81st Duszniki Zdrój International Chopin Festival , Poland. 7 - 15 August 2026 - 200th Anniversary of Fryderyk Chopin's sojourn in Duszniki-Zdrój - In addition, links to detailed reviews of fifteen past Duszniki Festival posts (2010 - 2025)
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Duszniki Zdrój formerly Bad Reinerz in Silesia
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The Authors Guild |
A Rampart of Civilzation
Read and remember how fortunate we are to be here in the beautiful, natural rural surroundings of Duszniki Zdrój in Poland. The temperature will be mainly in the low to mid twenties and sunny every day !
In this pastoral Elysium, we will continue the intense enjoyment of the creative side of the coin of human nature, too often forgotten in the present world of political miasma and war
World-renowned prize-winning musicians and pianists have been assembled to play, especially the music of Fryderyk Chopin
81st Duszniki-Zdrój International Chopin Festival
7-15 August 2026
Headaches and swollen glands necessitated the application of leeches to his neck. The family doctors (there were a number of them) agreed his condition might possibly be serious. The idea gained in popularity with the Skarbeks of Żelazowa Wola (Countess Ludwika herself was suffering from tuberculosis) and three family groups set off at intervals on the arduous 450 km journey by carriage from Warsaw to Bad Reinerz over rough roads serviced by indifferent accommodation. The route they took through pine forests and agricultural land now passes through industrialized towns. Frycek arrived at Duszniki Zdrój on 3 August 1826.
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| The Dworek Chopina and the Chopin Monument in Duszniki Zdrój (then known as Bad Reinerz in Silesia) c. 1897 |
Programme Book
Pianist Biographies
and
Performance Programs in Detail
(English and Polish)
https://app.box.com/s/1k1xlev1d645bve3hiim5et0g3ssuay0
One change of programme
https://festival.pl/en/programme-change-81st-festival/
Official Website: https://festival.pl/
Recital Reviews
Photographers: Damian Bochnak and Michael Moran (Masterclass)
Profile of the Reviewer Michael Moran : https://en.gravatar.c atom/mjcmoran#pic-0
Reviews will be 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
The Authors Guild
All the reviews and notes on this site are human authored
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 2026. 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 length issue rather difficult to adopt but needs must I suppose.
Chopin welcomes us to Duszniki Zdrój
You will need to wait a little for reviews ...
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WEDNESDAY 12th AUGUST CHOPIN MANOR 8.00 pm
ERIC LU
WINNER OF FIRST PRIZE
IN THE 19th INTERNATIONAL FRYDERYK CHOPIN PIANO COMPETITION,
WARSAW, 2025
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
Theme with Variations in D Minor, Op. 18b (1860)
(piano arrangement of the second movement of the String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op. 18)
Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
Three Impromptus from Op. 142, D. 935 (1827)
Allegro moderato in F Minor
Allegretto in A-flat Major
Allegro scherzando in F Minor
Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
Ballade in F Minor, Op. 52 (1842–1843)
INTERMISSION
Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
Polonaise in B-flat Major, Op. 71 No. 2 (1828)
Piano Sonata in B Minor, Op. 58 (1844)
Allegro moderato
Scherzo. Molto vivace
Largo
Finale. Presto non tanto
WEDNESDAY 12th AUGUST CHOPIN MANOR 4.00 PM
Tomoharu USHIDA
Second Prize Laureate of the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition
Recipient of the Audience Prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition
Participant in the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (2025)
Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
Barcarolle in F-sharp Major, Op. 60 (1845–1846)
This performance was rare from its very opening which atmospherically set a romantic scene, part dream, on a Venetian lagoon just as the English painter Turner achieved in his watercolours of the city. Most pianists, even distinguished ones, open the work without any sense of context and create a 'crash' at the outset more suitable in dynamic for a conclusion. The opening is vital for the musical and metaphorical meaning of what is to follow.
Ushida is possessed of a seductive touch, tone and narrative phrasing. His interpretation was full of romantic nuance and painted an emotional and physical landscape of subtle sensibility. Peace and reconciliation descend on the soul and love relationship after passionate differences had developed cracks in the love poem.
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 from my notes as her analysis and 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'.
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. She encouraged the pianist: 'Listen to yourself'. I felt Ushida created a fine sense of musical meaning in his penetration of the score and the core of what Schumann intended to express.
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.
Such flights of free and spontaneous imagination are so important in Schumann to the complete penetration and understanding of the work. Such visions are important. I felt Ushida presented us with a remarkable contrast of mood and atmospheric communication. There is an eloquent intertwining of 'Clara's theme' within the musical fabric. 'Never drop onto a note before you are ready' Vanessa advised.
She 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. I felt Ushida could have made more of the embedded polyphony which of course came from Schumann's adoration of Bach. Vanessa also highlighted the 'slight craziness' of Schumann and his whimsical, mercurially changing nature.
The second movement of the sonata Aria: Senza passione ma
espressivo, 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 which Ushida
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 truly mercurial Schumann. The Intermezzo: Lento of this difficult, often obscure work, was significantly powerful in his expressive conception as we moved beyond into the baroque elements of the polyphonic Lento.
The Finale
: Allegro, un poco maestoso conclusion that Ushida gave us was expressively
restrained rather than orchestral in its dimensions. His was a very fine,
penetrating performance indeed, which satisfied one musically and spiritually on many levels.
INTERMISSION
Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
Piano Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960 (1828)
Molto moderato
Andante sostenuto
Scherzo. Allegro vivace con delicatezza – Trio
Allegro ma non troppo
Much has changed in public taste since
Schubert's death in 1828. Interestingly, we can probably hear more of the music
of Schubert now than he could himself.
So many of the larger works such as the late piano
sonatas were rather unknown except to some of his literary friends, lyric
poets, the cognoscenti and 'obedient rebels'. Of
course Schubert composed under the disconcerting shadow of Beethoven. Legends
proliferated. 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."
Life itself and expressive 'individuality' was
difficult for these liberal cultured folk under the autocratic regime of the
absolutist Klemens von Metternich who saw them as threats to his treasured
status quo. Hence Nature and music (beyond incriminating language) were avenues
of free expression, emblems of innocence and escape for Schubert. Domestic
music-making dedicated to the composer known as Schubertiades, 'social'
music, was intensely popular. He sang his own songs himself with a
fine voice.
Polluted Vienna, his local environment, was
thankfully closely surrounded by aesthetically idealized, bucolic countryside.
Here he could commune deeply with himself as we can glean from the
psychological tension that erupts between his inner personal lyricism and harsh
outer reality (in this sonata the close approach of the dissolution of death) expressed
within a great many of his compositions for piano. Perhaps he expresses the
most intense despair in the existential song cycle Winterreise.
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)'
For any pianist to choose this sonata requires
immense spiritual courage and the simple temerity to enter the doom laden world
of late Schubert. Sir Andras Schiff once said of the trill in the eighth
measure of the Sonata. 'It’s the most extraordinary trill in the
history of music.'
Schubert completed this work only two months
before his death and one feels he is speaking to us from the 'The
Beyond', a domain of uncanny and otherworldly resonance. This trill is
the shudder of doom, the dark cloud of death. What follows is a desperate
attempt to regain at least the memory, however etiolated, of the joys
experienced in Nature and of life itself. Life through a glass darkly. The
silence that follows that trill is as pregnant with existential meaning as the
sound itself. Is this dreadful murmur the approach of death over the
horizon? Something demonic lurks in the human caverns of this sonata. In
the movements of this work, particularly the heart-wrenching Andante
sostenuto, we lurch between extremes in the human spirit.
Ushida in this sonata penetrated these depths
of the soul up to an expressive point with his eloquent use of silence. Those emergent brief
suns appeared fitfully from behind the dark clouds of existence. The opening Molto
moderato is a battle between yearning poetry (superb cantabile song)
and defiance of destiny. The internal otherworldly life of a human soul in
torment as it faces the profound mysteries and fears of death were reflected
here particularly in the moving Andante sostenuto movement, deeply reminiscent of song. I felt Ushida truly sang most poetically here in a very
fine and sensitive rendition. Here we glimpsed, witnessed more than a brief
encounter, the dark inevitability of the transcendent beyond. The frightening domain depicted in this sonata, that realm that overwhelms the heart at
moments upon the full realization of the transience of life.
The Scherzo - Allegro vivace con
delicatezza - Trio signals a return to life, the scherzo with its
infectious rhythm and transparent polyphony but the vivace con
delicatezza 'moving in a completely unreal world' according to Alfred
Einstein. With time and familiarity, I felt Ushida will further integrate his
sense of structure of this sonata with a finer and more expressive and creative
sense of the organic nature of the work. In the final Allegro ma non
troppo he offered a vital view of Schubert and a powerful coda recalling
the masculine power of Beethoven, Schubert's idol.
This was a moving and outstanding performance by Ushida whose youth mercifully places him existentially as yet beyond the dark shadows of our inevitable physical dissolution. This young pianist is capable of plumbing rare depths of consciousness. Here we have that rarest of creatures, a 'soul'.
As encores, he chose two absolutely appropriate Intermezzi of the aging Brahms.
NOKTURN
TUESDAY 11th AUGUST CHOPIN MANOR 9.00 PM
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The presenter of the NOKTURN Marcin Majchrowski |
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| Tomoharu Ushida playing the Nocturne in B major Op.62 No.1 (1845-46) at the NOKTURN |
TUESDAY 11th AUGUST CHOPIN MANOR 4.00 PM
Bartek Barcyzk
Hyuk LEE
Winner of the 3rd Prize at the 12th International Competition Arthur Rubinstein in Memoriam, Bydgoszcz (2021)
Hyo LEE
Finalist of the 18th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (2021)
Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
Fantasy in F Minor, Op. 49 (1841) performed by Hyuk Lee
The difficulties in bringing together the fragmented nature of the next work are well known. Carl Czerny wrote perceptively in his introduction to the art of improvisation on the piano ‘If a well-written composition can be compared with a noble architectural edifice in which symmetry must predominate, then a fantasy well done is akin to a beautiful English garden, seemingly irregular, but full of surprising variety, and executed rationally, meaningfully, and according to plan.’
At the time Chopin wrote this work,
improvisation in the public domain was declining. A lonely, bleak, isolated
atmosphere opens the work. Hyuk Lee gave us a calm rather than cold opening
with few hints of the turbulence to come. In the composition, Chopin
contemplates the destiny of his country and himself within its history.
Waves of ominous rebellion then rose which
augmented the sheer strength and power of rising emotion. Lee has a fine tone
and touch which expressed various colours and shifts in mood. There was some
moving sense of inevitable tragic destiny, threats to the national identity in his
natural musical phrasing and conceptions.
The central chorale was deeply meditative to
emerge as a prayer for evil to pass or be transformed, a devotional and
reflective chorale, affectingly played. This internal meditative life was
followed by a passionate spontaneous eruption of emotion like a volcano of pent
up energy released as anger and resentment. A powerful statement. With many of
Chopin’s apparently ‘discontinuous’ works (say the Polonaise-Fantaisie),
there is, in fact, an underlying and complexly wrought tonal structure that
holds together these wonderful dreams and unsettling transitions to grim
reality and residual optimism together
as rational wholes.
I listened to a great revolutionary statement
concerning the nature of war through which all Ukrainians (and some Russians)
presently feel demolished. He expressed in his performance of this work, anger,
nostalgia for past joys and a plea for freedom.
The artistic expression of the powerful spirit of resistance in much of Chopin is desperately needed today – not the free nationalistic Polish spirit Chopin envisioned under occupation but with the powerful arm of his universality of soul. We are now again confronted by a rationally incomprehensible onslaught of evil and barbarism. We need Chopin, his heart and spiritual force in 2026 possibly more than ever before. An excellent performance.
Scherzo in E Major, Op. 54 (1842–1843) performed by Hyo Lee
This rarely performed 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. Hyo Lee is an expressive player yet with sense of the grandeur of
this work. His phrasing was highly sensitive with a most attractive tone and
touch. However, the complexity of these emotions did not yet emerge with a
personal vision and voice.
A lightness of articulation and playfulness
with hints of seriousness and gravity underlay the exuberant mood of the scherzo.
The central section (lento, then sostenuto) in place of the
Trio, gave one the impression so often with Chopin, of the ardent, reflective
nature of distant love. Hyo Lee offered a beautiful cantabile.
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.’
George Gershwin (1898–1937) / Percy Grainger (1882–1961)
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| George Gershwin (1898-1937) |
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| Percy Grainger (1882-1961) |
Fantasy on George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess for two pianos (1951)
George Gershwin’s 1935 opera Porgy and Bess is the best-known of American operas. The opera opened at the Alvin Theatre on Broadway on 10 October 1935. It was very successful in performance. The moving melodies of Porgy and Bess have inspired many arrangements and transcriptions. One of the very finest and most creative arrangements was this rare performance this evening.
It was composed in 1951 by the extraordinary Australian-American pianist and composer Percy Grainger (1882-1961). This vast arrangement Porgy and Bess Fantasy for Two Pianos was premiered by Grainger and W. Norman Grayson at New York’s Town Hall on 21 April 1951.
Percy Grainger indeed had a deep understanding of composition for two pianos. Incidentally, he was also a gifted and magnificent concert pianist and a distinguished interpreter of the works of Chopin. No one understood the sonic genre of two pianos as Grainger did. Eventually Dr. Albert Sirmay of Chappell & Co., owners of the Porgy copyright, came to Steinway Hall to hear the piece prior to agreeing to publish it.
Grainger’s Fantasy is strikingly faithful to Gershwin’s
original published piano-vocal score of the opera but he embellished the work to reproduce Gershwin’s
orchestration while maintaining his understanding of the sound world created by
two-piano pianos. The composition is a concentrated expression of the opera
in miniature, including the memorable arias as well as much of the incidental
music and recitative.
The Lee brothers gave us a splendid idiomatic
rendition of this ultra rare, fiendish work that was uncanny in its unique two piano sonority. The performance displayed an organic connection between the players. Brilliant idea !
INTERMISSION
Arthur Benjamin (1893–1960)
Six Caribbean Pieces for two pianos (1938–1957)
Arthur Benjamin’s Six Caribbean Pieces is a lively suite of infectious piano-duo works written for two pianos by another Australian-British composer between 1938 and 1957. Benjamin was famous for his colourful rhythms and West Indian melodies. This collection is of his Caribbean and Jamaican inspired dance pieces and arrangements.
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| Caribbean Dancers in the 1930s |
Jamaican Rumba (1938) is a famous tune and recorded often. The Lee brothers gave it a true 'swing'. Originally part of Two Jamaican Pieces, this is Benjamin's most famous and frequently recorded tune.From San Domingo (1945) is lyrical and syncopated with definite tropical warmth.Caribbean Dance (1946) "A New Jamaican Rumba" has a driving rhythm that has a dance feel.Mattie Rag (1949) moves into ragtime rhythm and was derived from his Two Jamaican Street Songs. Cookie (1949) is another gloriously light tune. The second of the Jamaican Street Songs, lighthearted and playful.
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943)
Symphonic Dances, Op. 45, for two pianos (1940)
Rachmaninoff wrote his final major work,
the Symphonic Dances, in the summer and fall of 1940 at his Long
Island summer house in Huntington, New York, while on vacation.
The first movement is a traditional sonata in form. The Lee brothers were spirited and energetic in their approach to rhythm. Both main themes are vivacious. Rachmaninoff’s characteristic nostalgia was much in evidence.
In the final movement opens theatrically which eminently
suited the Lee brothers. This is a highly energetic powerful composition. I
felt oit rather abstract in terms of its chromatic harmonic direction which the
Lee brothers understood well. 'Rachmaninoff
enriches his palette with an array of percussive figures, resulting in some
electrifying musical punctuation.' writes Ileen Zovluck for the Los Angeles
Philharmonic. Some rhythms are derived from Spanish dances such as the jota and
the seguidilla. At one point the ancient Dies irae chant
from the Gregorian Requiem Mass can be heard. The sun dispels darkness with an 'Alleluia'
in the coda which concludes the work most
brilliantly.
I believe Rachmaninoff's own version of the
work for two pianos was presented in a highly impressive interpretation performed
by the Lees.
Non allegro
Andante con moto. Tempo di valse
Lento assai – Allegro vivace
MASTERCLASS
Tuesday 11th August - Morning Session
Prof. Alexander Gavrylyuk
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| Prof. Gavrylyuk in full pedagogical flight, working intensively on the Stravinsky Firebird with Jan Widlarz |
This masterclass with Prof. Alexander Gavrylyuk was the most emotionally moving and intellectually stimulating I have ever attended. I can only really transcribe my notes as the issues raised deserve far deeper analysis.
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| Costume design for The Firebird ballet by Igor Stravinsky Leon Bakst 1910 |
'Technically' if you like, he spoke of isolating the separate voices within musical works (such as Firebird) and
treating each as a separate and unique source of energy. The voices are then
'reassembled' as it were into a complete meaningful, emotional entity.
He emphasized the huge dynamic weight of the
modern piano and to use full upper body weight rather than simply arm
weight or muscles to produce a full, rich,
carrying tone in fortissimo passages. He demonstrated forcibly, sometimes
quite frighteningly! He demonstrated opening the chest to produce a full fortissimo.
The pianist must produce an internal image of
the work which would lead to the incontrovertible phrasing. He should think of
what he is actually trying to say uniquely about the work with his own voice.
What image is he trying to project ? He also discussed the dangers of 'over-practicing'
the 'mechanism'. That one should select passages and allow them to 'simmer' in the
brain over time - this is based on recent neurological brain research.
'The Message not the Mechanism'
Prof. Alexander Gavrylyuk
The poetry often lies in the pregnant, eloquent
silence between the notes. Ignaz Friedman understood this well and spoke of it often in Australia. Build on the space between the notes into the
structure. This was an extraordinarily physical masterclass where
the emotional as well as intellectual message accompanied the analysis. He gave
an interesting demonstration of a finger exercise (joining the thumb to the
little finger and then playing repeated notes with this combination) to strengthen the power and articulation of repeated
notes. He amusingly remarked this was a Russian exercise that characteristically
'made practice more difficult'.
Such classes are priceless with such an emotionally committed artist and I just wish I had had more time to attend the others in this deeply instructive series.
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| Stalingrad 'They would have preferred Hell' |
Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 7 in B♭ major, Op. 83 (occasionally called the 'Stalingrad') is a sonata for solo piano, the second of the three 'War Sonatas', composed in 1942. The sonata was first performed on 18 January 1943 in Moscow by Sviatoslav Richter. The Prokofiev biographer Daniel Jaffé has argued that Prokofiev, 'having forced himself to compose a cheerful evocation of the nirvana Stalin wanted everyone to believe he had created' then subsequently, in these three sonatas, 'expressed his true feelings'.
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| Prof. Gavrylyuk working on the intense war imagery and imparting physical advice to Zuzanna Jejbuk on the formidable ' war sonata' - the 7th Sonata in B-flat major Op.83 - Serge Prokofiev |
This was the most emotionally affecting, intellectual yet deeply moving Masterclass I have ever attended. I can think of no pianist more suited to conduct a Masterclass on this work than Alexander Gavrylyuk. We were fortunate and privileged indeed.
The sonata has three movements:
Allegro inquieto (in B♭ major)
Andante caloroso (in E major)
Precipitato (in B♭ major)
Allegro inquieto
In this entire work, Prof. Gavrylyuk was intent on creating a mental image in the mind of the pianist of 'the brutal sounds from outside the shelter'. This in addition to instruction in the physical qualities of a pianist to convincingly and viscerally produce the terrifying sound of destruction on the piano.
Par example, the rhythm evoking the variable sound of marching soldiers approaching, passing and retreating. The escaping victims of bombs limping away, maimed and injured. The devil laughing at his fiendish work. The emptiness that follows this wholesale destruction, the horror and sense of hopelessness attendant upon it. He emphasized playing a thin melodic line and sound to emphasize and illustrate this emptiness. I personally kept imaging the wholesale destruction of Warsaw during the Second World War that I had seen on newsreels. This of course in addition to the more recent destruction of a similar savage kind, closer but not yet in, my 'home' Poland.
Yet, there was an internal message of hope here with Prokofiev in his conviction of the rising of the spirit of the dead. The espressivo marking takes us closer to heaven after all. Prof. Gavrylyuk observed that much of this sympathy and hope is not expressed in a conventional romantic sense but in a uniquely Prokofian unapologetic manner.
Andante caloroso
Prof. Gavrylyuk indicated that here in this movement, hope in the human case remains and is expressed - crucial to the conception of this entire sonata. He felt this movement expressed the warmth of an intimate smile. A symbol of hope and optimism. Duality overcome. A smile appears on the G sharp.
He also felt Prokofiev had been inspired in this composition by the influential legato of a particular school of Russian singers. The cyclical nature of sung phrases is present here. The Andante expresses an affectionate moment - one of trust, hope and yes, in essence, a spiritual moment. 'There is a desperate need for hope despite the salt being rubbed in the wounds.' This remark created an indelible image for me. There is within this movement an incentive to remain true to your moral compass. The imagery delineated in this movement enhances the emotional power of human creation. On a technical level he reminded the student Zuzanna Jejbuk that the repeated notes are in reality internal. The imagery at the conclusion of this movement is one of falling stars.
Precipitato
Here Prof. Gavrylyuk we have the powerful, irresistible
perpetuum mobile expression of
the victory of good over evil. The human spirit ultimately always rises above the
most pernicious and destructive of evils. Many non-conformist rhythms in the movement indicate
this troubled road to victory. Yet, the movement is not without humour and sense of
irony with parodies of generals depicted in its composition. Ironically, the NKVD will 'tell or reveal all the
secrets', contrived or true 'fake news'. The glorious conclusion in this
movement of this darkness is an explosion of major chords.
Prof. Gavrylyuk indicated many technical
aspects of this forcibly demanding movement that I cannot detail appropriately
here.
But I feel I must quote again my remarks after Prof.
Gavrylyuk's encore performance of this movement following his recital on 8th
August 2026 at this festival.
Alexander Gavrylyuk, with
immense emotional commitment and impulsiveness, chose as one encore, the raw powerful statement of the
final Precipitato movement of the second 'War Sonata', the
seventh sonata by Prokofiev Op. 83. With his immense power at the
keyboard, Gavrylyuk gave one of the great performances of this terrifying and
frenzied perpetuum mobile toccata. There is inflammable
demonism in its relentless merciless drive, air of defiance and human victory
over impossible odds.
The immortal pianist, Sviatoslav Richter, who premiered the work, offered
his own impression of the sonata:
We are brutally plunged into the anxiously threatening atmosphere of a world that has lost its balance. Chaos and uncertainty reign. We see murderous forces ahead. But this does not mean that what we lived by before thereby ceases to exist. We continue to feel and love. Now the full range of human emotions bursts forth. Together with our fellow men and women, we raise a voice in pro- test and share the common grief. We sweep everything before us, borne along by the will of victory. In the tremendous struggle that this involves, we find the strength to affirm the irrepressible life-force.
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| The brilliant simultaneous translator Anna Gołka, Prof. Alexander Gavrylyuk and the festival Artistic Director Prof. Piotr Paleczny |
MONDAY 10th AUGUST CHOPIN MANOR 8.00 PM
Alexander KOBRIN
Winner of the 3rd Prize at the 14th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (2000)
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
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The profound expression of the aged Brahms, a face etched by experience of life |
'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.
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!
Klavierstücke – Piano Pieces, Op. 118 (1893)
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.
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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 and the reflections of an old man 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.
Kobrin gave full reign to the passionate outbursts of the first Intermezzo in A minor with such an affirmation of life in those rich chords, then the fading away and decay. In the second, Kobrin sensitively played the Intermezzo in A major. This always touches my deepest yearning for the past, as it assuredly did for Brahms as he reflected musically in this composition. The Andante teneramente, the expressive dynamic variations and poetry, so lovingly embraces long legato lines of transient affections. This ardent work has all the rhapsodic emotional memories and longing of a nocturne on the nature of mortality and a lost or unrequited love. Kobrin emphasized the polyphony in the central section and with a deeply sensitive re-entry of the teneramente.
The Ballade emerged as an almost violent eruption of a recall of past passions. The Intermezzo for me was a summer pastoral landscape painted as the scene of faded love, the nostalgia of affections. A curious clarification of passions. Both the Romanze and the final Intermezzo affectingly explored the caves of memory with fading recall of painful, soulful reminiscences.
Intermezzo. Allegro non assai, ma molto appassionato
Intermezzo. Andante teneramente
Ballade. Allegro energico
Intermezzo. Allegretto un poco agitato
Romanze. Andante – Allegretto grazioso
Intermezzo. Andante, largo e mesto
The opening stanza of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem says a great deal concerning this period of Brahms :
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. Alexander Kobrin, throughout his entire Brahms interpretations, brought a moving and profound realization of much internal emotion familiar to Brahms and ourselves.
Wilhelm Furtwängler once said that 'an interpreter can render only what he has first lived through.'
Klavierstücke – Piano Pieces, Op. 119 (1893)
Intermezzo. Adagio
Intermezzo. Andantino un poco agitato
Intermezzo. Grazioso e giocoso
Rhapsodie. Allegro risoluto
INTERMISSION
Robert Schumann (1810–1856)
Kreisleriana, Op. 16 (1838)
Äußerst bewegt
Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch
Sehr aufgeregt
Sehr langsam
Sehr lebhaft
Sehr langsam
Sehr rasch
Schnell und spielend
Madness or insanity was a notion that throughout the composer's time on earth, simultaneously attracted and repelled Schumann. At the end of his life he was cruelly to fall victim to it.
Kreisleriana was presented publicly as eight sketches of the fictional character Kapellmeister Kreisler, a rather crazy conductor-composer who was a literary figure created by the marvellous German Romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffman who possessed 'an overwhelming interest in music'. The piece is actually based on the Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier and also the double narrative form of an inventive grotesque satirical literary novel Hoffmann wrote with the remarkable, translated title: Growler the Cat’s Philosophy of Life Together with Fragments of the Biography of Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler from Random Sheets of the Printer’s Waste.
Schumann's work was partly a response to what he considered to be the demise of the sonata form post-Beethoven - '...it looks as if this form has run its course.' he wrote.
The fictional author of this double novel (two protagonists) Kater Murr (Growler the Cat) is actually a caricature of the German petit bourgeois class. 'O Appetite, thy name is Cat! With the herring head in my mouth I climbed to the roof, like pious Aeneas.' Certainly this is a bizarre work of literature!
In
a theme rather appropriate in our times of gross financial inequalities,
Growler advises the reader how to become a ‘fat cat’. This advice is
interrupted by fragments of Kreisler’s impassioned biography. The bizarre
explanation for this is that Growler tore up a copy of Kreisler’s biography to
use as rough note paper. When he sent the manuscript of his own book to the
printers, the two got inexplicably mixed up when the book was published. Such
devices remind one of Laurence Sterne in that great experimental novel Tristram
Shandy.
Music and literature were inextricably connected in Schumann's artistic aesthetic. He was particularly fond of Kreisleriana and attracted to composing a work in ‘fragmented’ form in the structural manner of this novel. The use of the device of interrelated ‘fragments’ (as the nineteenth century termed what we might refer to as 'miniatures') was employed by the Romantic Movement in poetry, prose and music. Schumann often likened the listening to music to that of reading a novel. References to literature are found in many of his compositions.
Kreisler is a type of Doppelgänger for Schumann. This was a favourite concept for the composer, who divided his own creative personality between the created characters of Florestan and Eusebius. With the unpredictable Kreisler as his alter ego, Schumann was able to indulge the dualities of his own personality. The music swings violently and suddenly between agitation (Florestan) and lyrical calm (Eusebius), between dread and elation. Or one might conjecture, between the composer and the cat. The episodes in the piece describe Schumann's emotional passions, his divided personality and his creative art. His tortured soul alternates with lyrical love passages expressing the composer’s love for Clara Wieck. He used and transformed one of her musical themes in the work.
The work oscillates between two highly contrasting schemes of music.1838 was a disturbed time for Schumann. His marriage to this 'inaccessible love', the piano virtuoso Clara Wieck, was a year ahead. At this time they were painfully petitioning the courts for permission to marry and ignore her father's cruel social class objections to the connection. They had known each other for ten years before their eventual marriage in 1840. During this turbulent period of frustration, Schumann’s compositions evolved in complexity. Their unbridled emotionalism and adventurous structure confused musicians, audience and critics alike. The work was written as predominantly oscillating between B-flat major (slow - lyric, expressive - legato flowing melody - small octaves) and G minor (rapid - non-lyric - dotted rhythms, rests, staccato notes - mechanistic repetitions - short motives - contra and great octaves).
Schumann originally intended to dedicate the work to Clara, but wishing to avoid more calamitous situations with her father, who had violently forbidden their marriage, eventually dedicated it to his friend Fryderyk Chopin. He wrote the work in an astonishing four days in April 1838. The polyphonic nature of the piece may have reflected a deep understanding of Chopin's own style and certainly a love of Bach. The Polish composer merely commented on the cover design of the score left on his piano. Even Clara, on first acquaintance with the work, wrote: 'Sometimes your music actually frightens me, and I wonder: is it really true that the creator of such things is going to be my husband?' Even Franz Liszt was challenged finding the work 'too difficult for the public to digest.'
Schumann wrote to Clara in a letter:
'Play my Kreisleriana sometimes. You will find a wild, unbridled love in there in places, together with your life and mine, and many of your glances.' Also 'Oft these things (his works), I love the Kreisleriana the most.'
This great masterpiece of emotional and structural complexity expresses much of the quixotic mercurial temperament of Schumann's personality and the literary constructive elements of the story. Contrasting passages of great discontinuity run up against each other ironically but then finally converge.
In 1834 Schumann had met Hoffmann's role model for the Kreisler figure, the composer Ludwig Böhner (1787-1860) in Leipzig. 'You know that he was as famous as Beethoven in his time and that the Hoffmann was sitting with his Kapellmeister Kreißler as the original… The day before yesterday he fantasized with me for a few hours; the old lightning bolts struck out here and there, but otherwise everything is dark and dreary ... If I had the time, I would like to write Böhnerians for which he gave me the material himself.'
The poetry of the form of the Kreisler section lies in its symbolic circularity (The French literary theorist and Schumann-lover Roland Barthes interestingly observed that Schumann composed music in discrete, intense 'images' rather than as an evolving musical 'language', like a succession of frames in a film). In the literary cycle, Kreisler becomes obsessed with Bach's Goldberg Variations and Schumann is catalyzed by this reference and his own adoration of the music of Bach to improvise complex variations on the Goldbergs in Kreisleriana. This, what one may call 'stretching' of Bach, and placing it transformed into the world of Romanticism, testifies to Kreisler's (and Schumann's) disturbed temperament at this time.
In Kater Murr: 'Unfortunately, the current biographer is forced to portray his hero, if the portrait should be correct, as an extravagant person who, especially when it comes to musical enthusiasm, often seems almost mad to the quiet observer.'
The Swiss pianist and musical commentator Walther Rehberg (1900-1957) reinterpreted this psychologising implementation of the Kreisler figure as projected onto Schumann's own psyche: 'So his own storms of the heart, but also his other, wide-ranging inner experiences that are not always compatible with the limits of the bearable, found expression in his Kreisleriana.' This refers to Schumann's self-image: He saw himself as a forerunner of a concept of art that broke the fetters of pleasant musical enjoyment and penetrated the 'romantic realm of spirits', threatened by the constant danger of brushing against madness.' (Karl Böhmer Villa Musica)
The composer was also experimenting with the timbre of piano sound. Without wishing to appear a 'crank', I feel it necessary to say that on a piano of Schumann's period (he loved Clara's Conrad Graf of 1838 from Vienna) the varied colours, timbre and textures of the different registers suited the contrapuntal nature of composition. This would have been rather more obvious on the older instrument than on the modern homogenized sound of the Steinway.
Such
a temperamental and capricious work by Schumann (and the bizarre background
story by E.T.A.Hoffmann) is difficult to present to modern listeners with great
conviction and lucidity. Even Schumann once commented 'Only Germans can
understand the title Kreisleriana.' The reason for this apparent
prejudice was that Hoffmann was scarcely read outside Germany at the time and
even today scarcely read at all anywhere. So the extra literary dimension to
understanding this work is often lost.
In a uniquely personal view of this masterpiece, Alexander Kobrin opened in a tempestuous, turbulent fashion. This did not conceal his superb tone and touch at the instrument that increasingly became evident. I felt I could hear, even feel in the jagged rhythm at times, the scampering and complaints of Kater Murr ('Growler' the cat). Certainly on an altogether different emotional level, Kobrin indicated a yearning and reaching out for love on the part of the composer.
One could also hear the influence of Bach on Schumann as Kobrin articulated the rich polyphony contained within the work and especially as it drew to a close. At times, however, I found his significantly large dynamic contrasts distracting. This was more than compensated by the slow, introspective passages that formed part of the moving kaleidoscope of his colour, tone and texture. The final return of the expressive, main thematic melody was profoundly moving after the tumultuous and lyrical drama that had proceeded it. An outstanding performance.
Before his encores, Kobrin touchingly announced that it was his daughter's birthday and that he regretted missing it. 'This will never happen again' he said sadly. She would be listening he told us, so he dedicated the first encore to her. From Schumann's Kinderszenen, Op. 15, No. 1 Von fremden Ländern und Menschen (Scenes from Childhood, Op. 15, No. 1 'Of Foreign Lands and Peoples').
The
second encore was a glowing, glistening rendition of the Chopin Étude
Op.25 No 1 and the final brief, nostalgic encore, the Chopin Prelude Op.
28 No 7 in A major.
MONDAY 10th AUGUST CHOPIN MANOR 4.00 PM
SAEHYUN KIM
First prize winner in the Long-Thibaud International Competition
PARIS 2025
Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
Piano Sonata 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
Kim was serene and lyrical in this opening with a continuance of the dream. The second subject was playful and like a dance. At times I felt the mood contrasts were dynamically exaggerated. This is a common fault in this hall with its particular acoustics, not always carried through to the microphone recordings. However, I was searching for a more committed dramatic vision in the tensions and relaxations. There were nuances of colour and touch but the dichotomy of grey reality and poignant dreams was only subtly present but not as clear as in the Schubert Lieder.
Andante
I felt there were disconcerting dynamic contrasts between poetic lyricism and fff. On occasion, reflective and sensitive in texture without doubt but with this scale of dynamics, not sufficiently emotionally engaging for me as the lyrical theme gives way to turbulent sections. The structure of this movement did not appear coherent to me.
Menuetto. Allegro
moderato - Trio
There is a musical connection here, which Kim seemed to be aware of, with the 'utmost quietude and delicacy' of Austrian Ländler. It fitted like a glove with his concept of overall reduced dynamic scale
Allegretto
Again Kim brought a welcome lightness, sunny texture, lyricism and
charm to this movement. He betrayed great sensibility in terms of sensitivity, touch
and colour. The depth of emotional penetration will come with life experience.
A remarkable experience somewhat from another era of refinement and civilization.
INTERMISSION
Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
Études, Op. 25 (1835–1837)
Étude in A-flat Major, Op. 25 No. 1
Étude in F Minor, Op. 25 No. 2
Étude in F Major, Op. 25 No. 3
Étude in A Minor, Op. 25 No. 4
Étude in E Minor, Op. 25 No. 5
Étude in G-sharp Minor, Op. 25 No. 6
Étude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 25 No. 7
Étude in D-flat Major, Op. 25 No. 8
Étude in G-flat Major, Op. 25 No. 9
Étude in B Minor, Op. 25 No. 10
Étude in A Minor, Op. 25 No. 11
Étude in C Minor, Op. 25 No. 1
Kim interpolated a performance of the Barcarolle before his legendary performance of the Op.25 Études.
 |
| Venice painted by Turner late in life |
I am afraid I found the opening rather thoughtless and perfunctory as is often the case with young pianists. Having visited lagoon towns in Italy, I imagine the opening octave an important sound-painting moment and not played sf. A tonal water-colour wash background is painted which creates a mysterious, possibly Venetian atmosphere before setting off on this romantic excursion. Onto this canvas is tentatively depicted the moving toy-shop of the heart. I felt Kim had not conceived of the romantic saga contained within this extraordinary piece. I felt he had a surprisingly conventional pianistic vision in performance with, despite Chopin's indications, tumultuous 'Titanic' in distress moments that I felt are inappropriate.
We came then to Kim's already legendary performance
of the Chopin Op.25 Études. In many ways this was a revelation in sound
and interpretation, extracting much 'hidden' melodic and polyphonic content in
the most exciting way imaginable. All this articulated with the most refined perfection
of 'technique'. I was carried away by the imaginative range and scope of his musical
invention, colour, texture, dynamic contrasts, phrasing, rubato and simply put,
the sheer magical revivification of customary interpretations.
One was irresistibly reminded of past masters of
the instrument who never hesitated to stamp the music with their own unique
view of the scores they encountered. Only occasionally did Kim veer into dynamic
exaggeration, seemingly inescapable in this hall.
In short this set of Études is an authentic revelation in depth and interpretative insight. He achieved an instant standing ovation, which is most unusual at this festival. The only equivalent moment of instant approbation in the Dworek that I remember was when Seong-Jin Cho (winner of the 2015 International Chopin Competition) appeared here for the first time in 2010.
Kim's first encore was a superb Faure Barcarolle. This was followed by a rare piano work by Charles Trenet - April in Paris. Finally a lively so-called Minute Waltz by Chopin.
SUNDAY 9th AUGUST CHOPIN MANOR 8.00 PM
Shiori KUWAHARA
Laureate of the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Brussels (2025); winner of the 4th Prize at the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Rondo in D Major, K. 485 (1786)
Mozart’s Rondo in D major (K. 485) is a
single-movement keyboard piece completed in Vienna on 10 January 1786. The
composition appealed both publicly and privately. It is full of melodic 'singing charm'.
Kuwahara with fine classical tone and texture gave the work elegance and delight
.
Vienna in 1786 was a pressured career moment for Mozart. He was teaching, giving concerts and composing that sublime operatic masterpiece Le nozze di Figaro (premiered later in the year). The Rondo indicates that Mozart’s piano compositions were not only sonatas and concertos, but also engaging pieces suited to domestic music-making (wonderfully common before the decay of social media comforts) and the expanding market for keyboard music
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) / Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924)
Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 (1720)
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 liked 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.
Kuwahara opened the work with the greatest nobility of utterance and poise. Sheer virtuosity did not tempt her as it might have many lesser pianists. Busoni was as concerned with degrees of expressiveness as any Romantic composer. The work tells us a great deal about Busoni and his values, often based on organ sound. Passion balanced with lyricism. Her sense of polyphony and the articulation of it was both inspired and transparent. The harmonic structure revealed within the glowing piano sound was miraculously clear.
The transparent polyphony of the twenty-nine variations of the work was impressive. Her pedalling was superbly artful which gave intense colours within the soundscape. The melodic lines and the weight and significance of chords was always in grand aesthetic conception. Much of the music was intended to reflect the sound of a magnificent seventeenth century Thuringian organ and its 16' stop which she accomplished. Kuwahara gave the work a noble and triumphal concluding resolution and completion.
I felt I had nothing left to say after this monumental, authoritative and cathedral-like imposing performance. One of the great accounts of this work and a privilege to have heard her perform it live.
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 in the Chaconne.
Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
Fantasy in C Major (Wandererfantasie), Op. 15, D. 760 (1822)
Allegro con fuoco ma non troppo
Adagio
Presto
Allegro
INTERMISSION
Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
Nocturne in B Major, Op. 9 No. 3 (1830–1831)
The Nocturne in B major Op. 9, is believed to have been composed in Vienna in 1831. The great Polish musicologist Mieczysław Tomaszewski describes this Nocturne in a far superior manner to myself:
"This enchanting, rocking theme, at times reminiscent of a barcarolle,
returns spliced with a new theme. The latter is entirely melodious, and at the
same time remarkably simple, almost song-like, enhanced merely with
phrase-ending figuration. The agitato that fills the middle section of the
Nocturne erupts suddenly… and disappears just as abruptly. It brings music that
is almost menacing and bellicose. It proceeds in the relative key of B minor,
in an alla breve metre, combining the rhythms of a march or insurrectionist song
with sounds in the left hand that are almost onomatopoeic. It should be
repeated that the spirit of Field has entirely melted away from the music of
this Nocturne."
Ballade in A-flat Major, Op. 47 (1841)
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’.
Kuwahara gave us a fine interpretation moving on many differing levels. There were beautiful changes of mood and colour reflected in the structure. A definite feeling of musical narrative emerged. Her keyboard command, tone colour, timbre and commitment to the modern instrument was utterly convincing.
Ballade in F Minor, Op. 52 (1842–1843)
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.
Kuwahara gave this work a deep consideration as a narrative through the opera of the drama of life from an opening in childish innocence. She understood the narrative nature of this masterpiece and brought great narrative emotional drama and variety of spiritual mood to the performance and invested this theatrical element into the phrasing and structure. This opera of the drama of life in piano sound.
Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat Major, Op. 61 (1845–1846)
I had heard this formidable pianist at Duszniki
Zdrój for the first time in August 2021.
The opening chords lead to pianissimo conclusions.
She forged this work into an extraordinary variety of psychological Ballade with a powerful sound. A type of chiaroscuro vision evolved
with dark shadows. She did not present us with a delicately poetic
construction but a far richer vein, more like maturity in distress. There
were all the elements of a musically narrative Ballade. I received the
impression she was painting a landscape in oils through which she wandered
breathlessly taking us with her. Kuwahara expresses tremendous authority at the
keyboard unlike any Japanese lady pianist I have ever encountered.
SUNDAY 9th AUGUST CHOPIN MANOR 4.00 PM
Jakub KUSZLIK
Winner of the 4th Prize and the Special Prize for the best performance of mazurkas at the 18th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (2021)
Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
Impromptu in F-sharp Major, Op. 36 (1839)
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 his collection,
not originally assigned to these works by him but by his publisher Haslinger.
I feel this work carries an
atmosphere of elegance, refinement and the grace of another age, possibly that
of the Parisian salons that Chopin inhabited – yet is not in the slightest
degree superficial. The title ‘Impromptu’ tends to suggest invention ‘on
the spot’. I felt Kuzlik was fond of somewhat exaggerated dynamic contrasts and could
have presented this work in more joyful manner, charm and with more alluring phrasing and
breaths. André Gide, who was also a fine pianist as well as a writer, wrote
affectingly of the impromptus in his Notes on Chopin :
‘What is most
exquisite and most individual in Chopin’s art, wherein it differs most
wonderfully from all others, I see in just that non-interruption of the phrase;
the insensible, the imperceptible gliding from one melodic proposition to
another, which leaves or gives to a number of his compositions the fluid
appearance of streams.’
I would have wished for a
more improvisational atmosphere to overlay his interpretation.
Mazurkas, Op. 56 (1843–1844)
Mazurka in B Major
Mazurka in C Major
Mazurka in C Minor
I have spoken earlier
elsewhere in this post concerning the passion for dance and 'Mazurka Fever'
that gripped Europe during the Chopin period.
I enjoyed this set of Mazurkas Op.
56 (1843–44). No. 1 in B major captured the shifting internal life of Chopin's
nostalgic and melancholic reminiscences, fertile sublimated fragments of his
past with flashes of remembered dancing, the joy and boldness of the mazur.
He often spoke of otherwise fine performances but lacking the 'Polish element'
as he termed it. This is something all pianists who are not Polish struggle to
achieve. Yet with Kuzlik I did feel the Polish element. No. 2 in C major had an
affecting rumbustious rural energy contrasted with more, not terribly serious,
romantic moments of reminiscence.
No. 3 in C minor is a deep
poem replete with nostalgia and recall. Chopin's harmonic adventurism in this
mazurka is so arresting. Kuzlik expressed a particularly 'Polish atmosphere'
with different tone colours for the changes of scene and harmony (always
present in these often visual musical evocations). Ferdynand Hoesick, writer
and musicologist historian of literature, musicographer and publisher,
wrote ‘rather the music of memories than of reality’ and
Zdzisław Jachimecki saw in its tonal boldness ‘the foundations for the
music of future times’.
Ballade in F Major, Op. 38 (1839)
The innocent
opening always captures my sentiments. Chopin was working on the F
major Ballade in Majorca immersed in the romantic atmosphere of spending time in a
foreign culture with his lover Georges Sand. 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.'
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.
Kuzlik gave us a rather too
dramatic performance of the work with I felt, overly large dynamic contrasts.
A Russian musicologist has recently revealed in an interesting essay that there
are operatic elements in the lyrical sections of the Ballade, songs that should
not be overlooked especially in Chopin who was so fond of opera.
The Leipzig encounter with
Chopin 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 literary balladic tradition did
underlie this conception but naturally not in any programmatic way.
Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937)
Masques, Op. 34 (1915–1916)
Scheherazade
Tantris le bouffon
The Serenade of Don Juan
There is a variety of
allusive 'programme' attached to the work. It is based on
different literary characters. Queen Scheherazade, the
narrator of the Arabian tales from One Thousand and One Nights; Tristan,
the hero of the Celtic legend Tristan and Iseult, and finally Don
Juan arguably greatest seducer and decadent in modern European
culture. The three movements are entitled Scheherazade, Tantris the
Buffoon and Don Juan’s Serenade.
This was a limited
performance of this work with few revelations of colour and varieties of sound,
tone and touch. The dramatic, theatrical and kaleidoscope of harmonic colours
were not sufficiently engaging for this listener. I felt Kuzlik had not given
himself time to explore context, to develop a deeper acquaintance with the complex literary references, connotations and associations in terms of mastering the
panalopy of emotional tensions and expressive contrasts within the
work.
Scheherazade (the
first movement dedicated to Alexander (Sasha) Dubyansky who
would premiere Masques in St Petersburg on 12th October
1916) requires one to take an imaginative leap into the legendary past and
perhaps listen to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The sarcastic irony of Tantris
the Buffoon (dedicated to the great piano pedagogue Henryk Neuhaus)
exposed both the public face of the mask and the inner tumult of emotions
behind it.
Of Don Juan's
Serenade (dedicated so appropriately to Artur Rubinstein - read his
autobiographical My Early Years and the accounts of the red light
Parisian crawls accompanied by the great Russian basso profundo Feodor
Chaliapin). Szymanowski wrote to Stefan Spiess on 7 November 1915: “I
have just fully completed my Don Juan and I am emormously pleased
with it! In spite of its parody-like style, it is worth a lot more than those
Odyssean tricks.” Kuzlik could have made more of the parody and again reveal the two faces of the Janus-like Don Juan. Suggestive
ambiguity was not always in evidence.
This is a fiendishly
difficult score and to present it in concert at Duszniki required courage and
audacity. Perhaps increased maturity will assist Kuzlik to explore in detail the highly sophisticated
expressive musical material and personal philosophical ideas of Szymanowski. Namely,
in life we all wear misleading masks of one sort or another. The composer's
personal life illustrated this concern graphically.
INTERMISSION
Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953)
Piano Sonata No. 6 in A Major, Op. 82 (1939–1940)
Allegro moderato
Allegretto
Tempo di valzer lentissimo
Vivace
 |
The Battle of Stalingrad |
This is a deeply despairing and bleak Prokofiev
work. In the first of the three 'War Sonatas' the composer expresses his true
feelings after completing his somewhat sanitized work in the shadow of
Stalin.
I felt Kuzlik could have been more emotionally committed to the work. The
opening declamatory Allegro moderato is dynamically and rhythmically overwhelming
and technically demanding in its emotional extremes. Yet the expression of
fierce anger, terror and the horrors of war escaped Kuzlik at times. The
ironically 'happy' Allegretto evoked a dance. The Tempo
di valzer was also a comparatively light delight but for me lacked that
mysterious nostalgic yet resentful yearning for past sensual joys that
permeates the stormy centre of the movement. The fourth movement Vivace was
taken at a fine tempo retaining expressiveness at the plaintiff return of the
first theme.
Desperate, violent anger and the frustration of individual
powerlessness in the face of the destruction of war is present in the
violent coda that concludes this great sonata. Even after this fine performance, I felt a mature conception
of wartime suffering was mercifully rather beyond the youth of this pianist.
I remember great performances at Duszniki both in 2005 in 2015 by the brilliant
Ukrainian/Australian Alexander Gavrylyuk. In 2005 I wrote (then in a hand-written journal) 'monumental in scope and staggering in terms of technique'. I also mentioned a 'crystalline tone and articulation'.
Another to galvanize the heart, is a 1950s recording by Sviatoslav Richter - both these artists understand the terrible, immeasurable suffering of war, death and displacement.
SATURDAY, 8th AUGUST CHOPIN MANOR 8.00 PM
Alexander GAVRYLYUK
Gold Medal winner at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv (2005); Artist-in-Residence at Wigmore Hall in London in the 2023/24 season
Piano Sonata in C Major, K. 330 (1783)
Allegro moderato
Andante cantabile
Allegretto
This interpretation and performance was simply divine in its simplicity, elegance, charm and refinement. I have nothing I wish to say, just take deeper breaths and the Nabokovian tingle along the spine as true art reveals itself...Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
Fantaisie in F Minor, Op. 49 (1841)
Ferenc Liszt (1811–1886)
Venezia e Napoli: Tarantelles napolitaines, S. 159 (1838–1840)
The cities of Venice and
Naples made a profound impression upon Franz Liszt especially during
his travels with Marie d’Agoult. Beside the several pieces that would
ultimately become the travelogue of his journeys through Italy in the second
volume of Années de pèlerinage, he also composed in 1840 a further four
pieces named after them—Venezia e Napoli. Like Années de pèlerinage,
Venezia e Napoli likewise underwent a significant process of revision and transformation
once Liszt was resident in Weimar with his school. I will not detail this
process here as so few of my readers seem interested in the context of a
composition, which I consider vital to full appreciation of any performance.
Gavrylyuk, as one of the
greatest virtuosos of our age, gave a commanding and masterful account that
at times made my hair stand on end with the electricity he generated with
repeated notes and the soul ravishingly moved by Mediterranean melodies.
INTERMISSION
Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881)
Pictures at an Exhibition (1874)
Promenade
The Gnome
Promenade
The Old Castle
Promenade
Tuileries
Cattle
Promenade
Ballet of Unhatched Chicks
Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle
Promenade
Limoges. The Market
Catacombs
With the Dead in a Dead Language
The Hut on Hen’s Legs
The Great Gate of Kiev
Again I would point to the Ukrainian war being the oppressive background to what seemed to me in this work to be inevitably leading to the grand and noble statement of endurance symbolized by the final Great Gate of Kiev. My own imagination, perhaps not that of the pianist, was in operation here as I do live in Poland, a country once again close by a calamitous war, once again a buffer zone and potential theatre of conflict.
In this performance there were blithe moments (Tuileries),
even humorous elements (Limoges and a brilliant Ballet of Unhatched
Chicks) scattered among the dark sonorities (immense Cattle, The Old Castle, Catacombs
and With the Dead in a Dead Language) all observed during the Promenade.
The Great Gate emerged as an immortal edifice of resistance and ancient power.
Encores:
Gavrylyuk is well known as a champion of the compelling
art of Vladimir Horowitz. We were given a poetic account of Träumerei (Dreaming)
by Schumann, a favourite encore often offered by Horowitz.
Gavrylyuk, with immense emotional commitment, chose the raw powerful statement of the final Precipitato movement of the second 'War Sonata', the seventh sonata by Prokofiev Op. 83. With his immense power at the keyboard, Gavrylyuk gave one of the great performances of this terrifying and frenzied perpetuum mobile toccata. There is inflammable demonism in its relentless merciless drive, air of defiance and human victory over impossible odds.
Sviatoslav Richter offered his own impression of the sonata:
We are brutally plunged into the anxiously threatening atmosphere of a world that has lost its balance. Chaos and uncertainty reign. We see murderous forces ahead. But this does not mean that what we lived by before thereby ceases to exist. We continue to feel and love. Now the full range of human emotions bursts forth. Together with our fellow men and women, we raise a voice in pro- test and share the common grief. We sweep everything before us, borne along by the will of victory. In the tremendous struggle that this involves, we find the strength to affirm the irrepressible life-force.
Volume without harshness filled the Dworek. The reasoning
behind this inspiration was undeniable.
One of the greatest recitals of this festival so far ...
Saturday 8.08.2026 4:00 PM
SATURDAY, 8th AUGUST CHOPIN MANOR 4. 00 PM
YEHUDA PROKOPOWICZ
Participant in the 19th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw;
Winner of the Polish Radio Special Prize for the best performance of mazurkas winner of the Polityka Passport Award 2025 in the Readers’ Passport category
Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
Mazurkas
Mazurka in G-sharp Minor, Op. 33 No. 1 (1837–1838)
Mazurka in E Minor, Op. 17 No. 2 (1830–1833)
Mazurka in A Minor, Op. 59 No. 1 (1845)
Mazurka in F-sharp Minor, Op. 59 No. 3
Mazurka in D Major, Op. 33 No. 3
Mazurka in B Minor, Op. 33 No. 4
After listening to these inspired
interpretations and instinctive understanding of the mazurka genre, it comes as
no surprise that in the recent Chopin International Piano Competition Yehuda
Prokopowicz won the Polish Radio Award
for the best performance of mazurkas. In the quest for brevity in review, rather
than examine each in interpretative detail, I will make some general observations.
These dance miniatures grew into dance poems.
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 hi-jinks 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 hardly 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.
The reason we are celebrating the 200th anniversary of this visit. 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.
Prokopowicz from the outset established an improvisatory
atmosphere which convincingly expressed the differing moods of each mazurka.
Something rather special and unique emerged from the 'conversational', intimate
nature of his phrasing and interpretation. He possesses a marvelous understanding
of the harmonic preparations and adventurous transitions Chopin creates in these
remarkable 'miniatures' (hardly that).
His rhythmic sense, nostalgic rubato, dynamic variation,
neuralgic atmosphere at times and micro-hesitations touched one deeply and emotionally
as Chopin intended even at times made one wish to dance! Garrick Ohlsson in
fact advised all young pianists to learn to dance waltzes and mazurkas. A superb
group.
Fantasy in F Minor, Op. 49 (1841)
The difficulties in bringing together the fragmented nature of the next
work are well known. Carl Czerny wrote perceptively in his introduction to the
art of improvisation on the piano ‘If a well-written composition can be
compared with a noble architectural edifice in which symmetry must predominate,
then a fantasy well done is akin to a beautiful English garden, seemingly
irregular, but full of surprising variety, and executed rationally,
meaningfully, and according to plan.’
At the time Chopin wrote this work, improvisation in the public domain
was declining. The opening is lonely, bleak and isolated in atmosphere. Chopin
contemplates the destiny of his country and himself within its history. Prokopowicz
brought together all these disparate elements into an enviable unity of
expressive intention with well judged expressive rubato.
Waves of ominous rebellion then rose which augmented the strength of
the rising emotion. I felt he could have built the rising tide of resistance
more powerfully in the texture of the composition. The central chorale emerged
as a sensitive meditation on existence. This internal life was followed by a eruption
of emotion. With many of Chopin’s apparently ‘discontinuous’ works (say
the Polonaise-Fantaisie), there is, in fact, an underlying and
complexly wrought tonal structure that holds these wonderful dreams of his
tightly together as rational wholes.
I felt Prokopowicz could work more on the immense difficulty of expressing
musical coherence in this work. This composition is a great revolutionary statement,
fierce in its patriotic, militaristic anger, nostalgia for past joys and plea
for freedom.
Ballade in F Minor, Op. 52 (1842–1843)
This masterpiece requires a lifetime of thought and analysis to reveal
all its treasures and deep narrative philosophy. 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.
Il Cantastorie (The Ballad Singer) by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
I thought in his interpretation of these passing scenes, Prokopowicz could
have emphasized the strong narrative declamatory elements and expressive
polyphony in a more musically more satisfying manner. I feel some of these
younger artists are too young to properly deal with the internal psychological
dramas transformed into tragedy, nostalgia and joy in this great opera of life.
The balladic tale's twists and turns were expressively delineated but these
beautiful episodes could have had a more flowing cohesion, one linking with or
organically growing out of the other without seams. The reading was slightly
mannered on occasion. What a monumental story of shifting life realities
is displayed in this work! This Ballade is such a great opera of the human
psyche and historical destiny.
INTERMISSION
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Adagio in B Minor, K. 540 (1788)
I felt his choice of this rather obscure work remarkable in itself. According
to his own catalog, Mozart completed the Adagio, K. 540, on March 19,
1788. He was much concerned at that tome with the impending Vienna premiere of Don
Giovanni. No specific event we know of inspired the composition of this eloquent,
solitary slow movement for piano. The remarkable ending in B major deepens the
melancholy rather than enhancing it. B minor is a rare key in Mozart.
The distinguished English musicologist Arthur Hutchings deemed the
Adagio Mozart’s finest single piano work and the famous Mozart scholar Alfred
Einstein considered it “one of the most perfect, most deeply felt, and most
despairing of all his works.”
Prokopowicz, given the evidence of the mazurkas, is well prepared
temperamentally to grapple with this demanding, emotional work. All he needs is
a stronger grasp of the Mozartian classical idiom, sound, colour and texture of
spare phrasing eloquence that hints at the unseen worlds that determine so much
of our existence.
Ferenc Liszt (1811–1886)
Études d’exécution transcendante, S. 139 (1851)
X. Allegro agitato molto, in F Minor
The tenth Transcendental Étude is a tremendously powerful and
emotional work despite not having the support of a title. But then F-minor and
F-sharp minor are my favourite keys! Here Liszt embraces Chopin. His respect
for the Chopin Études is as well known as Chopin’s admiration of Liszt’s
performance of them. At times Liszt lays his own composition over the
Chopin Étude Op. 10 No.9, borrowing and augmenting the idiom of the
Pole. I felt Prokopowicz understood these connections and inspirational echoes
very well.
XI. Harmonies du soir
There is little doubt that the Harmonies du Soir is
one of the great masterpieces of the declaration and yearnings of Romantic love
in nineteenth century piano literature. The titles of these transcendental
studies leave open many possible interpretations to the listener. This is
merely my own. I find in this work the presage of the passions that inspire
that sublime arc of tension and release contained in the Liebestod of Tristan
und Isolde. Wagner’s debt to the harmonic adventurism of Liszt is never in
doubt to my mind. The difference here is that life and not death inhabits this
particular panorama of love.
Softly the bells toll at dusk as the lover wanders
in a pastoral reverie, perhaps in a park in Weimar, passing by Goethe’s summer
house, wood smoke in the air and the burble of the nearby Ilm river. He begins
to dwell on his feelings for the seductive other who has captured his heart in
a net. We begin to inexorably move into his ‘human, all to human’ mind as he imagines
his beloved, we feel his fears and apprehensions, experience his almost coarse
desire, his passions rising and falling in waves of increasing ecstasy, finally
reaching an apotheosis.
These debilitating emotions slowly fade as the composer returns to the
calm of evening, ‘calm again now my heart’ as if the soft wings of a night moth
had settled over him. I felt much of this romantic poetry escaped Prokopowicz
as Liszt rises and swells with emotion.
One
must never forget the literary dimension of so much of Liszt’s thought and
inspiration, the profound effect of the life and poetry of Byron and Victor
Hugo on the evolution of the musical Romantic movement in Europe. This was when
poetry had the power to influence behaviour – seldom experienced today. We are
far in 2026 from the definition of the poet by Shelley as ‘the acknowledged
legislator of the world.’ Liszt was an excellent writer himself. Poetry was
of immense importance and inspiration to artists in all the artistic
disciplines, something contemporary artists have largely lost.
Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
Piano Sonata, Sz. 80 (1926)
Allegro moderato
Sostenuto e pesante
Allegro molto
1926 is designated Bartók’s ‘Piano Year’ by musicologists and the year when his career really grew to an international level. I am afraid that his use of the piano as a percussive instrument, at least as approached by Prokopowicz, left me marooned in a desert of unremitting dynamic drowning. I could respect the pianistic challenges this work provides but I could not but wonder why it was chosen for this Chopin anniversary and in particular this conservative audience.
Encore:
I felt the dynamics of his unfortunate Chopin waltz encore had been somewhat 'infected' by the unrelenting percussivness of the Bartók and would have belonged in his mazurka family of ultra-subtlety and rhythmic charm in a different context.
Inaugural concert
The NFM Wrocław
Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Paweł Kapuła
Felix Mendelssohn – Bartholdy (1809–1847)
The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave), concert overture in B minor, Op. 26 (1829–1830)
Piotr ALEXEWICZ
Winner of the 5th
Prize at the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw
Tianyao LYU
Winner of the 4th Prize at the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (2025)
The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave), concert overture in B minor, Op. 26 (1829–1830)
The untamed landscape of Nature and violent history of Scotland inspired many artists in the Romantic nineteenth century. Mendelssohn's first visit to Scotland was in 1829. This was the period of his 'Scottish' Symphony inspired at Holyrood Chapel in Edinburgh and also for The Hebrides when he visited on the remote island of Staffa off the coast of Mull in the Hebrides.
He first conceived the idea for his final symphony during this visit to Britain in 1829. Mendelssohn set off on a walking tour of Scotland with his friend Karl Klingemann. On 30 July, Mendelssohn visited the ruins of Holyrood Chapel at Holyrood in Edinburgh, where as he said in a letter, he received the inspiration for the symphony:
'In the deep twilight we went today to the palace where Queen Mary lived and loved...The chapel below is now roofless. Grass and ivy thrive there and at the broken altar where Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland. Everything is ruined, decayed, and the clear heavens pour in. I think I have found there the beginning of my 'Scottish' Symphony.'
A few days later Mendelssohn and his companion visited the western coast of Scotland and the island of Staffa which inspired the composition of The Hebrides Overture (Fingal's Cave).
'A greener rush of waves surely never rushed into a stranger cavern – its many pillars making it look like the inside of an immense organ, black and resounding, absolutely without purpose, and quite alone, the wide grey sea within and without.’ Karl Klingemann’s description of Fingal’s Cave in a letter home on 10 August 1829 evokes a suitably otherworldy sense of romance.
The work was surely inspired by the wild and rugged landscapes of the north of the British Isles. The piece reflects the character of the Scottish landscape with its the many tempo markings. The pictorial spirit of the symphony just as one must visit the Malvern Hills to fully understand Elgar.
The Scottish character of oceanic wave movement was magnificently presented by this orchestra under their gifted conductor Paweł Kapuła with tremendous energy and drive, floods of flowing music, inexorable forward movement of Nature in wild seascapes, crashing waves against rocks and the rugged coast that is so musically clear in say the Hebrides. Wagner, described the work as a ‘masterpiece’ of a ‘landscape-painter of the first order’.
 |
National Trust, Isle of Staffa, Inner Hebrides, Scotland; Thomas Pennant, Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides in 1772, 2 vols (2nd ed., London 1776), f.p.301. ‘Fingal’s Cave in Staffa’: engraving by Thomas Major, based on a drawing by James Miller  |
Piotr Alexewicz
Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
Piano Concerto in F Minor, Op. 21 (1829–1830)
Some important cultural context and my own views concerning the F minor Piano Concerto Op.21 before listening to the live recording reading the review
The Concerto in F minor Op. 21 is the fruit of youthful compositional spontaneity. Despite the differing opus numbers it was composed first, before the E-minor concerto Op.11. Written on the wave of Chopin's Vienna success, it gives the impression of a matter of extraordinary consistency, shaped with dramatic logic and consistency, without unnecessary dilemmas.
His E minor concerto Op.11 was successfully performed and highly acclaimed at a 'farewell' concert on 11th October 1830. This event took place only three weeks before Chopin left Warsaw on 2nd November 1830. One young singer in the performance was Konstancja Gładkowska, his distant ideal. Chopin wrote as descriptively as always: ‘Dressed becomingly in white, with roses in her hair, she sang the cavatina from [Rossini’s] La donna del lago as she had never sung anything, except for the aria in (Paer’s) Agnese. You know that “Oh, quante lagrime per te versai”. She uttered "tutto desto” to the bottom B in such a way that Zieliński (an acquaintance) held that single B to be worth a thousand ducats’.
The trunk for the journey is bought, scores corrected, handkerchiefs hemmed… Nothing left but to bid farewell, and most sadly’. Konstancja and Frycek exchanged rings. She had packed an album in which she had written the words ‘while others may better appraise and reward you, they certainly can’t love you better than we’. Only two years later, Chopin added: ‘they can’ which speaks volumes.The subsequent November 1830 saw uprising burst upon the city. ‘
An introductory book on the concertos and their context I cannot recommend more highly:
Chopin - The Piano Concertos by the jury member John Rink
(Cambridge Music Handbooks 1997)
* * * * * * * * * *
The fascinating document below is extracted from
Friederike Müller: Letters from Paris 1839–1845
It is an account of Chopin's teaching and surroundings in the light of the correspondence of his favorite student Friederike Müller
(Presently only published in Polish by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, Warsaw, 2022)
Please excuse the solecisms in translation as it involves French, German, Polish and English !
* * * * * * * * * *
Friederike Müller was one of Chopin’s favourite and most talented pupils. In 231 letters written to her aunts in Vienna, gives detailed accounts of her life in Paris. She writes (sometimes in highly critical terms) about artists, concerts, pianos and musical novelties, sketching out, in a way that is filled with youthful wit and temperament, a remarkably vivid picture of Parisian musical and social life in the early 1840s.
Above all, however, she gives vivid and detailed descriptions of nearly every one of the 70 or so lessons she had with Chopin and quotes verbatim many of the conversations she had with him. Therein lies the extraordinary character of this material: this is not an account given a long time after, like the testimonies of other pupils, often based on recollections seen in a better light; it is one that conveys her immediate, fresh and unembellished experiences.
Her remarks concerning Chopin's lessons on the solo version of the F minor concerto have particular significance for any executant of this demanding work.
Fryderyk Chopin observed of his Concerto in F minor Op.21:
'There are people with whom studying this is impossible for me'
Dear Aunt Sophie, please pray that Chopin might remain healthy, kind and contented with me. I want to work with all my soul, head and heart, then everything will turn out well’ (from a letter to Sophie Müller of 30–31 August 1840)
'The concerto in F minor is wonderful [...]. The Adagio is sublime! And thanks to its kindness, I will be able to play it in full sound even without an orchestra. Lately, I said that choosing between his two Concertos is painful for me. One is worth the other - he said - and both are worthless. And I assure Aunt that he not only says so, but he really thinks so.'
Letter from Friederike Müller, dated Paris, Sunday, November 1, 1840.
We have the comfort that we can disagree with Chopin about the assessment of his piano concertos. Refusing them value, we would deprive ourselves of the most beautiful pages of music from the first half of the 19th century.
However, the dilemma of his students - also our privilege - can be resolved in favor of the Concerto in F minor op. 21, using a quote from Schumann: 'the second concerto, which we all together barely reach, we can only kiss its edge.'
He wrote these words in 1836, already after the publication of the work, accompanied by a dedication 'to Countess Delfina Potocka née de Komar'. It is symptomatic that six years after the completion of the Concerto there is no trace of the youthful fascination in it, of which Chopin confessed in letters to Tytus Woyciechowski. Later biographies are attached to this thread like a burr... The 'Ideal' (that is, the unfortunate Konstancja Gładkowska), which Fryderyk dreamed of for half a year, 'for which Adagio was erected' (Chopin always titled the Larghetto 'Adagio'), passed with the wind from Warsaw and never returned. But the Concerto in F minor - the quintessence of romantic virtuosity and emotional lightness, the embodiment of beauty - remained.
Its premiere took place on March 17, 1830, at the National Theatre. An anonymous reviewer (probably Wojciech Grzymała) in Kurier Polski summed up the mastery of the work: 'In addition to originality, beautiful singing, great and bold passages applied to the nature of the instrument, decorated in vivid colors of feeling and fire, finally, the combination of all this into one whole, constitute the main feature of his composition.' The extraordinary work, practically without precedent, entered not only Polish but also European piano literature.
The Concerto in F minor op. 21 is the fruit of youthful compositional spontaneity. Written on the wave of Vienna success, it gives the impression of a matter of extraordinary consistency, shaped with dramatic logic and consistency, without unnecessary dilemmas.
Chopin juxtaposed the classical, three-part form with contrasting and complementing elements: a sonata-like Allegro (Maestoso), captured in the form of a Larghetto song, and a dance-like rondo. If the theme of the first part was marked with seriousness, it is far from tragedy, although the main key would suggest such an affect. The third part (Allegro vivace), although not afraid of sentimentality, predominantly emanates joyful playfulness, fixed in the cheerful F major key.
The essence of the Concerto in F minor, however, is its central part - almost unearthly, poeticized - the culmination of emotions and feelings. Chopin offers the listener a certain programme - first leading him astray, 'lulling' him with idyllic, nocturnal moods, tempting him with cantilena fiorituras and rocking rhythms. Therefore, with incredible energy, a recitative melody explodes against the background of tremolando - in this culmination there is everything, including ecstasy. And then, as if nothing had happened, the music returns to the dreamy, initial aura. The Larghetto was enthusiastically received already during the first performance and to this day belongs to the most brilliant pages of European romanticism. Liszt saw in it 'ideal perfection'.
On Saturday and Sunday (October 31 - November 1, 1840), Friederike Müller wrote a letter to 'dear, good Aunt Lotte'. At Tuesday's lesson, she played the Concerto in F entirely by heart.
Chopin was pleasantly surprised by this. He commented: 'How is it, do you already play it by heart? [...] so let's start, but everything, even tutti. I played it. I'm sorry, but that's not what it's about - he said - you play it like a solo, and I want to hear the orchestra as best as possible; this is a completely different style - I will try to play it for you. Saying this, he played tutti for me, accentuating just like an orchestra'.
A week later, on November 7, 1840, 'dear, good Aunt Sopherl' reported on the course of the next, Thursday's lesson: "Oh, let's take my Adagio right away - he announced, so I started playing it. I accompanied the recitative according to the score with my left hand and fortunately Chopin liked it, but he changed a few places. Then I played those places one by one, imitating him. I have never taught this way and I don't want to show it to anyone. Only you will be able to play this Adagio in my way. [...] - You see - said Chopin - there are people with whom studying this is impossible for me. If you don't understand me completely, that's it. There are still those who simply play me the notes, and those who manage to grasp some sense. I listen to them, but I would like to finally show you all the subtleties of the style, so that you convey my thought as I conceived it, and that pleases me".
Friederike must have been extremely happy to hear such compliments from her beloved teacher. And we have evidence that the Concerto in F minor op. 21 functioned in Chopin's pedagogical practice and, importantly, was played in its entirety in the solo version.
The printed edition from 1836 was arranged so that the entire musical content of the work was placed on two staves (in the classical notation layout) - both all orchestral tutti (reduced) and the solo part, highlighted with a different font. The verbal markings tutti and solo introduced additional structural-formal divisions. In the most important places, the parts of wind instruments were also indicated. Friederike must have used such an edition.
Chopin, in one of the copies of the Concerto in F minor, belonging to Jane Stirling, proposed his own version of the accompaniment in the middle section of the second part (mm. 45-72) for use in solo performances. It is interesting to what extent it differed from what Friederike suggested on Thursday, November 5, 1840, in Paris...
Piotr Alexewicz's Maestoso opening was expressive with a fine sense of melodic meaning, forward momentum and Chopinesque structure. I felt, however, he could have given his personalty more communicative abandonment a la Hummel in the expressive, exuberant episodes written by this intense excitable young composer, a spirit reveling in his keyboard genius.
There was an increasing close cooperation between conductor and soloist. I felt, however, much of the dynamic spirit of Mendelssohn had been transferred to Chopin's orchestration with mixed results. In this work, I always adored the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century under the sadly departed Franz Brüggen. He always indicated the flowering of the romantic temperament rather than its full blooded, already formed, dynamic.The chamber versions for piano quintet are also deeply seductive.
His Larghetto was moderate in sentiment, however tempting it was to indulge youthful emotion- almost impossible to resist with one of the greatest love songs ever written. I felt in Chopin's thoughtful harmonic structure the rising shadows of rejection as grim reality began to lightly strike the surface of the composer's lyrical dreamworld. The almost perfumed atmosphere of Eden's garden of love could have been rather more 'poetic' but this is possibly my age and experience as my own dreams of illusioned youth fade.
The Allegro vivace was energetically and attractively phrased. I am always put in mind of expressive arabesques played across fields of dancing sunflowers. The hunting call on the French horn, the cor de chasse, could have been more rousing and idiomatic but who has the forbidden hunting experience these days? I always find this such an inspiring interpolation by Chopin, given his life experience outdoors in those early days before the innumerable distractions of social media.
Alexewicz with his brilliant finger technique brought some winning style brillant and electricity and what I like to call 'emotional spice' to conclusion of the movement.
Hopefully after such a fine, coherent performance a true 'voice' characteristically marking the personality of this pianist will emerge.
His encore was a most charming rendition of the rarely performed Respighi Valse caressante.
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| Piotr Alexewicz and the conductor Paweł Kapuła |
INTERMISSION
Tianyao Lyu
Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
Piano Concerto in E Minor, Op. 11 (1830)
In many ways the E minor concerto revolves around the exalted Romanze. Larghetto central movement. He elucidated its inspiration to his friend Tytus Woyciechowski: ‘Involuntarily, something has entered my head through my eyes and I like to caress it’.
The Warsaw premiere audience numbered around 700. ‘Yesterday’s concert was a success’, wrote Chopin on 12 October 1830 to Tytus ‘A full house!’ Two young female singers also performed at the concert conducted by that controversial figure in Warsaw musical life, Carlo Soliva. Contemporary programming was unimaginably different to 2021. After the Allegro had been played to ‘a thunderous ovation’, Chopin sacrificed the stage to a singer [‘dressed like an angel, in blue’], Anna Wołkow. Typical of the pressing personality of Soliva, she sang an aria he had composed.
The other young singer was Konstancja Gładkowska. Chopin wrote as descriptively as always: ‘Dressed becomingly in white, with roses in her hair, she sang the cavatina from [Rossini’s] La donna del lago as she had never sung anything, except for the aria in (Paer’s) Agnese. You know that “Oh, quante lagrime per te versai”. She uttered "tutto desto” to the bottom B in such a way that Zieliński (an acquaintance) held that single B to be worth a thousand ducats’.
This 'farewell' concert was only three weeks before Chopin left Warsaw and the subsequent November 1830 uprising burst upon the city. ‘The trunk for the journey is bought, scores corrected, handkerchiefs hemmed… Nothing left but to bid farewell, and most sadly’. Konstancja and Frycek exchanged rings. She had packed an album in which she had written the words ‘while others may better appraise and reward you, they certainly can’t love you better than we’. Only two years later, Chopin added: ‘they can’ which speaks volumes.
An introductory book on the concertos and their context I cannot recommend more highly:
Chopin - The Piano Concertos by the Chopin Competition jury member
John Rink
(Cambridge Music Handbooks 1997)
Born in China in 2008, Tianyao Lyu began her musical education at the Middle School affiliated with the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where she studied in the class of Hua Chang. She now continues her studies at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań under Professor Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń.
Despite her young age, she is a laureate of numerous prestigious piano competitions. In 2024, she won the Grand Prix at the 31st International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition for Children and Youth in Szafarnia and the Ettlingen International Piano Competition.
The following year brought a remarkable triumph, namely the Fourth Prize as well as the Warsaw Philharmonic Award for the best performance of a Concerto at the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. (NOSPR note)
I attended all her competition performances and some of my notes apply to tonight's performance and are presented as my unapologetic reflections written at that time. In this rare case, they are not the 'emotions recollected in tranquility' defining 'Poetry' by William Wordsworth in his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads of 1800. All were my immediate feelings at the time and last night.
Here is that rare creature, a pianist who possesses the quality of closely listening to herself. She is highly sensitive to the textural beauty of the sound she produces. The great pedagogue Heinrich Neuhaus famously asserted that "music is a tonal art". His legacy lives on through his renowned book The Art of Piano Playing (published in English in 1973), which remains a foundational pedagogical treatise on interpretation and tone production. Neuhaus (and Chopin also) prioritized tone production as the first and foremost task of any pianist. Lyu realizes this rare yet vital point....
Allegro maestoso
Romance. Larghetto
Rondo vivace
This glistening Rondo, played by Lyu, dazzled us with virtuosity and Parisian bon goût. Her phrasing had a miraculous natural musicality like fluent speech, a variety of the miracle of humanity. Such expressively aristocratic élan, elegance and style. She brought just the right amount of period affectation to the work in glorious style brillante tone and rhythm.
This prodigious young pianist has a great future opening ahead in a glorious musical landscape.
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Tianyao Lyu |
Wednesday 12.08.2026 8:00 PM
Eric LU
Winner of the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (2025)
Thursday 13.08.2026
4:00 PM
David KHRIKULI
Winner of the 1st
Prize at the International Piano Competition in Cantù (Italy, 2024); also
winner and Audience Prize recipient at the International Piano Competition in
Vigo (Spain, 2024)
8:00 PM
Kevin CHEN
Winner of the 1st Prize at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv; the Geneva International Music Competition (2022); and the International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Budapest (2021).
Winner of the 2nd
Prize at the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw
(2025)
Friday 14.08.2026 4:00
PM
Nikola MEEUWESEN
Winner of the 1st
Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels (2025)
8:00 PM
Zitong WANG
Winner of the 3rd
Prize at the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw
(2025)
Saturday 15.08.2025 4:00 PM
Hyunjin ROH
Winner of the 1st
Prize at the 13th International Ignacy Jan Paderewski Piano Competition in
Bydgoszcz (2025)
8:00 PM
Final concert
Yulianna AVDEEVA
Winner of the 16th
International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (2010)
25th Jubilee National
Piano Masterclass in Duszniki-Zdrój
7, 9, 10, 11 August
2026 – Prof. Alexander GAVRYLYUK
12–15 August 2026 –
Prof. Alexander KOBRIN
The book of the festival in both English and Polish has detailed artists' biographies and detailed programs plus interesting essays on Chopin and quotations from his letters
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The Chopin Manor where the recitals take place |
Past Duszniki-Zdrój International Chopin Festival Reviews 2010 - 2025
The 80th Duszniki-Zdrój International Chopin Festival 1 - 9 August 2025
http://www.michael-moran.com/2025/07/duszniki-zdroj-international-chopin.html
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  |
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