13th International Paderewski Piano Competition in Bydgoszcz
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Ignacy Jan Paderewski (6 November 1860 – 29 June 1941) starring in the innocent and lyrical film Moonlight Sonata (1936) |
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| The River Brda at Bydgoszcz |
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KIM Jiyoung
Beethoven - Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37
The first aspect of her playing I noticed was of course her fine sound and articulation, a feature of so many young South Korean artists. The 'Classical' Beethoven idiom was occasionally unclear in the fine expressiveness of the phrasing. The dynamic contrast in the cadenza was slightly excessive. However the effect overall was as brilliant and 'Beethovenly' idiomatic as I had hoped and expected. The musical connections with the 'Emperor' concerto that followed was a remarkable introduction in time and compositional development.
ROH Hyunjin
Beethoven - Concerto No.5 in E-flat major, Op.73
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| Napoleon at the Battle of Wagram 1809 Horace Vernet (1789-1863) |
July 1809 saw Napoleon take over Vienna in the victorious Battle of Wagram against the rather equally matched Austrian forces. The city was bombarded with hundreds of canon in a siege and surrendered. The Austrian nobles who had pledged support for Beethoven were forced to flee. Beethoven spent the siege at the house of his brother, Kasper Karl, with pillows over his ears, attempting to protect his already failing hearing. As I live in Poland it may be lightly diverting to mention that soon after establishing himself at Schönbrunn, Napoleon had written to his Polish mistress Maria Walewska inviting her to join him. She was secreted at nearby Mödling and taken to him by his valet under cover of night (he still being still married to Josephine) .
Beethoven composed three major works during this period, all in the key of E-flat major. The 'Emperor' piano concerto finished before the French occupation. This great work was dedicated to the Archduke Rudolph, one of Beethoven's most financially generous patrons. The composer's musical laments following the flight of the Archduke are deeply expressed in the programmatic 'Les Adieux' piano sonata Op. 81a, each movement expressing his sorrow at Rudolph’s departure, absence, and the joy felt upon his return.
Roh was quite superb in the Beethoven with an almost complete grasp of the classical style with the grand, almost grandiose even militaristic gestures that this concerto demands. I felt that this was a true portrait of an 'Emperor'. She sometimes became rather romantic which I agreed with but bothered other listeners searching for a 'classical' rendition. Her L.H. was quite prominent in its counterpoint which added to the historical echoes of the baroque. One must remember Beethoven was releasing 'imprisoned romanticism' in many of his works as he matured. If one considers his increased almost total loss of hearing, this work is a sheer miracle.
Roh had a great deal to say musically about this work. She plays from her heart as well as with a complete commanding technique. The Adagio un poco moto was a deeply moving aria. The pianissimo and slow preparation for the explosive entrance of the Rondo. Allegro, ma non troppo struck me as somewhat mannered although the tempo was perfectly expressive. The movement flowed like a life force or 'The force that through the green fuse drives the flower' (the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas). This irresistible impetus was powerfully present for me.
She played with great sensitivity, verve and elan - qualities that are required in what is perhaps Beethoven's most imaginative concerto, despite his having lost faith in the 'Emperor' (Napoleon) of the title. Yet the notion of a compassionate, all powerful Emperor with significant empathy and emotional scope emerged unscathed. An 'enlightened monarchy' indeed.
A magnificent, deeply felt artist playing directly from the heart with a formidable keyboard virtuoso technique. A performance that, together with her earlier outstanding stages, richly deserves the first prize.
Brahms -
Concerto in D Minor Op.15
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| Johannes Brahms and Joseph Joachim |
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| The Young Johannes Brahms |
A few contextual and cultural observations on this great work before my remarks.
The gestation of this
concerto was not at all straightforward. It grew directly out of the youthful
piano sonatas. These large-scale powerful works to some degree reconcile the
classical and romantic inspiration. Some movements are decidedly 'orchestral'.
Adolf Schubring (1817-1893) was a learned man who mastered a number of languages including Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. But he was also a competent pianist and an committed music critic. He was the first critic to give his assessment of Brahms’s early compositions. Schubring and Brahms engaged in an extended correspondence, which assumed a personal and friendly tone from the outset. He wrote of Brahms as 'uniting the old contrapuntal art with the most modern technique.'
Schumann rather colorfully described the sonatas as 'veiled symphonies'. In 1854 Brahms sketched a sonata for two pianos which ultimately after a fraught history became this First Piano Concerto. The work was prompted by the, for the youthful Brahms, emotionally shattering news of the madness, attempted suicide and commitment of Schumann to an asylum that had taken place not long before. Both Robert and Clara had befriended Brahms and they all respected each other's musicality and genius immensely. A symphonic orchestral form of the two-piano sonata kept nagging away at his inspiration and composition. In February 1885 Brahms wrote to Clara Schumann how he had dreamt he was playing a piano concerto based on this envisioned 'hapless symphony'.
Violinist Joseph Joachim was one of the greatest violinists of the nineteenth century, and a dear friend of Brahms for decades. Although much the same age as Brahms, his comparatively extensive compositional experience allowed him to creatively criticize earlier orchestrated versions of the concerto. He wrote to Clara Schumann in January 1858 that Brahms '...had added many beautiful connecting passages which I am sure would please you.' This indicates of course that within the work monumental passages would contrast with passages of lyrical tenderness.
Joachim's role in
bringing this concerto to fruition can hardly be overstated. At this time he
was also writing his own Second Violin Concerto, also in D minor, known as Concerto
in the Hungarian Manner (dedicated to Brahms). Brahms had a lifelong passion
for Hungarian music. They both wished to restore Beethoven's grandeur and nobility in concertos.
The Brahms concerto was revised and metamorphosed until there was finally a public premiere in
1859.
The affecting Adagio
was clearly inspired by Brahms suffering tortured, unrequited romantic feelings
for Clara Schumann, married to his composer friend whose consummate genius he recognized. He
described this poignant Adagio movement to Clara Schumann as 'a gentle portrait of
you.'
In the autograph score,
under a placid violin-viola theme, Brahms wrote 'Benedictus qui venit in
nomine Domini' Certainly, this movement owes much to Renaissance polyphony,
marked by Palestrina.
The musical author Malcolm MacDonald, to whom I an greatly indebted, captured my attention with a striking literary fact. The eminent music editor Siegfried Kross drew his fascinated attention to a favourite novel of the young Brahms, Kater Murr, which incidentally I have read! Schumann was inspired by this incredible and amusing E.T.A Hoffmann novel when composing Kreisleriana. The Latin quotation 'Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini' is the inscription over the door of the Benedictine Abbey at Kanzheim, where Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler finally gains a degree of peace. The young Brahms had even created a self-styled alter ego as 'Johannes Kreisler junior'.
The structure of the concerto finale Rondo. Allegro non troppo is similar to that of the rondo of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 which we also heard from the previous finalist Jyoung Kim. Clearly the movement and its cadenza is a superb vehicle to demonstrate the virtuoso pianism of both the youthful Brahms and Clara Schumann.
LIN Pin-Hong
Brahms - Concerto No. 1 in D minor Op.15
The piano sound, so
vital and often neglected, was of a clarity and transparency unsurpassed in
this concerto. His articulation was superb and glittered like sunlight off ice.
Bearing in mind what I have written above, I feel this great work needed far
more expressiveness, dynamic variation and poetic contrast as we pass over
these vast landscapes of musical imagination that is Brahms.
Lin needs to go one dimension deeper to penetrate this work, experience and reading literature will assist in bringing interpretative depth, fully realizing in music the emotional flights, passion and frustrations of unrequited love. The terrible disillusionment of the Great War had not yet struck us down as it continues to do. Virtuosity and keyboard command never being a problem...a superb performance of immense potential.
CECINO Elia
Brahms - Concerto No. 1 in D minor Op.15
This fine musician
and pianist brought genetic Italian passion to the work and gave a truly
memorable performance, bearing in mind all I have said above. The cultural
contrast of two utterly different visions of Brahms richly endowed my musical
ears in this most unusual encounter of the same concerto performed only minutes
apart. I found the Adagio so moving and emotionally
affecting. The outer movements betrayed great masculine power and engaged
passion - soul, heart, beauty of sound, occasionally a redeeming roughness of
timbre and texture, granite virtuosity performed on that exciting ragged edge
of risk. A marvelous performance, at times breath-takingly dangerous. Loved it
....
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| Musical delights on the bridge over the River Brda, Bydgoszcz |
The highest-ranked Polish pianist
Michał Oleszak
The highest-ranked Polish pianist – Michał Oleszak
K. Szymanowski – Masques Op. 34 Schéhérazade
K. Herdzin – Arrectis auribus
3rd prize – Pin-Hong Lin
G. F. Händel – Suite No. 3 in D minor, HWV 428
I. J. Paderewski – Album de Mai, Op. 10: No. 1 Au Soir
I. J. Paderewski – Humoresques de Concert, Op. 14: No. 5 Intermezzo
polacco
1st prize – Roh Hyunjin
I. J. Paderewski – Polish Dances, Op. 9: No. 6 Polonaise in B
major
I. J. Paderewski – Miscellanea, Op. 16: No. 2 Melody
R. Schumann – Sonata No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 11
A magnificent, deeply felt artist playing directly from the heart allied to a formidable keyboard virtuoso technique
Introduzione. Un poco Adagio – Allegro vivace
Aria: Senza passione, ma espressivo
Scherzo: Allegrissimo – intermezzo: Lento
Finale. Allegro un poco maestoso
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| Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1900 |
For Rachmaninoff this concerto was a watershed in his life. The poor reception of his First Symphony had thrown him into a state of clinical depression which took him some years to recover from, even requiring hypnotherapy. This concerto was a symbol of his complete rehabilitation and of course has become, together with the Tchaikovsky and Grieg concertos, one of the most popular in the repertoire. Rachmaninoff commented in an interview 'What I try to do, when writing down my music, is to make it say simply and directly that which is in my heart when I am composing.' Certainly it seems everyone in the general public has heard and loves this work. He dedicated the concerto to his doctor Nikolai Dahl.
I worked closely with Prof. Piotr Paleczny as a reviewer during three complete Paderewski competitions (2013-2019). He is one of the most outstanding Polish pianists, educator, Belvedere Professor and Honorary Professor of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music (2017), laureate and juror of prestigious international piano competitions, esteemed musical authority, charismatic organizer of musical life and an ambassador of Polish culture worldwide. In 2022 he was awarded the prestigious title of Honoris Causa by the Fryderyk Chopin Music University in Warsaw by the great Polish pianist Kristian Zimerman.
I was deeply moved by his generous emotional resignation speech tonight. The Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz (AMFN) is an outstanding Polish state music university and one of the most respected in Poland. After long service of some 21 years as Artistic Director of the Paderewski Competition in Bydgoszcz, Prof. Paleczny felt he should make way for a younger Artistic Director and Jury Chair with fresh ideas.
The organizers had generously invited me to the Finals and Laureates Concert and award ceremony of the current competition. Staying at the historic Pod Orlem hotel in central Bydgoszcz was an experience in itself.
Paderewski as a composer and world statesman is still magnificently relevant in today’s troubled world. A moral beacon for us all that we should never forget.
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| The River Brda at Bydgoszcz |
Returning to Bydgoszcz after some years was an affecting even poignant nostalgic experience for me. It is a beautiful city with much restoration having taken place.
I also visited the superb Ostromecko Palace just outside the city with its superb interiors filled with the finest mid-nineteenth century grand pianos from the finest makers.
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| The old palace of Ostromecko |
Also the surely unique collection of 8000 large, small and tiny owls in wood, porcelain, plaster - every imaginable material. An incredible sight together with the sound effects of owlish calls and the flapping of wings! All this as well as restaurant and small hotel set in 86 hectares of landscaped estate of rare trees.
Meeting the truly distinguished members of the present creatively small jury - all outstanding pianists and teachers of broad experience - was formidably enriching musically.
I remembered with the greatest affection this great world piano competition, Piotr’s ‘baby’.
I recalled the comradely co-operation of all the past juries I experienced, their humour, festive lunches, conviviality, immense musical concentration and integrity as well as imbibing illuminating musical knowledge under Piotr’s outstanding jury chairmanship.
We met and took elegant coffee and cake with the Mayor of Bydgoszcz. Piotr even planted a named oak tree in an avenue as a symbol of permanent appreciation. It is thriving ! Intimacy without commodification.
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| Prof. Piotr Paleczny and his thriving oak tree in 2025 |
I heard at the magnificent competition in Bydgoszcz years ago, and now continue to hear, many world famous and gifted pianists from all over the planet! All were or are to become sometime Laureates of the renowned International Paderewski Piano Competition.
The Final five concertos ranging from Liszt to Brahms including the great Beethoven ‘Emperor’ and his seminal Concerto No. 3 in C minor, were a triumphant conclusion to this most recent Paderewski competition in 2025.
My love of Paderewski’s own beautifully melodic music was raised by it a thousandfold.
Thank you Piotr for a wonderful and inspiring period in my life.
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If you have a particularly deep interest in Paderewski you may like to read this
http://www.michael-moran.com/2025/11/reminiscences-chopin-soul-paderewski.html
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