliant articulation! The middle section involved an eloquent, lyrical, improvised song known as the cante jondo, or ‘deep song’.
This Tzigane lamenting cante jondo originated in the Spanish Andalusian flamenco vocal tradition and Lynov effortlessly transported us into the interior of a smoke-filled tavern of formidable, almost flamenco Spanish atmosphere. He produced fabulous runs and washes of sound and rhythm and yet retained the graciousness and refined artfulness that invests that culture. A magnificent performance of tension led to an explosive conclusion
Robert Schumann (1810–1856)
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A younger Philipp Lynov in 2019, Paderewski Competition winner, Bydgoszcz |
I reviewed in detail the 11th International Paderewski Piano Competition in Bydgoszcz that was won by Lynov in 2019. His Finals performance was of the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor Op.16. This great work is one of the most difficult in the concerto repertoire. A brilliant, prize-winning performance endorsed by a wildly enthusiastic audience.
I had also written of his performance of the Schumann Fantasy in C major, Op. 17 which could be applied to his performance of the Sonata.
Of all the inspirations to composition given to Schumann, none achieved such a profound depth as that of the image of Clara Wieck that preoccupied his inner world. After their first kiss was exchanged in November 1835 (Schumann 25 and Clara 16) they forged a connection that withstood many challenging obstacles including a long enforced separation due to Clara’s father’s fierce opposition to their marriage. Schumann continued in his compositions on so many occasions to unfold Walter Benjamin’s ‘fan of memory’ of Clara. Certainly this was the case of Clara’s image yearningly called up in the first movement of the Fantasie. Clara was the ‘distant beloved’ that imbues the entire work.
Reading literature of the period may assist in comprehending the sensibility of the age and how love was expressed in high-flown literature and poetry (say the poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning – she like Clara Wieck had a father who fiercely disapproved of her love for the English poet Robert Browning. They married in secret, ran away to Italy and her father disinherited her).
When our two souls… (Sonnet 22)
When our two souls
stand up erect and strong,
Face to face, silent,
drawing nigh and nigher,
Until the lengthening
wings break into fire
At either curvèd
point,—what bitter wrong
Can the earth do to
us, that we should not long
Be here contented?
Think. In mounting higher,
The angels would press
on us and aspire
To drop some golden
orb of perfect song
Into our deep, dear
silence. Let us stay
Rather on earth,
Belovèd,—where the unfit
Contrarious moods of
men recoil away
And isolate pure
spirits, and permit
A place to stand and
love in for a day,
With darkness and the death-hour rounding it.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861
Assuming he was aware of and sensitive to this legendary frustrated love, even in his extreme youth, I found Lynov created a lyrical and poetical emotional landscape of surprising depth. The third movement was particularly lyrical. However it seemed deliberately episodic at times, verging on stasis in the search for feeling, which disconnected the coherence and de-energized this demanding and difficult work. His complete command of the keyboard was never in doubt, nor his rich tone and refined touch.
Sonata in F-Sharp Minor, No. 1 Op. 11 (1832–1835)
Introduzione: Un poco
Adagio - Allegro vivace
Aria
Scherzo: Allegrissimo -
intermezzo: Lento
Finale: Allegro, un poco maestoso
Vanessa Latarche, Head of Keyboard &
Associate Director for Partnerships in Asia at the Royal College of Music in London,
gave an extremely interesting and illuminating Masterclass on this Schumann
sonata to the young Polish pianist Filip
Michalak at the Duszniki Zdrój Festival in 2022. I feel I should quote my notes in full as this
clarification cannot be bettered.
Vanessa began by telling us that the sonata was based on the nature of love. Schumann told his wife Clara that in light of their cruel enforced separation, the sonata was 'a solitary outcry for you from my heart ... in which your theme appears in every possible shape'. He published it anonymously as 'Pianoforte Sonata, dedicated to Clara by Florestan and Eusebius'.
The first movement is marked: Un poco adagio - Allegro vivace. She told us the story behind the sonata as she considers the personal, historical and cultural context of musical works vital to the fullest understanding and interpretation of them. Piano pedagogues and professors all differ in their approach to the same piece, emphasizing simply technical aspects, sound production or visualizing extra-musical associations which are also so important to complete penetration and understanding. She indicated the intertwining of 'Clara's theme' within the musical fabric. 'Never drop onto a note before you are ready' she advised.
She felt the opening does not immediately proclaim 'this is a sonata' but is an introduction which opened new 'romantic' expressive territory for the composer. She emphasized the two voices of the LH and RH contained within the dramatic and passionate opening theme. She felt that the pianist must know exactly what is in the score and to maintain control of the different voices and their utterance. 'Listen to yourself'.
Vanessa also felt that an enhanced sense of colour was of great importance for the different voices and delineation of the characters of Florestan and Eusebius - the variation in colour was vital to the creation of an expressive sound texture. She felt that Filip too often said the same thing in the same way. He was reminded 'to play with taste'. She felt he could have made more of the embedded polyphony which of course came from Schumann's adoration of Bach. She also highlighted the 'slight craziness' of Schumann and his whimsical, mercurially changing nature.
The second movement of the sonata Aria: Senza passione ma espressivo was lamentably only just begun in this class due to time constraints. Vanessa explained that the movement expressed a different and far deeper view of love. The love of Eusebius - the other more alluring aspect of our doppelgänger composer. The touch should be increasingly refined to match the tenderness and yearning contained in this movement.
Lynov
approaches the Introduzione: Un poco Adagio - Allegro vivace
The Allegro grew organically out of the Adagio without theatrics. He employed marvelous mood dynamics and his excellent choice of tempo (the basic, vital choice when playing any work) preserved the inner structure and importantly, the energy contained within.
The Aria possessed a dark and arresting, rich tone. The movement sang inspiringly as he utilized with magnificent talent the luminous tone of the Fazioli. The integrity and authority rather than any 'Hollywood' he brought to the interpretation was clear from the outset.
He gave the Scherzo excellent detaché rhythm with such keyboard authority I received that tingle in the spine that Vladimir Nabokov spoke of as being a sign you are in presence of true art. He gave us a true mercurial Schumann with immense fantasy. The intermezzo: Lento of this difficult, often obscure work, was significantly powerful as we moved beyond into the baroque elements of the polyphonic Lento. The conclusion he gave us was orchestral in its dimensions.
As an encore the sparkling Chopin Grande Waltz in A-flat Major Op. 42 in a superb tone, great panache and élan on the commanding a perfect waltz rhythm (seemingly inaccessible physically to many pianists in 2025!)
Standing ovation with much cheering .....
AUGUST
7 11.00 AM
IMPRESJA HOTEL
Chopin’s Nocturnes – a lecture by Prof. Irena Poniatowska
In recent years Giltburg has engaged in
a series of in-depth explorations
of major composers, concentrating on the
works of Beethoven, Ravel and
Rachmaninoff. To celebrate the Beethoven
anniversary in 2020, he embarked
upon a unique project to record and film
all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas
across the year. He also recorded the
composer’s complete piano concertos
with Vasily Petrenko and the Royal
Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, appeared
in the BBC TV series Being Beethoven,
and performed both concertos
and sonatas in concert.
In 2021–23 Giltburg explored the
complete works of Maurice Ravel, performing
the solo works shared amongst Brussels
BOZAR and Flagey as well
as the Amsterdam Muziekgebouw, and the
whole cycle at Wigmore (including
the violin sonatas with Alina
Ibragimova).
Giltburg is widely recognized as a
leading interpreter of Rachmaninoff. In
2023, during Rachmaninoff’s 150th anniversary
year, the pianist continued
recording Rachmaninoff’s solo works, as
well as releasing the last disc in his
acclaimed Rachmaninoff concerto cycle.
Giltburg regularly plays recitals in the
world’s most prestigious halls,
including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw,
Carnegie Hall, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie,
Wiener Konzerthaus, and Southbank
Centre. He has worked
with many top orchestras across the
world including the Philharmonia
Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Czech
Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic,
Dresden Philharmonic, NHK Symphony and
at the BBC Proms. In 2021–22
he debuted at the Santa Cecilia di Roma
with Kirill Petrenko.
Giltburg is a consummate recording
artist and has been exclusive to Naxos
since 2015, winning the Opus Klassik
award for Best Soloist Recording for
Rachmaninoff concertos / Études-Tableaux
and a Diapason d’Or for Shostakovich
concertos and his own arrangement of
that composer’s String Quartet
No. 8. He also won a Gramophone Award for the Dvořak Piano
Quintet on
Supraphon with the Pavel Haas Quartet,
as well as a Diapason d’Or for their
latest joint release, the Brahms Piano
Quintet.
Giltburg feels a strong need to engage
audiences beyond the concert hall.
His blog Classical Music for All is
aimed at a non-specialist audience, and
he complements it with articles in Gramophone,
BBC Music Magazine, The
Guardian, The Times, and Fono Forum. During the
lockdown period in spring
2020, Giltburg regularly streamed live performances
and masterclasses from
home, with over one million views.
I wish to digress slightly. The modern programming of complete cycles of large Chopin works (ballades, scherzos, preludes, sonatas, etudes) although impressive musically, I find very demanding on both listener and performer. The practice is entirely out of step with the programming practice and aesthetics of Chopin's own day. Of course in 2025 it does the reputation of the pianist a power of good among his professors and agents, those devotedly assisting the building of a career in the fiercely competitive present piano landscape. However, I feel it tries the stamina and more importantly, the concentration of everyone, even of the cognoscenti. A form of overeating the richest of foods musically speaking
So seldom at Duszniki (or anywhere else for that matter) do we hear the many less performed individual Chopin waltzes, mazurkas, rondos, early polonaises, less well known nocturnes and delightful Ecossaises - much of it wonderful, supremely melodic music.
Chopin never contemplated the idea of cycles of his works when he gave a recital. Musical variety was tantamount in those days. Clearly performers and those designing these programmes today find his example (and much else in his performance practice) of no contemporary historical relevance whatever but why I ask myself? It would give a charming, welcome (dare I mention the word 'entertaining') respite from the all pervading 'high seriousness' of the career-building aesthetics deemed absolutely necessary and which dominates so much piano recital programming in 2025.
In 2018 at Duszniki I wrote of this artist:
I felt this highly talented pianist could have made much more of the painterly qualities of these works (as much as one can visualize 'a story' in imagination from the music), their colour palette, rather than simply reveling in the virtuoso elements as quite understandably he tends to do. Yes,there was much poetry here on occasion and sensitive expressiveness too but how much more he could have made of these magnificent, emotionally resplendent works. In fortissimo passages his tone can become harsh and aggressive. He made little concession to the small space of the dworek with this massive volume. With his dazzling talent, dare I say that in this recital particularly, Giltburg still needs to develop his visual imagination, poetic sense as well as his extramusical inspiration.
I
heard little tonight to change this opinion although many interesting interpretative
gestures were made in this rendition of the Chopin Prelude cycle, some more
successful than others.
Sonata in B-Flat Minor, Op. 35 (1839)
Grave doppio movimento
Scherzo
Marche funèbre
Finale Presto
The opening Grave doppio movimento of the Sonata
in B-flat minor Op. 35 announces the focus of the work. Giltburg
seemed not to extract the premonitory dark qualities from the Grave opening
and that the work is focused on death and the Marche funèbre.
We were thrust forward
certainly in the nature of a galloping horse heading towards doom. One should
reflect after this comment, that movement itself during Chopin’s time was
restricted either to walking, horse or carriage travel. So when a composer wished to
impart movement to a piece of music, he could not envisage all of the
extraordinary modes of travel we have at hand.
Of the Scherzo the
great Polish musicologist Tomaszewski comments: ‘…one might say that it
combines Beethovenian vigour with the wildness of Goya’s Caprichos.’ I
felt some powerful, exciting energy but not a great deal of subtlety which I
feel is imperative in the interpretation of this composer.
The beautiful Trio took us
singing into the further dimension of ardent dreams which makes the Marche funèbre such
a shocking jolt from the force of destiny. Giltburg made the reflective trio of the Marche itself
a contrast of innocence, love and purity blighted by the reality of death (Chopin
was terrified of being buried alive – often horrifyingly possible in those
primitive medical times). However, he exploded into the march at times with exaggerated
heaviness in dynamic contrast, enough to wake the dead !
Tomaszewski continues
perceptively: ‘The Sonata was written in the atmosphere of a passion newly
manifest, but frozen by the threat of death.’
A deep existential dilemma for Chopin speaks from these pages written in Nohant in 1839. The pianist, like all of us, must go one dimension deeper to plumb the terrifying abyss this sonata opens at our feet. Of the virtuosic Presto, with which Giltburg concluded the work, Chopin wrote characteristically with intentional irony of the ‘chattering after the march’ leaving Schumann to write in philosophical and literary frustration: ‘The Sonata ends as it began, with a riddle, like a Sphinx – with a mocking smile on its lips’.
Ballade in F Minor, Op. 52 (1842–1843)
I felt this great masterpiece lacked any true narrative landscape. As Chopin himself once said: 'I only indicate. It is up the listener to complete the picture.' Of course it was brilliantly executed by Giltburg but for me it was not a true, coherent and seriously tragic 'opera of life' in absolute music, which I believe it is.
Scherzo in E Major, Op. 54 (1842–1843)
Then
Giltburg finally performed the rarely performed Scherzo in E
major Op.54. The image of a glittering turtle shell took hold
of me in the Scherzo. The internal irrationality and neurotic dislocation
evident within this piece I felt rather escaped Giltburg as he seemed more
attracted to the surface virtuosity of the phrases rather than the complex
living interior that the surface was concealing. The dynamic
contrasts seemed too extreme for me. The polyphony was sometimes obscured and
much inner detail as the work became simply pianistic and so the living interior
expired. Chopin seduces one inside his works but one must become sensitive to
his gestures of encouragement.
This Scherzo is not dramatic in the demonic sense of the other scherzi, but lighter
in ambiance. The outer sections are a strange exercise in rather joke-filled
fun with a darkly concealed centre of passionate grotesquerie. The work
mysteriously encloses a deeply felt and ardent nocturne in the form of a
longing love poem, suffused with a sense of loss. For me, Giltburg only
partially expressed the complexity of these emotions with conviction, and
became slightly lost in the labyrinth at times. He delighted us with his
overwhelming technique, his beauty of tone and lightness of articulation.
Playfulness
with hints of seriousness and gravity underlie the exuberant mood of
this scherzo. Giltburg seemed not to feel deeply the emotional ambiguities
that run like a vein though the work. The central section (lento,
then sostenuto) in place of the Trio, gives one the impression so
often with Chopin, the ardent, reflective nature of distant love. Giltburg, as
always, was rather moving in his beautifully
executed cantabile. There was a sense of triumph and the will
to carry on with life in the passionate last chords that close the work.
Heinrich Heine, a German poet who idolized Chopin, asked himself in a letter from Paris: ‘What is music?’ He answered himself ‘It is a marvel. It has a place between thought and what is seen; it is a dim mediator between spirit and matter, allied to and differing from both; it is spirit wanting the measure of time and matter which can dispense with space.’
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An original
18th Century Neo-Classical doorway in Duszniki Zdrój |
In 2004, at the age of eight, Aimi Kobayashi became the youngest gold
medalist of the PTNA piano competition. The following year, she became
the youngest winner of the National Music Competition of Japan. In 2009,
she won the junior section prize of the Asia-Pacific International Chopin
Piano Competition, and then in 2011, she was the gold medalist at the Asia
International Chopin Competition and won the Yasuko Fukuda Prize. In
2012, she won third prize at the Gina Bachauer International Young Artists
Piano Competition, in 2021 – the 4th prize of the International Chopin Piano
Competition in Warsaw.
In 2011 she gave her first recital at Carnegie Hall for the Japan NYC Festival
– of which Seiji Ozawa is the musical director – before giving a recital
at the Tokyo Opera City Tower.
Aimi Kobayashi has already performed with several major orchestras,
both in Japan and overseas, including the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century
under Frans Bruggen, the Moscow Virtuosi under Vladimir Spivakov,
Brazilian Symphony Orchestra under James Judd, Tokyo Philharmonic, NHK
Symphonic, and Moscow Philharmonic orchestras. In Japan, she regularly
performs with the Yomiuri Nippon, the Japan Philharmonic, and the Hyogo
Performing Arts Center Orchestras. Recent highlights include recitals in La
Roque-d’Antheron and in Salle Cortot in Paris and concerts with Philharmonic
Royal de Liege and Tonhalle orchestras.
Aimi Kobayashi has recorded pieces by Beethoven and Schumann on EMI
label, and she is now an exclusive artist of Warner Classics, who released her
latest Chopin CD in 2021.
Kobayashi was born on 23 September 1995 in Ube, Japan. In the spring
of 2022, she graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in
the piano class of Meng-Chieh Liu.
 |
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) |
When listening to these works it is
interesting to reflect that during his lifetime Schubert was above all lauded
for his glorious Lieder (an
astonishing 640 of them), dance music (a passion during the Biedermeier period)
and smaller piano works. Works considered of fundamental significance today
were not so appraised in early nineteenth century Vienna.
So many
of the larger works we are familiar with - piano sonatas, symphonies, chamber
music and operas were rather unknown except to some of his literary friends,
lyric poets, the cognoscenti and
'obedient rebels'. Beethoven had a profound influence on Schubert
as a composer, the writer of ravishing songs but living in the shadow of one he
considered a musical Prometheus.
Legends
proliferated around both composers. In 1863 during the exhumation of both
bodies from Vienna's Währing Cemetery, it was observed (rather absurdly to my
mind) by a friend of Beethoven's, the Austrian physician and medical
researcher Gerhard von Breuning, that
'...it was extremely interesting physiologically to compare the
compact thickness of Beethoven's skull and the fine almost feminine thinness of
Schubert's, and to relate them, almost directly, to the character of their
music.'
There is
a psychological tension that erupts between Schubert's inner personal lyricism
and the harsh outer reality of the Vienna of the day, expressed within many of
his compositions for piano. In a letter to his brother Ferdinand in July 1824,
he wrote of his 'fateful recognition of a miserable reality, which I
endeavour to beautify as far as is possible by my imagination [Phantasie] (thank God)'
The title Impromptu originated with the Bohemian
composer Václav Tomášek and was brought to Vienna by his pupil Jan Voříšek
around 1818. The term described rather easy and light characterful pieces for
cultivated amateurs to perform. Schubert adopted this title for this
collection, not originally assigned to these works by him but by his publisher
Haslinger.
Perhaps he was attracted by the idea of
spontaneity in composition. Schubert may also have wished to communicate a
sense of carefully structured poetic improvisation. Listening to the poetic
richness of these works, one is inescapably reminded of his Lieder. Perhaps Sokolov wanted to link,in
some motivational compositional, stylistic or close chronological
manner the Beethoven Bagatelles and
Schubert Impromptus in this
programme. Both sets of works were composed almost at the same time and
originally considered 'light' but are now considered to possess far deeper
significance and resonance.
To play all four Kobayashi set herself a considerable challenge. The glowing
tone in Schubert that she presented to us, came from the very first
chords of the first Impromptu in F
minor:Allegro moderato. The tone, moderate tempo, varied
dynamics and luminous cantabile were
highly artistic and creative. A song winging effortlessly above the left
hand accompaniment.
The
second in A-flat major: Allegretto with
Kobayashi was replete with tenderness, refinement and delicacy she brought to it were remarkably moving. The lustrous tone as the
work develops from minuet into the Trio was never exaggerated.
In the
third in B-flat major: Andante with
Kobayashi, we are in the realm of a familiar melody. The renowned set of
variations on a theme offers to the heart the melody Schubert borrowed
from his incidental music to the play Rosamunde, reminiscent
also of the slow movement of his A minor string quartet, D804. The third
variation is more disturbed and in the minor key. Clouds pass over the winter
sun in the fourth variation, which for me contemplates the darkness beyond this
life but never abandons to pessimism. The fifth variation was like the last
dancer in a ballroom, in his sleepy dream he contemplates past joys in soft
reflected nostalgia.
The last Impromptu in F minor : Allegro scherzando has
the flavour of Hungary with strong off-beat accents that made one want to
dance.
The whole set of these impromptus was presented by Kobayashi in a deeply thoughtful manner. We were mysteriously transported directly into the realm of the composer's beauty and inspiration.
 |
'Oberek’ (a Polish rural dance) painting by Józef Chełmoński, 1878 |
One must remember in many cases the Chopin Mazurkas are recalled dances, memories of past joys with a significant weight of melancholic nostalgia. These reminiscences of dance and associated experience are all viewed through the obscuring veils of past time, a musical À la recherche du temps perdu. They cannot be considered in an over-passionate recall or even visceral recreation of experience. Life is simply not like this as the gauze of memory descends.
The mazurkas were published as sets and Chopin himself may have had some organizational musical mystique, a musical or philosophical connection in grouping them together in their compositional arrangement in collections.
Here in the Op.59 set we were drawn into the world of Chopin's nostalgic and poetic dreams in an affecting rendition of these ‘most beautiful sounds that it is possible to produce from the piano’ (Ludwig Bronarski). Let me allow Mieczysław Tomaszewski to describe the third of these Mazurkas in F sharp minor which 'drags one into the whirl of a Mazurian dance from the very first bars, with its sweeping, unconstrained gestures, its verve, élan, exuberance, and also, more importantly, the occasional suppressing of that vigour and momentum, in order to yield up music that is tender, subtle, delicate...'
This sonata is one of the greatest masterpieces in the canon of Western piano music. The Chopin Sonata No 3 in B minor Op. 58 was superb and exactly as I would have imagined the restrained and refined Chopin to have played it.
The first movement was taken at a moderate, majestic pace with a full, rounded tone that never broke through any ceiling of discomfort. The Scherzo was full of the brittle life Chopin imbues this form of jest with 'dark veils'. The Largo was so affecting and poetic it almost reduced me to tears with its limpid heartfelt tone. In the the Finale Kobayashi wound up the tension to a monumental conclusion of resignation tinged with despair. She produced a full rounded tone with controlled dynamic gradations, articulation, variety of touch and colour. Chopin is described as playing like this himself. Words are inadequate to describe this interpretation. One of the great live performance of this work I have heard.
Chopin was embracing the cusp of Romanticism, yet at the same time hearkening back to classical restraint - le climat de Chopin as his favourite pupil Marcelina Czartoryska described it. The Scherzo had that Mendelssohnian atmosphere of fairy lightness I feel it needs. The Trio displayed a warm Chopin cantabile.
The Largo is an exquisite extended nocturne-like musical voyage taken through a night of meditation and introspective thought. This great musical narrative of extended and challenging harmonic structure must be presented as a poem of the reflective heart and spirit. The Finale. Presto ma non tanto was immensely powerful and accurate in its headlong flight.
Tomaszewski again cannot be bettered:
Thereafter, in a constant Presto (ma non troppo) tempo and with the expression of emotional perturbation (agitato), this frenzied, electrifying music, inspired (perhaps) by the finale of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony…’
Róża Światczyńska took extracts to read beautifully from a remarkable, deeply fascinating, recently published book entitled:
'Friederike Müller: letters from Paris 1839–1845. Chopin's teaching and surroundings in the light of the correspondence of his favorite student'
 |
Róża Światczyńska |
Suzuki is the first
prize, Chamber Music Award, Audience Prize, the Mayor
of Sapporo Award,
and the Mayor of Warsaw Award winner in the 12th
Hamamatsu
International Piano Competition (2024). first prize and Audience
Award winner in the
92nd Music Competition of Japan (2023), as well
as special Grand
Prix and Audience Award winner in the 47th PTNA Piano
Competition (2023).
To date, she has
given numerous recitals throughout Japan, and has performed
with Japan's major
orchestras, including Tokyo Symphony, Tokyo
Philharmonic, and
Japan Philharmonic. In the future, he has plans to play
numerous concerts
also overseas.
Born in Osaka,
Japan, in 2002, she started playing the piano at the age
of four. After
graduated from the music department of Osaka Prefectural
Yuhigaoka High
School, she graduated from the Tokyo College of Music (Piano
Performance Course)
as a scholarship student. She is currently taking part
in the Tokyo College
of Music Graduate School Master Course as a special
scholarship student.
Every year since 2020, she has featured in the Tokyo
College of Music
Piano Concert by Piano Performers’ Course Outstanding
Students. She
participated in the Hamamatsu International Piano Academy
and the Kirishima International Music Festival.
 |
The weather is superb this year - Sunny, 25 C light breeze |
Joseph Haydn (1731–1809)
Sonata (Partita) in G Major, Hob. XVI:6 (1760–1766)
Allegro
Minuet
Adagio
Allegro molt
Most impressive of Haydn’s early sonatas. With Suzuki the opening movement expressed a wide variety galant clichés. Her crystalline tone and Japanese ultra-refinement of touch were immediately obvious and so welcome in the opening Allegro! A tremendous contrast of dynamic scale compared to other pianists in the festival was clear. Her ornaments were superbly articulated although a feeling of spontaneity was rather absent. The cantabile in the Adagio was alluring and beautiful in its transparency. The final Allegro molto possessed great momentum and panache. It was lively and as light as a feather in articulation. The whole sonata was presented by Suzuki as immaculate and stylish.
Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
3 Ecossaises, Op. 72
(1829–1830)
in D Major
in G Major
in D-Flat Major
Ever so brief but what musical treasures lay in that velvet case!
The three Ecossaises, published posthumously by Julian
Fontana, were probably composed close to the end of Chopin's time in Warsaw;
the year of composition has not been reliably determined, but 1829 or 1830
seems likely. The title refers to a type of contredanse in the Scottish
manner: as a composed dance piece for piano (often with a ‘Scotch snap' rhythm
in a lively 2/4 time), the écossaise became popular in the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as a kind of exotic work with couleur
locale. There are examples by Beethoven and Schubert, as well as these
three short pieces by Chopin. The latter are fairly conventional contributions
to the genre, modestly attractive, but betraying little evidence of Chopin's
later distinctive musical style.
(Notes by Jim Samson © 2014)
Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937)
.jpg)
Metopes, Op.
29 (1915)
L'île des Sirènes
Calypso
Nausicaa
The Polish musicologist Anna Iwanicka-Nijakowska explains the composition:
Szymanowski composed the work in the spring and summer of 1915. The inspiration came from the famed reliefs (Metopes) from the Sicilian temple of Selinunte, which he saw at the National Museum in Palermo four years earlier. United by their theme, the Odyssey, the cycle's three pieces refer to Odysseus' three different adventures.
The first one, The Sirens' Island, dedicated to Szymanowski's cousin Lola Rościszewska, is a musical vision of women with fish tails, their fatal singing bringing death upon seamen.
Suzuki certainly gave one the impression of water concealing the duplicitous sirens.
The second piece, Calypso, dedicated to Szymanowski's sister Anna Szymanowska, invokes the story of the eponymous nymph from the island of Ogygia.
Suzuki gave us a sense of evil seduction here.
Calypso kept Odysseus prisoner for seven years.
I am afraid Suzuki did not warm to the third one Nausikaa. It was dedicated to Marianna Davidoff from Kamionka, an estate neighbouring on Tymoszówka. It eulogizes Odysseus' unhappy, unrequited love for the daughter of the king of the Phaiakians.
Rather than literally illustrating the Greek myths shown on the Sicilian reliefs, Szymanowski's music conveys their fantastic air and the composer's sensation. It is a new style music with a new sound, new harmony and a new type of texture. The three music pictures, while static in character, are vibrant and shimmer with colours. This is achieved by the employing closed techniques and architectural principles, including the atonal harmony, multiple, dissonant chords (The Sirens' Island), uniquely beautiful, lyrical melody with numerous figurations and passage works (Calypso), ostinatos and cadences (Nausikaa) and, last but not least, the form with features of a free poem rather than a traditional structure.
I have only heard this piece twice live, in London and at the IX International Paderewski Piano Competition, Bydgoszcz, Poland in 2013. I really do not know it intimately enough to comment in detail on this interpretation by Suzuki, however, I found the work absolutely remarkable and dazzling at times. It will still take me even more time, time to develop a strong affection for it I think, especially Nausikaa.
Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)
Valse-Caprice No. 2 in D-Flat Major, Op. 38 (1884)
The work is dedicated to the wife of the composer Bordes-Pène, a close friend of Fauré. Suzuki was charming in her execution but I yearned for more feeling of the French approaching fin de siècle. She presented us with a great variety of tone, timbre and touch with significant amounts of glorious 'singing' on the piano. In many ways a bewitching performance and interpretation
INTERMISSION
Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
Sonata ‘Fantasie’ in G Major, Op. 78 D 894 (1826)
This composition is on the grand scale worthy of Schubert's idol, Beethoven.
Molto moderato e cantabile
Suzuki was sere and lyrical in this opening. The second subject was playful and like a dance. However, I was searching for a more committed dramatic vision in the tensions and relaxations. The dichotomy of grey reality and poignant dreams was subtly present but not as clear as in the Schubert Lieder.
Andante
Reflective and sensitive in texture without doubt but with this reduced scale of dynamics, not sufficiently emotionally engaging for me as the lyrical theme gives way to turbulent sections.
Menuetto. Allegro moderato
There is a musical connection here, which Suzuki seemed to be aware of, with the 'utmost quietude and delicacy' of Austrian Ländler. It fitted like a glove with her concept of overall reduced dynamic scale
Allegretto
Again Suzuki brought a welcome lightness, lyricism and charm to this movement. Although young, I find her musical sensitivity and refinement so promising. Depth of emotional penetration will come with life experience. Her dynamic contrast with the other young tyros of the keyboard was as refreshing as a plunge in a cool mountain streaming a scorching day. This control together with her superb tone and touch is at once seductive and hypnotizing.
A remarkable experience somewhat from another era of refinement and civilization.
24th NATIONAL PIANO MASTERCLASS
5th AUGUST
JAN WEBER CHAMBER MUSIC HALL
10.00 AM
PROF. RONAN O’HORA
Ronan O'Hora
has performed throughout the world, playing with such orchestras
as the
London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, the BBC Symphony,
Royal
Philharmonic and English Chamber orchestras, the Academy of St Martin-
in-the-Fields,
Halle Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Zurich Tonhalle,
Netherlands
Radio Chamber, Philharmonia Hungarica, Brno Philharmonic,
Winnipeg
Symphony, Florida Philharmonic, and Queensland Philharmonic.
He has
performed regularly in every major country in Europe as well as in the
USA,
Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, China, Singapore, and South Africa,
working
with leading conductors such as Kees Bakels, Matthias Bamert, Hans
Vonk,
James Judd, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Bramwell Tovey, Hans Vonk, Edo de
Waart,
Takuo Yuasa, and Lothar Zagrosek. He has appeared at many notable
music
festivals such as Salzburg, Gstaad, Ravinia, Montpellier and Brno. He
has
broadcast on television and radio throughout the world. Ronan O’Hora has
made
highly regarded recordings on the Tring International, EMI, Hyperion,
Virgin
Classics, Dynamic, and Fone labels, including concertos by Mozart,
Grieg, and
Tchaikovsky in addition to solo piano repertoire by Schubert,
Brahms,
Debussy, Schumann, Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, Mendelssohn, and
Satie plus
chamber music by Faure, Britten, Debussy, Dvořak, and Mozart, in
a
discography which extends to over thirty CDs.
Ronan O'Hora
is a teacher of world renown, Head of Keyboard Studies
and Head
of Advanced Performance Studies at the Guildhall School of Music
and Drama
in London. Many of his students have been prize winners in
international
piano competitions. He regularly gives masterclasses all over
the world
including at the Juilliard School, Yale University, Peabody Institute,
Beijing
Central Conservatory, Seoul National University, Korean National
University
of the Arts, Glenn Gould School, Banff Centre, and the Academie
Orford
Musique. He is Visiting Professor at Tokyo College of Music and Guest
Professor
at the China Conservatory. He regularly sits on the juries of the
world's
foremost international piano competitions, including the Rubinstein,
Hamamatsu,
Gina Bachauer, Dublin, and China International.
Ronan O'Hora
studied with Prof. Ryszard Bakst at the Royal Northern
College of
Music in Manchester. He has won many important awards and
performed
extensively throughout the world. Broadcasts on radio and television
have
included a televised performance of Beethoven's 4th Piano Concerto
with the
Netherlands Radio Symphony, two programmes of chamber music
by Mozart for BBC TV, as well as over 80 concerts on BBC Radio 3.
Among innumerable profound observations on the selected pieces examined in the Masterclasses I noted down a couple of things. Not being a music teacher I harbored no practical application for these observations. If you read the biographical outlines of these professors you will realize they are among the most brilliant musicological and performance interpretative advisors at present in Europe.
Yehuda Prokopowicz
They was examining in detail the Chopin Polonaise A-flat Major Op.53 'Heroic'. Ronan began with a definition of the word 'maestoso' which appears so often in performance direction in works by Chopin. He pointed out that it did not mean necessarily mean 'slow' and 'majestic' in a given context, but noble.
He discussed varied dynamics and colour, suggesting to Yehuda that a passage be played with eyes closed which demonstrably altered the texture and timbre of the phrase for the better. This Ronan explained was because the eye is connected to the brain and intellect whereas if you are 'blind' as it were, you listen with the ear to the sound and its contents rather than decode mentally with the eye.
He also discussed the importance of the breath in phrasing (for singers), dynamics and resonance. He pointed out what he brilliantly termed 'Hollywood rubato' which is expressive artificiality and learned execution that creeps into much of Chopin's music in performance, rather than metaphysical and true emotional and expressive integrity. The perceptive interpreter should become a direct conduit to us for the music.
Julia Łozowska
They examined the Chopin Scherzo in C minor Op. 39. One observation Ronan made attracted me and that was 'music is like water'. It is an unalterable flowing force that we must somehow accommodate to rather than attempting the impossibility of changing its nature for our desire and purpose.
Krszysztof Wierciński
In a rather remarkable and inspired decision (to my mind) decision, he decided to present the youthful work the Rondo in C minor Op.1.
This work was written by fifteen-year-old ‘Frycek’ and published in 1825. The rondos indicate familiarity with the rondos of the Viennese Classics by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and lesser luminaries. The dazzling and fashionable style brillante was somewhat of an obsession with the young pianist Fryderyk on the pianos of the day. However, later in life the scherzos, ballades and études avoided the genre of the free-standing rondo. They are now considered as youthful or virtuosic pieces indicating the ‘classical’ aura of his training in composition. This is not to say they should be glided over without due attention. They are more recently being given more serious and deserved attention.
Young Chopin also observed features of the style brillante in rondos by the gloriously blithe Hummel and also Weber. This gave him the model for shaping the pianistic luster of his own works. This Op.1 Rondo is already marked by graceful, elegant and brilliant writing and can be highly entertaining if performed with the correct feel for context and period.
Wierciński brought the alluring, sparkling tone and refined touch of the style brillante to the work convincingly. He was charming, elegant and stylish. This suitability was commented on by Ronan who said that it was clear that Krszysztof had excellent taste for the youthful Chopin brought up in an entirely aristocratic environment in early nineteenth-century Warsaw. Ronan pointed out indications of Chopin's later work that lay concealed as treasures within this early piece. He indicated this work is based on a highly original tonal plan. He emphasized that one should never play these early works prosaically. The work they performed together in this masterclass was highly entertaining and instructive.
 |
Saying Goodbye
Lt to Rt: Prof. Piotr Paleczny, the highly gifted musician and translator for the festival, Anna Karczewska-Golka and Prof. Ronan O'Hora
Third-prize winner
in the 11th International Chopin Piano Competition in
Warsaw (1985) Jabłoński
also won top prizes of international piano competitions
in Milan, Monza,
Palm Beach, Dublin, New York, Calgary, and the Gold
Medal of the Arthur
Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in
Tel Aviv, For more
than thirty years, the artist has pursued a busy schedule
as a soloist and
chamber musician in Europe, both Americas, Asia, and the
Near East (Israel).
He has played recitals in Berlin Philharmonic's prestigious
masters series. He
has appeared with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century,
Berner
Symphonieorchester, the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des
SWR, the
Dusseldorfer Symphoniker, the Hamburger Symphoniker, Sinfonia
Lahti, Kirishima
Festival Orchestra, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, as well as
philharmonic
orchestras from Helsinki, Tokyo, and Warsaw, NFM Wrocław
Philharmonic, and
the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, under the
baton of such
masters as Valery Gergiev, Andrey Boreyko, Krzysztof Penderecki,
Marek Pijarowski,
Jerzy Semkow, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Frans Brũggen, Witold
Rowicki, Antoni Wit,
and Jan Krenz.
Jabłoński's
repertoire includes, apart from great well-known piano classics,
also forgotten
concerts by Ferdinand Ries, Henry Litolff, and Ernst von Dohnanyi.
He has been invited
to collaborate on ballets and operas and to take part in
multimedia projects
such as the Dusseldorfer Symphoniker production of Scriabin's
Prometheus, the ballet Fortepianissimo choreographed by
Lorca Massine
at Warsaw's Teatr
Wielki, and a performance of the original piano version of
Debussy's lyrical
drama Pelléas et Mélisande.
The pianist has
recorded extensively for the radio and television in many
countries, as well
as releasing numerous albums in Germany, Japan, and Poland.
Pupil of Janina
Butor, Jabłoński graduated from Prof. Andrzej Jasiński's class
at the Katowice
Academy of Music. He developed his abilities at masterclasses
taught by Rudolf
Kerer and Nikita Magaloff. He is regularly invited to give
lectures, conduct
masterclasses, and serve on the juries of international piano
competitions in
Warsaw, Toronto, Miami, Tokyo, as well as Foshan and Shenzen
(China). In 2004–2017
he was a professor at the Chopin University of Music
in Warsaw. He also
taught at the Mount Royal University in Calgary and the
University of
Calgary. Since 2022, he has been the head of Piano and Keyboard,
Academic Leader of
Piano and Keyboard, as well as Tenured Professor at the
Chinese University
of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.
This a warm programme of familiar Chopin which for me was
perfectly appropriate to the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Duszniki
Zdrój Chopin Festival. It was a programme assembled for an audience who loves Chopin's
music rather than knowledgeable, academically critical musicologists (or
critics for that matter!)
Nocturne in C-Sharp Minor, Lento con gran espressione, Op. posth. (1830
A most expressive and affecting opening with lovely tone and refined touch
Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 66 (1830)
One cannot help being amazed at the melodic gift Chopin possessed. Jabłonski made this terribly familiar piece into a piece of joyful expression and poignant rubato.
Prelude in D-Flat Major, Op. 28 No. 15 (1838–1839)
A rather conventional reading but beautiful singing cantabil
Scherzo in B-Flat Minor, Op. 31 (1836–1837)
The triplet that Chopin made his students suffer endless repetitions as an existential question - as in Hamlet 'To be or not to be?' was not there for me. However it was a powerful performance full of drama and passio
Nocturne in C Minor, Op. 48 No. 1 (1841)
Sensitive treatment of the heartbreaking harmonic transitions
Étude in C Minor, Op. 10 No. 12 (1829–1832)
Full of excellent neurotic energy - almost a byword for successful Chopin interpretation. No Haydnesque health in evidence ....
Polonaise in A-Flat Major, Op. 53 (1842–1843)
A fine, patriotic spirited performance that developed in growth with dramatic impetus. The interpretation seemed so appropriate today for the soul's struggle with the dark realities of war. Jabłonski adopted a moderate tempo for what might be interpreted as galloping cavalry, which was highly effective rather than taking us into a Cecil B. Demille artificial filmic version
INTERMISSION
Prelude in E Minor, Op. 28
No. 4
Étude in E-Major, Op. 10 No. 3
Waltz in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 64 No. 2 (1847)
Jabłonski captured s a true waltz rhythm unable to be mastered by too many pianists
Nocturne E-Minor Op. 72 No. 1 (1827?
Jabłonski created a haunting melancholic nostalgia
Waltz in A Minor, Op. 34 No. 2 (1838)
I was affected by the beautiful nostalgic yearning for past joys created by Jabłonski in this waltz. Remembering past pleasures. The shadow of passing life trapped in the transit of time
Waltz in A Minor, Op. posth. (1847–1849
A rarely performed waltz with such an eloquent melodic line that evoked regrets of past abandonments of lov
Étude in B Minor, Op. 25 No. 10 (1835–1837)
Turbulent emotions. The cantilena with Jabłonski was particularly beautiful - a flower of sensibility marooned in the often dark ocean of reality. Dreams are too often returned to grey existence
Ballade in G Minor, Op. 23 (1835–1836)
Jabłonski made the narrative structure without the all too common exaggerated dynamic contrasts and tempo fluctuations. The narrative drama that lies within the absolute musical carapace.
Andante spianato & Grande Polonaise Brillante in E-Flat Major, Op. 22 (1834–1835)
The Andante was certainly smooth (spianato)
as silk and emerged as a self-contained work. Actually, Chopin often performed
it as such without the polonaise.
The Grand Polonaise was performed in an
energetic rhythm and style. This youthful work was scintillating in style
brillante and replete with élan and panache. It came across the
Dworek stage as youthful, light and a joyful playing of the piano, engaged with
pleasure rather than a serious test of knowledge and performance ability. The
phrasing and rhythm were infectiously alive and all the notes correct (no mean
feat). Overall a great performance of this underestimated work.
A most enjoyable recital of closely known Chopin, perhaps for some in the audience, from childhood. Absolutely appropriate for this anniversary event.
Kyohei Sorita has emerged as one of Japan’s most celebrated pianists since
winning the silver medal at the 2021 Chopin Competition in Warsaw. He is
the founder, producer, and conductor of the Japan National Orchestra and
runs his own record label, NOVA. Sorita also produces Solistiade, a music
salon fostering connections between young musicians and music lovers.
Recognised by Forbes as one of Asia’s most influential business personalities
under 30, Sorita is a dynamic force both on and off the stage.
At the outset of the 2023/24 season, Sorita appeared as pianist and conductor
with the Japan National Orchestra at the Sudtirol Festival Meran,
hailed as ‘the discovery of the festival’. Shortly thereafter, he collaborated
with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under Alan Gilbert during a
Japan tour featuring Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1. February 2024 marked
another milestone with his debut with the Residentie Orkest, performing in
The Hague and Utrecht, followed by an Asian tour with the Basel Chamber
Orchestra later that season.
The current season has seen Sorita debut with the Wurttemberg Chamber
Orchestra Heilbronn and announce return engagements with the Munich
Philharmonic and Tonkunstler Orchestra. Upcoming seasons include a debut
at the Klavierfestival Ruhr, reappearances with the Mozarteum Orchestra, a
Japanese tour with members of the Scharoun Ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic,
and another tour of Japan with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich
under Paavo Jarvi.
Sorita has performed with esteemed ensembles such as the Deutsches
Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI,
Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic, Russian National
Orchestra, and the NHK, Yomiuri, and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony
Orchestras. He has worked under renowned conductors including Robin
Ticciati, Sebastian Weigle, Yutaka Sado, Andrea Battistoni, Andrey Boreyko,
and Mikhail Pletnev.
Kyohei Sorita pursued advanced studies at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory
in Moscow and the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. Early highlights
included his solo recital debut and a performance with the Mariinsky Orchestra
at the Russian International Music Festival, followed by a triumphant
sold-out recital at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall in 2016.
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| Opening page autograph manuscript Ballade in G minor Op.23 |
‘I have received from Chopin a Ballade’, Schumann informed his friend Heinrich Dorn in the autumn of 1836. ‘It seems to me to be the work closest to his genius (though not the most brilliant). I told him that of everything he has created thus far it appeals to my heart the most. After a lengthy silence, Chopin replied with emphasis: “I am glad, because I too like it the best, it is my dearest work”.’
Mieczysław Tomaszewski again paints the background to this work best:
It was during those two years that what was original, individual and distinctive in Chopin spoke through his music with great urgency and violence, expressing the composer’s inner world spontaneously and without constraint – a world of real experiences and traumas, sentimental memories and dreams, romantic notions and fancies. Life did not spare him such experiences and traumas in those years, be it in the sphere of patriotic or of intimate feelings. [...] For everyone, the ballad was an epic work, in which what had been rejected in Classical high poetry now came to the fore: a world of extraordinary, inexplicable, mysterious, fantastical and irrational events inspired by the popular imagination.
In Romantic poetry, the ballad became a ‘programmatic’ genre. It was here that the real met the surreal. Mickiewicz gave his own definition: ‘The ballad is a tale spun from the incidents of everyday (that is, real) life or from chivalrous stories, animated by the strangeness of the Romantic world, sung in a melancholy tone, in a serious style, simple and natural in its expressions’.
And there is no doubt that in creating the first of his piano ballades, Chopin allowed himself to be inspired by just such a vision of this highly Romantic genre. What he produced was an epic work telling of something that once occurred, ‘animated by strangeness’, suffused with a ‘melancholy tone’, couched in a serious style, expressed in a natural way, and so closer to an instrumental song than to an elaborate aria.
Sorita gave a powerful virtuosic performance with a full understanding of its narrative nature
Chopin was working on the F major Ballade in Majorca. In January 1839, after his Pleyel pianino had arrived from Paris, he wrote to Fontana ‘You’ll soon receive the Preludes and the Ballade’. And a few days after, when sending the manuscript of the Preludes: ‘In a couple of weeks, you’ll receive the Ballade, Polonaises and Scherzo.' So the conception took place in the atmosphere of a haunted monastery, threatened by untamed nature. Here was conceived the idea of contrasting a gentle and melodic siciliana with a demonic presto con fuoco – the music of those ‘impassioned episodes’, as Schumann referred to them.
The
Leipzig encounter with Chopin that Schumann experienced in 1840 is instructive.
'A new Chopin Ballade has appeared’, he noted in his diary. ‘It
is dedicated to me and gives me greater joy than if I’d received an order from
some ruler’. He remembered a conversation with Chopin: ‘At that
time he also mentioned that certain poems of Mickiewicz had suggested his ballade
to him.’ So the narrative balladic tradition did underlie this conception
but naturally not in any programmatic way.
This Ballade depicts
to perfection the innocence of childhood before the operatic portrait of life’s
spiritual journey began. The eruption of grim reality always arrives with an
effective accumulation of anguish and anger. And so the passions of a broken
life continued to erupt. There were moments of reflectiveness but the passion
he brought to the work broke many rational barriers. The emotion often
does this in real life, if it is authentic passion rather than simply a strong
feeling. By definition, authentic passion cannot be controlled. Sorita's tone
contrasted with the wild explosions of experience. Death at the conclusion.
Sorita had a beautiful tone colour and soft lyrical style of presentation. Yet it was a highly emotional reading, clear from the rich dynamic contrasts.
The Ballade in A flat major Op. 47 (1841) possesses a 'narrative' musical force and the feeling of a miniature opera being played out in absolute music. The work contains some of the most magical passages in Chopin, some of the greatest moments of passionate fervour culminating in other periods of shattering climatic tension.
In the music of the A flat major Ballade, which unfolds a dizzying array of events, attempts have been made to discern and identify the separate motifs, characters and moods. Two possible sources of inspiration have been inferred. Interestingly, they can be reduced to a common, supremely Romantic, denominator. Schumann was captivated by the very ‘breath of poetry’ emanating from this Ballade. Niecks heard in it ‘a quiver of excitement’. ‘Insinuation and persuasion cannot be more irresistible,’ he wrote, ‘grace and affection more seductive’. In the opinion of Jan Kleczyński, it is the third (not the second) Ballade that is ‘evidently inspired by Adam Mickiewicz’s Undine. That passionate theme is in the spirit of the song “Rusalka.” The ending vividly depicts the ultimate drowning, in some abyss, of the fated youth ‘in question’.
A different source is referred to by Zygmunt Noskowski: ‘Those close and contemporary to Chopin’, he wrote in 1902, ‘maintained that the Ballade in A flat major was supposed to represent Heine’s tale of the Lorelei – a supposition that may well be credited when one listens attentively to that wonderful rolling melody, full of charm, alluring and coquettish. Such was surely the song of the enchantress on the banks of the River Rhine’, ends Noskowski, ‘lying in wait for an unwary sailor – a sailor who, bewitched by the seductress’s song, perishes in the river’s treacherous waters’.
This was a fine interpretation and moving on many levels. His keyboard command, tone colour, timbre and commitment was never in doubt. There was far less dynamic exaggeration as occasionally occurred in the other Ballades.
The brilliant Polish musicologist Mieczysław Tomaszewski describes the musical landscape of this great masterpiece of Western music far more graphically than I ever could.
The narration is marked, to an incomparably higher degree than in the previous ballades, with lyrical expression and reflectiveness […] Its plot grows entangled, turns back and stops. As in the tale of Odysseus, mysterious, weird and fascinating episodes appear […] at the climactic point in the balladic narration, it is impossible to find the right words. This explosion of passion and emotion, expressed through swaying passages and chords steeped in harmonic content, is unparalleled. Here, Chopin seems to surpass even himself. This is expression of ultimate power, without a hint of emphasis or pathos […] For anyone who listens intently to this music, it becomes clear that there is no question of any anecdote, be it original or borrowed from literature. The music of this Ballade imitates nothing, illustrates nothing. It expresses a world that is experienced and represents a world that is possible, ideal and imagined.
Sorita needs to give this work a far deeper consideration as a narrative. He understood the narrative nature of this masterpiece up to a point but I felt, however, there could have been a great deal more narrative emotional drama and variety of spiritual mood invested in his phrasing and structure of the work, this opera of the drama of life.
.jpg) |
| Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) |
From his student days until the years between the
World Wars, Maurice Ravel habitually attended the elegant and stylish salon of
Princess Edmond de Polignac (1865-1943). She was an American, whose maiden name
was Winnaretta Singer, and she became heir to the Singer sewing machine
fortune. She was also a noted patron of the arts. It was this princess who
commissioned Ravel to write his six-minute piano piece, Pavane for a
Dead Princess. Ravel played the Pavane for the first time
in 1899, and overnight it launched his reputation. The piece became extremely
popular, and the composer orchestrated it in 1910.
The wording of Ravel’s title was regrettable, and he frequently had to explain
that the piece is not a cortège for a recently deceased princess. The real
sense of it is actually 'a princess out of the past.'
Characteristic of Ravel, he grew hypercritical of the piece. In 1912, having to
review a concert on which the Pavane had been programmed, he
wrote:
'I no longer see its good points from such a distance. But, alas, I perceive its faults very clearly: the glaring influence of Chabrier and the rather poverty-stricken form! The remarkable interpretation of this incomplete and unoriginal work contributed, I think, to its success.
(Notes © Dr. Michael Fink, Rhode Island Philharmonic)
Sorita gave us a sensitive interpretation of this familiar work, but rarely performed as the original piano solo. A melodically charming and intimate choice.
The imagined art exhibition above was of Hatmann's drawings and watercolours (not strong oil paintings) and I feel this should be considered when approaching the dynamic range of any performance in order to avoid undue heaviness. Sorita gave us many perfectly characteristic portraits. The Gnome was grotesque certainly but rather inflated in dynamics for this hall. The Old Castle beautifully atmospheric as was the pleasant, relaxing social and picturesque domain of the Paris Tuileries. The Cattle were amusingly ponderous, becoming giants in dynamics. I found the Балет невылупившихся птенцов (Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks) as performed by Sorita particularly amusing and brilliantly performed with superb articulation. One of the finest I have heard.
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Viktor Hartmann's costumes for the ballet Trilby which Mussorgsky attended and inspired the 5th movement |
GABRIELA MONTERO
Gabriela Montero’s visionary interpretations and unique compositional gifts
have garnered her critical acclaim and a devoted following on the world’s
stages. Anthony Tommasini remarked in The New York Times that ‘Montero’s
playing had everything: crackling rhythmic brio, subtle shadings, steely power…
soulful lyricism… unsentimental expressivity.’
Montero’s recent and forthcoming highlights feature performances of her
own Latin Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony (Marin Alsop), New
World Symphony (Stéphane Denève), Vienna and Polish National Radio Symphonies
(cond. Marin Alsop), BBC Scottish and Antwerp Symphonies (cond.
Elim Chan), Swedish Radio Symphony (under Marta Gardolińska), and the
National Arts Centre Orchestra (cond. Alexander Shelley). With the latter she
concludes a four-year Creative Partnership at the end of 2025. In May 2024,
Montero also made her long-awaited return to Los Angeles, where she worked
with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Jaime Martín, also performing
an adapted version of Westward, a special programme themed around immigration
and Charlie Chaplin’s The Immigrant at the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences in Hollywood. With the Calidore String Quartet she gave
the world premiere performance of her latest commissioned composition,
a piano quintet entitled Canaima, at the celebrated Gilmore Piano Festival.
Other highlights include an extensive European tour with the City of Birmingham
Symphony and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, a UK tour with the Prague
Symphony, and debut appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra,
Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Zurich Tonhalle, New Zealand
Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec,
and the Minnesota Orchestra, where ‘Montero’s gripping performance… made
a case that she might become the classical scene’s next great composer/pianist’
(Star Tribune). Other highlights include artist residencies with the São Paulo
Symphony, Prague Radio Symphony, Basel Symphony, and at the Rheingau
Festival; debuts at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, New York’s 92nd Street Y, Paris
Philharmonie and La Seine Musicale, and the London Piano Festival at King’s
Place, as well as the launch of ‘Gabriela Montero at Prager’, an ongoing artist
residency and international concert series established at the Prager Family
Center for the Arts in the iconic coastal town of Easton, Maryland.
Fryderyk CHOPIN
Nocturne in D flat major, Op. 27, No. 2
Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1
The Nocturnes surely must be imagined as a musical poetic reflection and the internal emotional agitation that takes place at night when the imaginative mind operates in relative silence and isolation at a different and sometimes fantastical level of consciousness. Chopin lived in a world without electricity. Just imagine this for a moment … The Nocturnes should retain a sense of improvisation in the internal exploration and discovery of sensibility.
I repeat a quote from James Huneker, the renowned American music critic, writer and pianist, author of a book devoted to Chopin, wrote of the Nocturne genre:
‘Something of Chopin’s delicate, tender warmth and spiritual voice is lost in larger spaces. In a small auditorium, and from the fingers of a sympathetic pianist, the nocturnes should be heard, that their intimate, night side may be revealed. […] They are essentially for the twilight, for solitary enclosures, where their still, mysterious tones […] become eloquent and disclose the poetry and pain of their creator.’
This monumental,
tragically majestic Nocturne in C minor is a triumph of passion battling against
constraint. The chorale opening is desperately moving in its dark nostalgia. Montero
began reflectively and at a moderate considered tempo which permitted great
sensibility of nuance in the unfolding melodic lines. She controlled the tremendous growth of sound with sensitive rubato
and oceanic waves of driven harmonies before the mighty winds subside into a
type of spiritual resignation. Her contrasts of mood were emotionally so moving.
Sonata in B minor, Op. 35
The
opening Grave doppio movimento of the Sonata in B-flat
minor Op. 35 announces the focus of the work. She gave a high degree
of emotional commitment to this remarkable movement. There was weight, strength
and menace present here, even perhaps sinister intentions. We were thrust
forward certainly in the nature of a galloping horse heading towards doom.
One
should reflect after this comment that movement itself during Chopin’s time was
restricted either to walking, horse or carriage. So when a composer wished to
impart movement to a piece of music he could not envisage all of the
extraordinary modes of travel we have at hand.
Of
the Scherzo the great Polish musicologist Tomaszewski
comments: ‘…one might say that it combines Beethovenian vigour with the
wildness of Goya’s Caprichos.’ I felt the powerful, exciting energy
of Latin America in Montero's approach. The beautiful Trio took us singing into
the further dimension of ardent dreams which makes the Marche funèbre such
a shocking jolt from the force of destiny. Montero made the reflective trio of
the Marche itself a contrast of innocence, love and purity
blighted by the reality of death (Chopin was terrified of being buried alive –
often horrifyingly possible in those primitive medical times).
Tomaszewski
continues perceptively: ‘The Sonata was written in the atmosphere of a
passion newly manifest, but frozen by the threat of death.’
A
deep existential dilemma for Chopin speaks from these pages written in Nohant
in 1839. The pianist, like all of us, must go one dimension deeper to plumb the
terrifying abyss this sonata opens at our feet. Of the virtuosic 'baroque' Presto with
which Montero concluded the work, Chopin wrote characteristically with intentional
irony of the ‘chattering after the march’ leaving Schumann to
write in philosophical and literary frustration: ‘The Sonata ends as it
began, with a riddle, like a Sphinx – with a mocking smile on its lips’.
Robert SCHUMANN
Carnaval Op. 9
Literature, especially poetry, was an obsessive concern of Robert Schumann and many other nineteenth century composers. In a world without electricity reading was of prime importance as an activity unlike the multifarious distractions possible in 2025. Pianists playing nineteenth century music should read a great deal more Romantic literature and poetry to delve and explore further dimensions of interpretation.
One of Schumann's literary idols was the author Jean Paul. Carnaval was inspired by the last chapter of the Jean Paul novel Flegeljahre (awkward age or turbulent years). In many ways the work is a reflection of Schumann's own life, friends and lovers as well as the doppelganger temperament he imagined of himself, the divided personality of Eusebius (traditionally feminine) and Florestan (traditionally masculine). These miniatures hold the key to his rich emotional inner life. The entire cycle is a celebration of the ballroom in which a type of commedia dell' arte is in progress. The 21 pieces are a festive Maskentan (Masked Ball) of differing moods. The contrasts of the puzzling, violent, idiosyncratic, tender, terrifying and capricious side of Schumann were clear with Montero. These aspects are reflected in the mercurial moodiness of the marvellous self-portraits and the colourful array of characters. Shakespeare's Macbeth is apposite:
'Life's
but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That
struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more.'
I felt Montero achieved a high degree of energy, charm, lyricism, forward drive and dynamic variation very effectively in this work with her own fiery and imaginative temperament.
Improvisations
Oh tell me now, my bonnie lass,
Why do such tears your sweet eyes glass?
Did your poor mother mourn and say,
"You gave your heart and went astray"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA9i2IUaiS0&list=RDOA9i2IUaiS0&start_radio=1
"Summertime" is an aria composed in 1934 by George
Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The lyrics are by DuBose Heyward,
the author of the novel Porgy on which the opera was based, and Ira
Gershwin.
The song soon became a popular and much-recorded jazz standard, described as "without doubt ... one of the finest songs the composer ever wrote ... Gershwin's highly evocative writing brilliantly mixes elements of jazz and the song styles of blacks in the southeast United States from the early twentieth century". Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim characterized Heyward's lyrics for "Summertime" and "My Man's Gone Now" as "the best lyrics in the musical theater"
3. Zachodźże słoneczko (Set, Little Sun)
In part of this improvisation Montero introduced a fabulously inventive Bachian 'baroque' counterpoint invention - reminiscent of a two or three part invention.
Set now, little sun,
if you must be setting,
for my legs are aching,
from the fields I’m treading.
Legs are tired from walking,
hands are sore from working.
Set now, little sun,
if you must be setting.
Behind the woods, sun, behind,
don’t you peek and don’t you shine,
you will come back here again,
when the morning comes, my friend.
4. Hej bystra woda, bystra wodiczka (Hey, swift water, clear little stream)
This Nocturne is expressive and suggestive of all the tender and heroic emotions. The musicologist Tadeusz Zielinski described the melody of the Nocturne in C minor as ‘sounds like a lofty, inspired song filled with the gravity of its message, genuine pathos and a tragic majesty’ and the writer Ferdynand Hoesick as: a true ‘Eroica’ among Chopin’s nocturnes.
This monumental, tragically majestic composition is a triumph of
passion battling against constraint. The chorale opening is desperately moving
in its dark nostalgia. Chen was deeply expressive as if recreating this piece.
His tone and colour were superbly intense yet not aggressive in any way. His
phrasing was exceptionally musical, taking us into unexplored realms of the
spiritual and physical. He presented us with a rich inner emotional life. His
sensitive rubato was affecting before the mighty winds subside into a type of
spiritual resignation.
This work containes all the troubled emotion and desire for strength in the face of the multiple adversities that beset the composer at this late stage in his life. This work, the first in the so-called ‘late style’ of the composer, was written during a period of great suffering and unhappiness. He laboured over its composition. What emerged is one of his most complex of his works both pianistically and emotionally
Chopin produced many sketches for the Polonaise-Fantasie and wrestled with the title. He had written: ‘I’d like to finish something that I don’t yet know what to call’. This uncertainty indicates surely he was embarking on a journey of compositional exploration along untrodden paths. Even Bartok one hundred years later was shocked at its revolutionary nature. The work is an extraordinary mélange of genres and styles in a type of inspired improvisation that yet maintains a magical absolute musical coherence and logic. He completed it in August 1846.
The opening tempo is marked maestoso (as with his two concerti) which indicates ‘with dignity and pride’. Chen gave us a visionary improvised opening, a feeling of searching for certainty of harmonic resolution and direction. A true improvisational fantasy of shifting sound skyscapes as if drifting clouds imbued his conception. I was impressed with both his gravitas and nobility. The dreamlike, poetic fantasy of his opening phrases set the atmosphere in which this great work unfolded its treasures. The invention fluctuated as if with the irregular circulation of the heart and the blood.
There is much rich counterpoint and polyphony that was explored here (of which Chopin was one of the greatest masters since Bach). This work as Chen presented it also conveyed a strong sense of żal, a Polish word in this context meaning melancholic regret leading to a mixture of passionate resistance, resentment and anger in the face of unavoidable fate.
Chen in his variety and fluctuation of texture, colour, tempo rubato and dynamics achieved this strangely coherent inner struggle most convincingly and poignantly. Yes, a complex work for a young man to master, written when Chopin was moving towards the cold embrace of death. And yet ... and yet ... here was triumph over destiny imbuing the whole...
Chen opened the Allegro maestoso in a moderate tempo, creating an authentic maestoso atmosphere. Such a noble beginning to the movement was under-pedaled and thus expressed a highly charged emotional possession. The trio was lyrical and his cantabile glowed with a uniquely seductive timbre. A glorious singing legato was the sensual result. He did so much creatively with the embedded polyphony, colour and varied dynamics in the development of this, as I see it, ‘balladic’ form. Moods shifted dramatically from turbulence to the quietude of a nocturne and many inner details were exposed in this transparency, this 'painted veil', which I had never before heard.
The Scherzo was wonderfully light, like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the trio full of ardent emotion. He began the unrealistic dream world of the Scherzo with detaché articulation of fairy lightness. The movement was possessed of a Mendelssohnian Queen Mab atmosphere of elfish realms and fantasy as it was articulated demi-staccato which gave it the required light and air. The trio again displayed his gift for outstandingly lyrical Chopin cantabile.
The transition to the Largo (reminiscent of the Nocturne in C minor) was not as forceful or violent as others I have heard. He adopted a moderate dynamic and tempo for the transition.
We then began an exquisite extended nocturne-like musical voyage taken through Chopin's night of meditation and introspective thought. This great musical narrative was presented as a poem of the reflective heart and spirit. The movement opened out like a great narrative poem or nocturne of meditation on a past life. The voices he revealed possessed a singular life of their own. Many musical ‘destinies’ were played out in the expressive harmonies and transitions. Is it fanciful to observe that he presented this movement rather beseechingly and offered it as a type of prayer, almost in a religious spirit ?
I could not avoid thinking of the opening lines from the Duino Elegies of Rainer Maria Rilke:
‘Who, if I cried, would hear me among the angelic orders?
And even if one of them suddenly pressed me against his heart,
I should fade in the strength of his stronger existence.’
(trans. J.B. Leishman)
The Polish musicologist Tomaszewski cannot be bettered in his introduction to the Finale.
Presto ma non tanto
'Thereafter, in a constant Presto (ma non troppo) tempo and with the expression of emotional perturbation (agitato), this frenzied, electrifying music, inspired (perhaps) by the finale of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony…’
Chen maintained the inexorable forward momentum of this movement with extraordinary accuracy and fearsome power. Yet the movement possessed much forward driving nobility and energy rather than theatrical hysteria. I was carried away unresisting by this frenetic, distraught, thrilling music with its inexorable forward drive teeming with images of galloping horses or the Furies inhabiting the souls of the oppressed.
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Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) |
The three Petrarch
Sonnets were originally written 1838-39 as songs for a high tenor
voice. Liszt transcribed them for the piano at almost the same time. Chen
made them poetic and lyrical in the most tender fashion with delicate tone,
timbre and touch. Most affecting. The words of the original song are so
appropriate for our fraught times.
I have always considered the 'reminiscence' to be as defined by the Oxford Dictionary as 'A story told about a past event remembered by the narrator.' In this case, the spectacular virtuosic display we heard from Chen was close to but not an entirely successful recreation of the opera itself. A past event remembered through the filter of time? When the Russian critic Vladimir Stasov attended a Liszt recital of this work in St. Petersburg in 1839 wrote:
'We had never in our lives heard anything like this; we had never been in the presence of such a brilliant, passionate, demonic temperament, at one moment rushing like a whirlwind, at another pouring forth cascades of tender beauty and grace. Liszt's playing was absolutely overwhelming...'
One cannot help but apply precisely this judgment to the Chen performance of this Fantasie Dramatique. Ferruccio Busoni adored the work, preparing five separate editions if memory serves me correctly. It was the most amazing feat of sheer virtuosic pianism imaginable. He commandeered an orchestral sound from the instrument one rarely, if ever, encounters in the concert hall.
Sacheverell Sitwell in his uniquely perceptive book Liszt comments: 'The Don Juan Fantasia has an indescribable and sinister virtuosity which is strangely in keeping with the cynical romanticism of its subject....so many expressions of mood and atmosphere.' (p.149)
I felt that the sinister nature of Chen's performance was not as evil-haunting as it might have been, submerged as it was in this incredible technical display, keyboard command and tender years. Not so many expressions of mood and atmosphere were present. Fortunately for them, many young pianists have not yet had a 'sinisterly blighted love affair' that completely upends the soul and heart. This is particularly true if a feeling or the experience of Juanesque manipulation of the heart has entered the romantic picture.
The Liszt Mephisto
Waltz and Faust Symphony are similarly replete with
guile and deceit of the most malicious kind. To penetrate to the absolute core
of Liszt's sulphurous recreations of the metaphysical, it is useful not only to
have complete keyboard command but the also a strong personal sense or fertile imagination of the possible sinful, lustful
and erotic excursions of the soul.
I have never particularly liked this work but in many ways yesterday afternoon in rural Poland, it was rather physically and pianistically overwhelming and rather altered my opinion. The interpretation simply rather lacked atmospheric 'operatic' variations. An overwhelming pianistic technique, far beyond normal, was on display waiting for the inevitable tigers of experience to begin their feast and deepen the interpretation. Certainly what I heard this afternoon was brilliant and the articulation and energy quite magnificent.
The Chopin Manor
erupted into a tumultuous standing ovation and wild cheering which lasted for
many minutes.
MARK LAFORÊT
Marc Laforêt – 2nd Prize winner, 11th International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (1985). Marc Laforêt began learning piano at the age of five. He studied at the Conservatoire de Boulogne-Billancourt and the Paris Conservatoire with Pierre Sancan. He graduated obtaining the Grand Prix in 1983. He took private tuition with Artur Rubinstein in Paris. He also received scholarships from the Cziffra Foundation and the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation.
In 1985, Laforêt’s career was firmly established when he was awarded at two major piano competitions. In February he won the Young Concert Artist International Auditions in New York, and in October he took 2nd Prize and Polish Radio Award for best mazurka performance at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw.
Mr. Laforêt appeared in many European countries, the US and Japan. He has performed as a soloist with top orchestras such as La Scala Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Tonhalle in Zurich, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre de La Suisse Romande, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, and has worked with conductors Kazimierz Kord, Serge Baudo, Georges Prêtre, Armin Jordan, Rudolf Barshai. His performances at the Salle Pleyel in Paris and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam were highly praised by critics.
Mr. Laforêt has performed several times in Poland. He participated in the International Chopin Festival in Duszniki, giving a recital of Beethoven, Schumann and Chopin (1983), and has performed with the National Philharmonic Orchestra at a gala concert for 40th anniversary of the United Nations. On 1st March 2004, he played Chopin’s Piano Concerto in F minor with the National Philharmonic Orchestra under Antoni Wit at a National Frederic Chopin Institute gala concert in Warsaw in celebration of the composer’s 194th anniversary.
Mr. Laforêt has recorded EMI, notably Chopin’s Sonata in B flat minor, Scherzo in B flat minor, Mazurkas Op. 24 and 63,4 Ballades and a selection of Waltzes and Nocturnes.
Stanisław Dybowski
To replace Sergei Babayan at short notice due to illness is nothing short of heroic ! Laforêt gave us a highly popular and spirited, stylish performance of a particularly standard Chopin programme and none the worse for its rather conventional nature!
He communicates the music extremely well with the benefits of maturity and deep understanding of the spirit of Chopin. He opened with the fine, certainly 'smooth' Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante Op.22, presented with French elegance and style brillante in addition to the rubato of a stylish ballroom - and excellent 'call to the floor' to open the polonaise.
In 1985 he won the Polish Radio Award for best mazurka performance at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw.
The Op.33 set he gave us tonight was idiomatic and an harmonic and rhythmic adventure of the first order. [I am indebted to the great Polish musicologist Mieczysław Tomaszewski for some of the content in these notes on the individual mazurkas.]
The first
of the four Mazurkas, Op. 33 is composed in the dark and exceedingly rare key
of G sharp minor, brightened just briefly by the key of B major. It was characterized
by its focus, intimacy and restrained passion (appassionato). All for a
moment. The height of succinctness and discretion. The second Mazurka seemed to
come from another world. Chopin has it played semplice (simply).
One wonders and delights at its songfulness. Pauline Viardot could not resist
the temptation to transcribe the instrumental song of the C major Mazurka for
the human voice and lend it the character of a lullaby.
The Mazurka in D major, second in the German editions, but third in the French, brings to the opus a reminder of the folk provenance of the Mazurkas. Laforêt roused the listener to dance with its exuberant oberek, although it was not actually written for dancing, before passing into the rhythm of a swaying mazur.
With a little imagination, Laforêt pictured for us what that dance might look like. The inestimable Liszt, a brilliant observer of everything that went on around Chopin, comes to our assistance with his admiration. ‘All the women in Poland are gifted with a magical knowledge of this dance’, he writes in his monograph, ‘the less happily endowed are able to find improvised charms within it. Here, timidity and modesty are turned to advantage, as is the majesty of those who are fully aware of being the most admired. Is it not so because of all dances this is the most chastely amorous? Since the female dancers do not ignore the public, but on the contrary address themselves to it, there reigns in the very essence of this dance a mixture of intimate tenderness and mutual vanity that is filled in equal measure with decency and allurement’.
This was another mazurka to attract the attentions of Pauline Viardot, who confessed in a letter to George Sand: ‘His mazurkas in my rendering have become favourites with audiences, who demand them at every soirée with The Barber of Seville [as we know, during the ‘singing lesson’ scene, it was the custom for something put forward by the audience to be sung] and in all the concerts in which I sing’.
The last Mazurka, in B minor, which closed opus 33, is one of Chopin’s great wonders. In it, we listened to a synthesis of heard mazurkas and remembered what may have been personally experienced by Chopin and thus profoundly true. Lyrical contemplation and dialogue, eruptions of passion, rocking and calming.
‘Where did Chopin hear and catch
red-handed the plaintively graceful melodies of kujawiaks, the fiery
rhythms of the mazur and the dizzy arabesques of the oberek?’
asked Stefan Kisieewski semi-rhetorically in his beautiful essay
on Chopin, written in 1957. ‘How did he transport them out of Poland’,
he went on to ask, ‘like that symbolic clod of native soil? How did he
preserve them, not eroded, not sullied, on the market of the world – in faraway
Paris? It is a mystery, just as the extraordinary unity of his musical
personality, made up of so many contradictions, is a mystery. But let us allow
Chopin’, concludes Kisielewski, ‘a few mysteries, let us not try to
account for everything’.
Then Laforêt performed the almost over-familiar Nocturne Op.9 No.2 with far less sentimentality than Mr. Pletnev on Friday evening followed by the great
Ballade in G minor Op. 23 (1835–36)
‘I have received from Chopin a Ballade’, Schumann informed his friend Heinrich Dorn in the autumn of 1836. ‘It seems to me to be the work closest to his genius (though not the most brilliant). I told him that of everything he has created thus far it appeals to my heart the most. After a lengthy silence, Chopin replied with emphasis: “I am glad, because I too like it the best, it is my dearest work”.’
Mieczysław
Tomaszewski again paints the background to this work best:
It was during those two years that what was original, individual and distinctive in Chopin spoke through his music with great urgency and violence, expressing the composer’s inner world spontaneously and without constraint – a world of real experiences and traumas, sentimental memories and dreams, romantic notions and fancies. Life did not spare him such experiences and traumas in those years, be it in the sphere of patriotic or of intimate feelings. [...] For everyone, the ballad was an epic work, in which what had been rejected in Classical high poetry now came to the fore: a world of extraordinary, inexplicable, mysterious, fantastical and irrational events inspired by the popular imagination.
In Romantic poetry, the ballad became a ‘programmatic’ genre. It was here that the real met the surreal. Mickiewicz gave his own definition: ‘The ballad is a tale spun from the incidents of everyday (that is, real) life or from chivalrous stories, animated by the strangeness of the Romantic world, sung in a melancholy tone, in a serious style, simple and natural in its expressions’.
And there is no doubt that in creating the first of his piano ballades, Chopin allowed himself to be inspired by just such a vision of this highly Romantic genre. What he produced was an epic work telling of something that once occurred, ‘animated by strangeness’, suffused with a ‘melancholy tone’, couched in a serious style, expressed in a natural way, and so closer to an instrumental song than to an elaborate aria.
Laforêt gave us a true interpretation and presentation of this narrative inspiration in an impressive, virtuosic and rhapsodic narrative account of this great work.
When listening to the Mazurka in G minor, Op. 24 No. 1, from the very first bars we were overcome by Laforêt with the reflective tone present in the kujawiak melody – a melody for which the folk original has even been found (the song ‘Czemu nie orzesz, Jasieńku, czemu nie orzesz?’ [Why aren’t you ploughing, Johnny, why aren’t you ploughing?]). ‘One could listen to it endlessly…’ – such was the impression received (and noted down) by Ferdynand Hoesick. And what he read from this music, he summarised as follows: ‘the most eloquent expression of longing for a happiness irrecoverably lost’. Pauline Viardot used to sing it.
The second of the Op. 24 Mazurkas, in C major, was essentially a kind of folkloric cliché. The opening theme by Laforêt, brought the gestures and movements of an oberek; in its complement, inviting us to dance and click our heels. An echo of rustic music-making could also be heard distinctly in the central part of the work in the rhythms of a foot-tapping mazur.
 |
| 'Oberek’, painting by Józef Chełmoński, 1878 |
Could you hear with Hoesick in the C major Mazurka a realistic impression of a ‘dance
in a tavern’, with ‘rural musicians belting it out’, and ‘young swains clicking
their heels as they dance with the lasses’. The third Mazurka in A-flat major is rather a humble, simple piece that has not achieved the great popularity of others.
In the Mazurka in B flat minor – the last in the opus 24 set – Laforêt gave us one of the most celebrated mazurkas, which never leave the concert platform. Regarded – as Hoesick noted – as a ‘consummate masterpiece’, it has been an important point on the programme of many great pianists. It has even been dubbed the ‘Rubinstein’, as Anton Rubinstein was supremely fond of playing it. Previously, it had been played often by Maria Kalergis, who passed on a tradition that derived from Chopin himself. This work is particularly susceptible to different interpretations, as it is not just a more or less cohesive suite of mazurka dances but – like the Mazurka in A minor from Op. 17 – a dramatically constructed whole, which one might call a lyrical dance poem. (Tomaszewski)
To conclude his recital, Laforêt offered a powerfully dramatic account of the Scherzo in B flat Minor Op. 31 (1836-37). A favourite work of mine.
Here he gave us another great narrative drama, an eruption of dramatic force that leads almost to its own destruction. A perfect example of 'Chopinian dynamic romanticism'. Laforêt offered us a tremendously exciting, powerful account of the work with irresistible momentum. His lyrical and singing cantabile of the Trio transported us to a dreamlike Arcadian garden from which were almost brutally dragged away until the demolishing power of the mighty coda.
This resulted in an almost instant standing ovation! A highly enjoyable recital of familiar Chopin with a popular artist as evidenced by the enormous queue assembled at the door of the artist's room for signatures !
The programme that Sergei Babayan intended to give
was fascinating in its variety and rarity.
It appears together with his biography at the
beginning below of this set of reviews
Cancelled due to illness
ARISTO SHAM
As the gold medal winner in the prestigious 17th Van Cliburn International
Piano Competition in June this year, Sham received a cash prize of USD
100,000, the Van Cliburn Winner’s Cup, three years of individualised career
management, including US and international concert tours, a Platoon Records
live album, promotional package including press kits, videos, website, and
performance attire provided by Neiman Marcus.
Aristo Sham has frequently performed in major concert halls and at many
festivals for several years. He was also a guest of the 74th Duszniki Festival,
already as prize winner of several competitions.
Aristo first gained international recognition when he won first prizes in
the Ettlingen International Piano Competition in Germany in 2006 and in
the Gina Bachauer International Junior Piano Competition in 2008. In 2023,
he won the grand prix at the Monte Carlo Music Masters. He is the first-prize
winner of the 2018 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International
Auditions and, more recently, the recipient of top prizes at the Casagrande,
Gina Bachauer, Dublin, Clara Haskil, New York, Saint-Priest and Viotti International
Piano Competitions, as well as the Vendome Prize at Verbier Festival.
Aristo holds a bachelor’s in economics from Harvard University and
a master’s degree in piano performance from New England Conservatory. He
is currently pursuing an artist diploma at the Juilliard School under Robert
McDonald and Orli Shaham. His principal teachers include Eleanor Wong,
Colin Stone, Victor Rosenbaum, and Julia Mustonen-Dahlkvist, and he has
been mentored by Gabriela Montero. In his free time, Aristo enjoys travelling,
languages, gastronomy and oenology.
I had fond memories of Sham's appearance at Duszniki in August 2019 when I had written of his recital:
Johann Sebastian BACH / Sergei RACHMANINOFF
Partita in E major for solo violin BWV 1006
The Partita for solo violin No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006 (Cöthen, 1720), stands as the composer's last utterance in the unlikely medium of the unaccompanied violin. The towering figure of Bach in Western music affected another momentous figure, Sergei Rachmaninoff. I had never heard this work in live concert before.
Sham's arresting crystalline tone and staggering articulation became once again evident from the outset. His Van Cliburn Competition victory was never in doubt in my mind from the first few minutes. The clarity, polyphonic transparency, energy and driving energy became occasionally slightly oppressive for me, especially when Rachmaninoff dynamically thickened his transcription. But then I matured in a different era of prioritizes.
Johann Sebastian BACH /Ferruccio BUSONI
Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004
It is a well known fact that in his writing for the pianoforte Busoni shows an inexhaustible resource of color effect.... This preoccupation with color effects on the pianoforte began to make itself evident after Busoni had began to devote himself to the serious study of Liszt, but it remained to dominate his mind up to the end of his life.
[Edward J. Dent, Ferruccio Busoni. A biography (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), pp. 145-146]
I have always loved this work transcribed by Busoni 1891-2. Bach occupied and inspired the composer for his entire life. 'Bach is the foundation of pianoforte playing,' he wrote, 'Liszt the summit. The two make Beethoven possible.' It is not surprising then that the grandeur, invention and monumentality of the Chaconne from this Partita attracted his imaginative mind. Bach himself, he notes, was a prolific arranger of his own music and that of other composers.
'Notation is itself the transcription of an abstract idea. The moment the pen takes possession of it the thought loses its original form.'
Bach had composed it after learning in 1720 of the death of his beloved wife Maria Barbara, the mother of his first seven children. Bach had been in Karlsbad with his patron, the highly musical Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen. When Bach returned to Cöthen after three months he discovered his young wife of 35, who was in excellent health when he departed, had died during his absence and even worse, been buried. His grief-stricken response resulted in this composition for violin full of pain, suffering and melancholic nostalgia, even anger, at the indiscriminate nature of destiny.
Sham introduced his extraordinary clarity and transparency at a moderate tempo which gave the work immense nobility of utterance. His natural gifts and virtuosity tempted him to dynamic inflation. One must not forget Busoni was as concerned with degrees of expressiveness as any Romantic composer.
The twenty-nine variations of the work that followed were greatly varied in texture, atmosphere and emotional impact. The polyphony was impressive. The melodic lines, the weight and significance of the monumental chords were exciting in their abandonment but tended, on occasion, to be dynamically overwrought. The composition was given a noble and triumphal conclusion.
Although perhaps grossly unfair to this still maturing young man of immense musicality, I have the temerity (as might be appropriate at this festival) to recommend listening to the recording of Mikhail Pletnev live at Carnegie Hall in November 2000. Another, possibly unfair suggestion, is the performance given by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli given in Warsaw in March 1955. Not to imitate the interpretation of course, but to fertilize further musical thought.
A rare picture of Ferrucio Busoni playing a pedal harpsichord with a 16' stop, possibly an inspiration for his Bach organ transcriptions that naturally were transformed into something highly pianistic.
Fryderyk CHOPIN
Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48 No. 1
This Nocturne is
expressive and suggestive of all the tender and heroic emotions. The
musicologist Tadeusz Zielinski described the melody of the Nocturne in C
minor as ‘sounds like a lofty, inspired song filled with the
gravity of its message, genuine pathos and a tragic majesty’ and the
writer Ferdynand Hoesick as: a true ‘Eroica’ among Chopin’s nocturnes.
This monumental, tragically majestic composition is a triumph of
passion battling against constraint. The chorale opening is desperately moving
in its dark nostalgia. Sham began reflectively but I felt, with the tremendous
growth of sound in this extraordinary work, he could have been less exaggerated
with a more sensitive rubato before the mighty winds subside into a type of
spiritual resignation.
Ballade in F minor, Op. 52
Penetrating the expressive core of the Chopin Ballades requires an understanding of the influence of a generalized view of the literary, musical and operatic balladic genres of the time. In the structure there are parallels with sonata form but Chopin basically invented an entirely new musical material. I have always felt it helpful to consider the Chopin Ballades as miniature operas being played out in absolute music, forever exercising one’s musical imagination.
The brilliant Polish musicologist Mieczysław Tomaszewski describes the musical landscape of this work far more graphically than I ever could.
The narration is marked, to an incomparably higher degree than in the previous ballades, with lyrical expression and reflectiveness […] Its plot grows entangled, turns back and stops. As in the tale of Odysseus, mysterious, weird and fascinating episodes appear […] at the climactic point in the balladic narration, it is impossible to find the right words. This explosion of passion and emotion, expressed through swaying passages and chords steeped in harmonic content, is unparalleled. Here, Chopin seems to surpass even himself. This is expression of ultimate power, without a hint of emphasis or pathos […] For anyone who listens intently to this music, it becomes clear that there is no question of any anecdote, be it original or borrowed from literature. The music of this Ballade imitates nothing, illustrates nothing. It expresses a world that is experienced and represents a world that is possible, ideal and imagined.
Sham began with the beautiful simplicity of childhood to open this opera of life, one of the greatest piano masterpieces in Western keyboard literature. However, I hoped as it flowered for a more deeply expressive narrative in this performance.
Here we have the history of a human destiny coming into being like a tree coming into leaf in spring and passing through all the seasons. Lyrical and on occasion fraught and turbulent soundscapes emerge, a narrative of life unable to be depicted except through music. Despite the overwhelming pianism and keyboard command on display here at every level, also the Sham's intellectual dominance of the work, I preserve reservations.
As often with young pianists embarking on life's long journey, there is a need for control over the extreme contrast of emotion in dynamic terms that Chopin depicts in this poetic narrative. It is increasingly necessary to broaden expressiveness, where exaggeration through virtuosity is especially tempting with Chopin's compositions on a modern instrument in a great hall. The Duszniki dworek is after all an intimate environment.
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN
Piano Sonata in B flat major, Op. 106 'Hammerklavier'
'Hammerklavier' is the German word for piano and although published on many of Beethoven sonatas, it is immortally associated with only one, the formidable Sonata in B-flat, Op. 106. The work was conceived on a monumental scale with mammoth emotional range, awesome technical difficulty, vast length, all features comfortably exceeded by any sonata that had appeared before. The Viennese publishers described the new sonata in 1819 as a composition work that 'excels above all other creations of this master not only through its most rich and grand fantasy but also in regard to artistic perfection and sustained style, and will mark a new period in Beethoven’s pianoforte works.'
 |
| “Hammerklavier” sonata, 3rd movement, mm. 1 and 2, manuscript from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Music Ms 288. |
The opening is fiercely dramatic and authoritative, presenting great technical risks for the pianist. Sham achieved this magnificently. The powerful Allegro first movement entry was followed by a not so calm laying out of musical tensions and relaxations, establishing the oratorical pattern of declaration and subsequent assessment, tension and relaxation, which pervades the first movement. Sham proceeded with a majestic sculptural conception and recreation of the major theme of this great work, surely one of the most extraordinary conceptions in Western piano music.
As a contrast to
this immense spiritual struggle the second movement Scherzo with Sham was
light and detaché, both dramatic and theatrical. Then to the melancholic and
tragic introversion and meditative transition to the unprecedented mournfulness
of the Adagio sostenuto: Appassionato e con molto sentimento third
movement. The late Charles Rosen described it as 'a work of despair so
extreme that it seems frozen with a grief struggling to find expression.'
 |
'Letter to the Immortal Beloved' by Beethoven |
Here I felt Sham
could have produced a more singing cantabile in this immense soulful meditation,
a movement that I have always found full of glowing passionate yearning and
love. Again without meaning to sound as the preaching older person, maturity
and experience take one a dimension deeper than Sham achieved. The
Adagio hovers above one as a mere executant, an almost immobile inspiration, which
tends to erase any faint tremors of hope that may arise in the soul.
Sham gave the
opening of the final Introduzione. Largo - Fuga: Allegro risoluto movement
a sense of thoughtful and discursive meditation. There was communicated a sense
of secret anticipation of the great fugue of the fourth movement.
I felt with Sham a
stirring of life in the progression as we moved towards the unrestrained
ecstasy of the conclusion. Beethoven explained that 'making a fugue is no
art... But fantasy also claims its right....' The instruction in the score 'Fuga a tre
voci con alcune licenze' (fugue in three voices, with some license) gave Sham's
imagination free reign. He produced a
structure that was truly abstract in granite architectural formation on an
Olympian scale. The intellectual control over the awesome structure as evidenced
here was magnificent. A prodigious performance of this cathedral of a sonata.
* * * * * * * * * *
One of the tragedies of music history is that the autograph of the 'Hammerklavier' sonata can no longer be located. This essay on 'the stony path to a reliable music text' is well worth reading if you are so inclined to such details (G. Henle Verlag).
Friday August 1st 2025 8.00 pm
Inaugural concert
MIKHAIL PLETNEV
WARSAW NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
PAWEŁ KAPUŁA conductor
One of the most respected and influential artists of our era, born in 1957, Plet-
Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
Piano Concerto in E Minor, Op. 11 (1830)
Allegro maestoso
Romance. Larghetto
Rondo. Vivace
First of all, a few words on my conception of the E minor concerto.
As is well known, although designated No.1, the E-minor concerto is actually his second concerto. The first written was in F-minor Op.21. Chopin’s two piano concertos were composed within a year of each other. I am always amazed at the nature of true genius as it was written when Chopin was in his late teens. At its premiere in 1830, he played the piano part himself, and the concert marked his final public appearance as a pianist in Poland. Soon Chopin was to leave for Vienna and then Paris, where he remained for the rest of his life.
The style brillante of
the period should be clear to hear in its animation and what in Chopin's day
was termed 'enthusiasm'. Graceful rhapsodic sweeps remind me of eagles taking
updrafts in the High Tatras. There are calm moments of reflection and fiorituras as
delicate as Koniakowska lace.
 |
| Konstancja Gładkowska (1810-1889) |
The Romance-Larghetto has
always taken me on an imaginative poetic flight as it did Chopin himself when
he wrote to his close friend. Its character clarified in the score, following
Mozart as a Romance (the sole occasion Chopin used this
designation in a piece) – a type of poetic reverie. In a letter to Tytus
Woyciechowski, the composer wrote 'It is not meant to create a powerful
effect; it is rather a Romance, calm and melancholy, giving the impression of
someone looking gently towards a spot that calls to mind a thousand happy
memories. It is a kind of reverie in the moonlight on a beautiful spring
evening.'
The divine melody at this slow
tempo is perfectly ardent, one of the most beautiful love songs ever written.
Lethargy from dreams begins to awake in a slow movement of unblemished,
illusioned rapture. I conceive of it in daylight. In sunlight-dappled groves,
lovers lie in long grass by a stream among birches and willows as summer clouds
drift hesitantly towards the horizon. The heart rises with the swallow as
leaves fall and drift on a slight breeze. A threatening shadow of doubt and a
sudden cool chill in the air soon passes as dusk falls, the last pianissimo
note of love thrown towards us by hand.
 |
|
Portrait of the young Chopin by Ambroży Mieroszewski (1829) |
The Rondo follows attacca, without
a pause, rousing us from poetic dreams and reveries with robust dance rhythms
vivace and rhapsodic gestures. Here we encounter the playfulness, dancing,
acting and extreme good humor of Chopin the young man, a neglected aspect of
his character in the received paradigm of the later consumptive melancholic.
There is the character of the Polish krakowiak dance
here, a syncopated, duple-time popular dance in contemporary
Krakow. The characteristic rhythm, liveliness and amusement should be
expressed with colour and verve. The theme of the episode – led in octave
unison against the pizzicato of the strings – is all born of the
virtuosic style brillant.
The entire musical population
of Warsaw was drawn to the National Theatre for the premiere. One young singer
was Konstancja Gładkowska with whom Chopin was 'in love'. ‘Dressed
becomingly in white, with roses in her hair' as Chopin
romantically described her. She sang the cavatina from
Rossini’s La donna del lago.
This performance of both Chopin concertos was unsettling musically and pianistically for reasons associated with the passage of time, the many performances by all the greatest pianists living and dead in addition to the standardization of one's expectations through multiple recordings. This was certainly no Urtext performance of the Chopin concerti and for that reason most thought-provoking musically.
My musical anticipations for Mikhail Pletnev were
high. I refer to his extraordinary and quite unforgettable Rachmaninoff recital
at the Warsaw Philharmonia on 22 August 2017 that remains a high point in
my musical experience. It was the only occasion I have heard him live in performance.
I concluded my review of that remarkable occasion with a quotation from the St.Crispin's Day speech:
And gentlemen in England now
a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here
(Shakespeare Henry
V)
Although this feeling was not replicated this evening, I am rather loathe to say anything at all about the performance in detail that
could possibly be taken seriously as criticism with an artist of this calibre and history.
Pletnev sat poised, almost immobile, introspective at the instrument yet in close communicative contact with the reduced National Philharmonic Orchestra (not the Russian National Orchestra) and their conductor PAWEŁ KAPUŁA. This account with Pletnev's own orchestration completely overturned tradition in the way we have come to expect with the strongly creative, spontaneous and willful Pletnev musical personality. He played as if recreating these works within his mind at that very moment, at times seemingly improvising them before us, feeling his way around this familiar concerto but in a deeply personal fashion.
One listened closely. With
his moderate tempo infusing the internal harmonic world, one had no idea what to
expect or anticipate! Nothing from my past experience of these concertos was
confirmed, an emotion for which possibly the audience were clearly searching. This was
a personal artistic vision of the work from, what might be called without
denigrating it in any way, an 'old school' mentality of emotional rather
than 'technical' expressive commitment.
His approach revealed the polyphonic
nature of the writing, especially the left hand counterpoint. His phrasing and
keyboard fluency (not without the occasional solecisms) was possessed of innate
and inevitable musicality in its breathing, dynamic variation, colour and phrasing.
The Romance Larghetto
movement was a moving biography of love for me, expanding in dimensions into a
great chiaroscuro landscape painting, a complete work in itself. This emphasized
his conception of the movement as the focal point of the entire concerto around
which the Allegro maestoso and Rondo.Vivace movements, although
cohesive, revolved almost as satellites.
This was Chopin as I had
never heard him performed before. The charisma Pletnev generated cast a spell
over the audience, mesmerizing them with his unique sound and sense of improvisation. Under his fingers, a
glowing tone and refined touch, at once chiaroscuro, then
impressionist, yet now expressionist in colour or monochrome, employed an enormous variation of articulation and command of structure. He was playing a Kawai
Shigeru instrument.
As listeners, we have become accustomed to an 'accepted' or 'received' manner of playing this composer, on recordings and in the concert hall, with the all too familiar theatrical and rhetorical gestures. This fundamentally re-creative, almost self-communing approach, entirely rethinking even recasting every detail of the Chopin scores, was an extraordinary and spiritually elevating experience.
INTERMISSION
Piano Concerto in F Minor, Op. 21 (1829–1830)
Maestoso
Larghetto
Allegro vivace
(Orchestration by Mikhail Pletnev)
The Chopin F minor concerto Op.21 follows the Mozart model and was directly influenced by the style brillant of Hummel, Kalkbrenner, Moscheles or Ries. My former remarks on the E-minor apply here but there was little of Chopin magically transforming the Classical into the Romantic style. Pletnev's orchestration was highly imaginative and again he closely so-operated with the conductor.
‘As I already have, perhaps unfortunately, my ideal, whom I faithfully serve, without having spoken to her for half a year already, of whom I dream, in remembrance of whom was created the adagio of my concerto’ (Chopin to his friend Tytus Woyciechowski, 3 October 1829).
The work itself was written 1829-30. As we all know by now, this concerto was inspired by Chopin’s infatuation, or was it youthful love, for the soprano Konstancja Gładkowska. Strangely, it was published a few years later with a dedication to Delfina Potocka.
The Larghetto love song (Pletnev singing this as a song as Chopin certainly desired) could not have been more moving and filled with considered poetry. Pletnev utilized an impressive palette of graded poetically expressive dynamics. The old, now extremely rare recording by the Australian pianist Noel Mewton-Wood (1922-1953) with the Orchestre de Radio-Zurich under Walter Goehr is profoundly lyrical and romantic with a similarly rare expressiveness. That interpretation also possessed a unique musical voice scarcely ever heard before or since.
Again with Pletnev in this concerto, I felt the focal point of the entire composition hovered around this Larghetto, which the Maestoso and Allegro vivace movements, although cohesive, revolved as planets around a sun of a deeply romantic and often sadly illusioned experience.
The Larghetto had a most refined and elegant opening with authentic feelings of yearning for an inaccessible love, a sensitive sense of longing. Dynamic variations from a lover's temperamental forte to extreme pianissimo lyricism were moving and persuasive, particularly when the longing begins to turn to resentment but subsides again in nuances of pianissimo resignation to the grey reality characterizing some of life's epochs.
As already mentioned, in many ways you could say that the whole work revolves around this movement. I always think when hearing it of the sentiments contained in the 1820 poem by John Keats La Belle Dame Sans Merci with its passionate interjections.
I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.
I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.
I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery’s song.
Arguably, this Larghetto movement is the most beautiful love song ever written for piano and orchestra - the unrequited love of Chopin for Konstancja Gładkowska. that Chopin 'enjoyed' at an inaccessible psychological and physical distance which produced yearning lyrical melodies of an intense order. As can be the way in life, it is said she preferred the attentions of the handsome uniformed Russian officers to our poetic genius!
The testing Allegro vivace seemed to provide no technical challenges for Pletnev who interpolated charming, even humorous additions. An impressive, commanding performance of energetic musicality, fine articulation and excitement.
It thrills us with the exuberance of a dance of kujawiak provenance. It plays with two kinds of dance gesture. The first, defined by the composer as semplice ma graziosamente, characterizes the principal theme of the Rondo, namely the refrain. A different kind of dance character – swashbuckling and truculent – is presented by the episodes, which are scored in a particularly interesting way. The first episode is bursting with energy. The second, played scherzando and rubato, brings a rustic aura. It is a cliché of merry-making in a country inn, or perhaps in front of a manor house, at a harvest festival, when the young Chopin danced till he dropped with the whole of the village. The striking of the strings with the stick of the bow, the pizzicato and the open fifths of the basses appear to show that Chopin preserved the atmosphere of those days in his memory.
(from the renowned Polish musicologist Mieczysław Tomaszewski)
Pletnev's spontaneous flourish of spirited notes to conclude the movement was so engaging and witty! Am sure composer pianists of the day would have made similar engaging antics to relive any tension.
As an encore he played in a movingly and certainly anachronistically sentimental interpretation the so familiar Nocturne in E flat major Op.9 No 2 beloved by so many.
There was a highly enthusiastic response by the audience for the entire concert performance.
However, I will not be quoting Shakespeare to encapsulate my feelings after this evening as I need time to adjust and digest the Pletnev conception of Chopin.
MIKHAIL PLETNEV (Pianist)
PAWEŁ KAPUŁA (Conductor)
Paweł Kapuła, hailed by Polish Radio as ‘a real hope for Polish conducting’
is one of the most spectacular and finest conductors of the younger genera-
tion, acclaimed for his exciting, fresh, and highly captivating interpretations
coupled with an excellent conducting technique. Never afraid of a challenge,
his programmes and conducting style demonstrate a high level of finesse and
creativity, which has led to an ever-growing presence in Europe and beyond.
The 2024/25 season sees Paweł Kapuła debut with some of the world’s
leading orchestras, amongst them Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Xi’an Sym-
phony Orchestra and Guiyang Symphony Orchestra alongside Hamburger
Symphoniker, Danish Chamber Orchestra and Robert-Schumann-Philhar-
monie Chemnitz. He will also return to Ulster Orchestra where he received
a prompt re-invitation following his highly successful debut last season. Other
guest engagements include the Georgian Chamber Orchestra and Württem-
bergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, which have now grown into loyal partners
cherishing him for his vigorous persona and precise conducting style.
Previously, Paweł Kapuła made his debut with orchestras such as Oslo
Opera Orchestra and Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, resulting in immediate
re-invitations, Sibiu Philharmonic and Transylvanian State Philharmonic
orchestras in Romania, Gothenburg Opera Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester
Basel and Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz.
In February 2021, Paweł Kapuła was appointed Principal Guest Conductor
of Pomeranian Philharmonic in Bydgoszcz. Since then, he has been leading
the orchestra in programmes with such refinement and flair that it has
attracted other Polish orchestras’ attention, amongst them Polish National
Radio Symphony Orchestra Katowice, Warsaw Philharmonic and Baltic
Philharmonic Gdańsk.
His latest recording project of all the Beethoven Piano Concertos with
Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and American pianist Reed Tetzloff at Prague’s
Rudolfinum, has just seen its international release. Paweł Kapuła is also an
avid champion of neglected Polish composers which he demonstrates in
numerous recordings for Polish Radio.
Paweł Kapuła received his first piano lessons at the age of seven. He studied
conducting with Tadeusz Strugala and Stanislaw Krawczynski at Krakow’s
Academy of Music. He was a finalist and winner of the Distinction Award at
the first Adam Kopyciński Student Conducting Competition in Wroclaw in
2013 and is a musicology graduate of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.
Prof. Ronan O'Hora – August 2–5
Prof. Claudio Martinez-Mehner – August 6–9
* * * * * * * * * *
The biography and tragically cancelled brilliant, imaginative, unique and fascinating recital programme intended to be given by Sergei Babayan appears below
Cancelled due to illness
SERGEI BABAYAN
Sergei Babayan has long been venerated as a ‘pianist’s pianist’, whose interpretations
combine ‘quiet beauty and emotional fire’ (The Times, London).
Celebrated for his solo recitals, chamber concerts, and concerto collaborations
with orchestras around the globe, the Armenian American pianist is also one
of today’s preeminent pedagogues and an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon
artist with a growing and distinguished discography.
In the 2024–25 season, Babayan also debuts Songs, an imaginatively
curated solo recital program exploring the evolution of lieder, folksong, and
the art of melody. Combining solo pieces with piano transcriptions of songs
by composers from Schubert, Schumann, and Rachmaninoff to Harold Arlen,
Charles Trenet, and Armenian folk hero Komitas, this takes him from New
Orleans to the Verbier Festival by way of London, Freiburg, Madrid, Málaga,
Poland, and multiple locations in Italy.
The artist has appeared with symphony orchestras from Baltimore, Bamberg,
Leipzig, Saint Petersburg, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Liverpool, Cleveland, Detroit,
Toronto, São Paulo, Bangkok, London, and Warsaw, under such masters of
the baton as Thomas Dausgaard, Valery Gergiev, Neeme Järvi, Sir Antonio
Pappano, Rafael Payare, Tugan Sokhiev, and Nikolaj Znaider.
He regularly performs at many of the world’s most prestigious venues,
including New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Barbican, Royal Albert, and
Wigmore Halls; the Théâtre des Champs-Elyseés and Maison de la Radio
in Paris, as well as Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and the Teatro Colón in
Buenos Aires.
His chamber music partners include the Borodin Quartet, violinist Ivry
Gitlis, and fellow pianists Argerich and Trifonov.
As an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist since 2018, Babayan has
made three recordings for the label. Recorded with Argerich, Prokofiev for
Two (2018) captures his own two-piano transcriptions, prompting MusicWeb
International to marvel: ‘World-class playing by both performers and the
Babayan transcriptions are destined to be taken up by other pianists and incorporated
into the mainstream repertoire.’ His solo collection, Rachmaninoff
(2020), was chosen as BBC Music magazine’s ‘Recording of the Month’. Most
recently, Rachmaninoff for Two (2024) was recorded with Trifonov to mark
the composer’s 150th birth anniversary.
One of today’s most distinguished piano teachers. Having previously
taught for many years at the Cleveland Institute of Music, he now serves on
86 80. MIĘDZYNARODOWY FESTIWAL CHOPINOWSKI
School oraz SMU Meadows School of the Arts w Dallas, gdzie jest artystą-
-rezydentem oraz stałym profesorem fortepianu fundacji Joela Estesa Tate’a.
Urodzony w Armenii pod okupacją sowiecką, w rodzinie muzycznej,
Babayan rozpoczynał naukę gry na fortepianie pod kierunkiem Luizy
Markaryan oraz Georgy’a Saradjeva (Saradjiana), czołowego reprezentanta
szkoły petersburskiej, ucznia legendarnego Vladimira Sofronitsky’ego.
Następnie studiował pod kierunkiem Lva Naumova, Very Gornostayevej
i Mikhaila Pletneva w Konserwatorium Moskiewskim. W okresie upadku
Związku Radzieckiego, Babayan przyjechał w 1989 roku do Stanów Zjednoczonych.
Wkrótce zyskał międzynarodowe uznanie jako zdobywca
pierwszych nagród w konkursach pianistycznych m.in. w Hamamatsu
i Cleveland oraz Palm Beach. Obecnie mieszka w Nowym Jorku i posiada
obywatelstwo amerykańskie.
SATURDAY, 2nd AUGUST CHOPIN MANOR
800 PM
Piano Recital
SERGEI BABAYAN
SONGS
Franz Schubert (1797–1828) / Ferenc Liszt (1811–1886)
Mūllerlieder S.565/2 (1846)
Der Muller und der Bach
Schwanengesang D.957 (1828)
Aufenthalt S.560/5
12 Lieder S. 558 (1837–1838)
Auf dem Wasser zu singen
Die Stadt
Gretchen am Spinnrade
Standchen ‘Horch! Horch!’
Erlkonig
Robert Schumann (1810–1856) / Ferenc Liszt (1811–1886)
Myrthen, Op. 25 (1840)
Widmung S. 566
Ferenc Liszt (1811–1886)
Hymne de la nuit S. 173a/1
Romance in E Minor ‘O pourquoi donc’ S. 169 (1848)
Manuel Maria Ponce (1882–1948)
Intermezzo No. 1 (1909)
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) / Arcadi Volodos (b.
1972)
12 Romances, Op. 21 (1900–1902)
‘Zdes' khorosho’ (‘Where beauty
dwells’)
‘Melodiya’ (‘Melody’)
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) / Earl Wild (1915–2010)
6 Romances, Op. 38 (1916)
‘Son’ (‘Dream’)
Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962) / Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943)
Liebesleid (
INTERMISSION
Frederic Mompou (1893–1987)
Cancons i Danses
Cancion, No. 6 (1942–1962)
Cants magics (1919)
IV. ‘Misterios’ (1917–1919)
Cancons i Danses
Cancion, No. 8 (1943–1951)
Cancion, No. 1 (1921–1928)
Cancion, No. 7 (1943–1951)
Komitas (Sohomon Sohomonian 1869–1935) /
Villy Sargsyan (b. 1930)
Chinar es
Jean Sibelius (1865–1957)
5 Pieces for Piano, Op. 75 IJS 58 (1914)
‘Granen’ (‘The Spruce’)
Harold Arlen (1905-1986) / Keith Jarrett (b.
1945)
‘Over the Rainbow’
Jesús Guridi (1886–1961)
Danzas viejas (1939)
‘La carrasquilla’
Edvard Grieg (1843–1907) / Sergei Babayan
6 Songs, Op. 48 (1889)
‘Ein Traum’ (‘A Dream’)
Isaac Albeníz (1860–1909)
Recuerdos de viaje, Op. 71 (1886–1887)
no. 6 Rumores de la Caleta –
Malaguena
Komitas (Sohomon Sohomonian 1869–1935) /
Georgy Saradjian
Berceuse
Paul Hindemith (1895–1963)
Klaviermusik, Op. 37 Part 2, ‘Reihe kleiner
Stucke’ IPH 70 (1926)
‘Einleitung und Lied’
Komitas (Sohomon Sohomonian 1869–1935)
7 Songs
No. 1 Semplice
Stephen Reynolds (ur. 1947)
Two Poems in Homage to Faure
„Chanson d'automne”
Francis Poulenc (1899‒1963)
„Hommage a Edith Piaf” FP 176
Improvisation nr 15 (1959)
Gabriel Fauré (1845‒1924) /Sergei Babayan
3 Pieśni op. 8 (1875)
nr 1 „Au bord de l'eau"
Francis Poulenc
„Les chemins de l'amour” FP 106 (1940)
Charles Trenet (1913‒2001) / Alexis Weissenberg (1929‒2012)
„En avril a Paris” (1953)
George Gershwin (1898‒1937) / Maurice Whitney (1909‒1984)
„Oh lady, be good!” (1924)
* * * * * * * * * *
Past Duszniki-Zdrój International Chopin Festival Reviews 2010 - 2024
http://www.michael-moran.com/2013/07/68th-international-chopin-piano.html
http://www.michael-moran.com/2011/08/66th-duszniki-zdroj-international.html
http://www.michael-moran.com/2010/08/65th-duszniki-zdroj-international.html
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| The Radziwill Hunting Lodge at Antonin |
On a later visit he wrote ‘There were two young Eves in this paradise, the exceptionally courteous and good princesses, both musical and sensitive beings.’ Of Wanda Radziwiłł ‘She was young, 17 years old, and truly pretty, and it was so nice to put her little fingers on the right notes.’ While a guest Chopin wrote a Polonaise for piano and cello - ‘brilliant passages, for the salon, for the ladies’.
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Chopin sketched by Eliza Radziwill at Antonin en route to Duszniki Zdroj 1826. |
Duszniki as a treatment centre has not greatly changed. Tuberculosis has however thankfully disappeared. The Spa Park and the town nestle in the peaceful mountain river valley of the tumbling Bystrzyca Dusznicka. Fresh pine woods flourish on the slopes and the moist micro-climate is wonderfully refreshing. Carefully stepping invalids negotiate the shaded walks that radiate across the park between flowering shrubs, fountains and lawns.
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Many famous artists visited Duszniki in the nineteenth century including the composer Felix Mendelssohn. In times past the regimented cures began at the ungodly hour of 6 a.m. when people gathered at the well heads. The waters at the Lau-Brunn (now the Pienawa Chopina or Chopin’s Spa) were dispensed by girls with jugs fastened to the ends of poles who also distributed gingerbread to take away the horrible taste (not surprisingly it was considered injurious to lean towards the spring and breathe in the carbon dioxide and methane exhalations).
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Sviatoslav Richter (far left) on the steps of the Dworek Chopina at the 1965 Duszniki Zdroj Festival |
The soulful young Russian Igor Levit is deeply involved with the music of Schumann. He movingly reminded the audience of the genesis of the Geistervariationen (Ghost Variations) written when the composer was on the brink of suicide in a mental institution. After completing the final variation Schumann fell forever silent. The great Liszt super-virtuoso Janina Fialkowska, a true inheritor of the nineteenth century late Romantic school of pianism, courageously returned to the platform here after her career was brought to a dramatic and terrifying halt by the discovery of a tumour in her left arm. Daniil Trifonov utterly possessed by the spirit of Mephistopheles in the greatest performance of the Liszt Mephisto Waltz No:1 I have ever heard. The moments continue...
One remarkable late evening event of the festival is called Nokturn and takes place by candlelight. The audience in evening dress are seated at candlelit tables with wine. A learned Polish professor and Chopin specialist such as the wonderful Polish musicologist Professor Irena Poniatowska might draw our attention to this or that ‘deep’ musical aspect of the Chopin Preludes or perhaps the influence of Mozart on the composer. Sometimes it is a famous actor, music critic, or journalist. The pianists ‘illustrate’ and perform on Steinways atmospherically lit by flickering candelabra.
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The iron ore deposits of what was known as Bad Reinerz (now Duszniki Zdroj) and its surroundings have been exploited since the beginning of the 15th century. Protestant miners emigrated here during the religious turmoil of the Thirty Years War when mining was established at the end of the 17th century. A molten iron and a hammer mill was established in 1822 by Nathan Mendelssohn (an instrument maker). With his brother Joseph Mendelssohn's financial help he revived the mining industry. I have often wondered if it was at this mill that the the tragedy occurred for which Chopin gave his charity concert.
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The house stayed in by Felix Mendelssohn at Duszniki Zdroj in 1823 |
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The commemorative plaque on the house Link to the revived Felix Mendelssohn Festival Programme * * * * * * * * * * |
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