© Protected - Selected Classical Music in Poland and the Europe of Chopin - Reviewer's Notebook

This beautifully and tenderly observed portrait on the death of the pianist Fou Ts'Ong is all the more moving in remembrance now. His friend, the prominent Polish Wimbledon trophy engraver Roman Żółtowski, also my good friend,  tragically left us on  November 15th 2023. How he would have adored engraving the Venus Rosewater Dish (below) with the name of the first Polish women's champion in history, -  Iga Świątek. Life is just not fair .... but he would have got the accents correct ! Details of his Wimbledon engraving work and remarkably driving his rare, classic MGA Coupe every year to Wimbledon from  Poznań  in Poland  (832 miles or 1338 kms one way)  to fulfill this task was covered by the Financial Times in an interview with him in 2014 https://on.ft.com/2BUFnCy The Żółtowski home in Poland A generation of musical and human sensibility, sensitivity and depth has passed with the death of the legendary Chinese pianist Fou Ts’ong. He inhabit...

  'Begin with Bach' We begin and end this year's 'Chopin and his Europe' Festival with Bach. The brilliant composer, who occupies a very important place in the Chopin universe, will also be present in an important, sometimes in an unobtrusive way, on each day of the festival events. The programme of this year's Festival is created with the intention of presenting Chopin's works in a multifaceted context of music from Bach to Lutosławski. The 29 concerts will be filled with Polish and European music in the interpretations of traditionally two stylistic trends: contemporary and historically informed. An important aspect will therefore be historically informed performance, represented in 2025 by soloists and ensembles with well-deserved reputations; performances will include:  Dmitry Ablogin , laureate of the 1st International Chopin Competition on Historical Instruments with the Freiburger Barockorchester (with both Chopin concertos), Giovanni Antonini...

Harold Pinter 1930-2008 With all the recent mendacious publicity concerning the imminent awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize, I would refer you to the Nobel Prize for Literature Lecture 'Art, Truth and Politics' delivered in 2005 by the eminent English playwright of genius, Harold Pinter.  The Nobel Prize in Literature 2005 was awarded to Harold Pinter  "... who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms." Conclusions concerning the nature of truth in the lecture are inescapable as moral values oscillate in the wider world. This link will transport you to the official Nobel website that contains a live delivery of the lecture and its written transcription. His voice is slightly affected as, although still working as a playwright, he was courageously fighting esophageal cancer from which he ultimately died.  Although not referring directly to our dark days, in view of the current unspeakable events, it...