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

Edward Cahill (1885-1975) For those of you who have been following my ongoing work in progress in the many postings over the last two years concerning the brilliant but forgotten Australian pianist Edward Cahill, I have been in London for the last two weeks searching out the surviving great town houses that 'Uncle Eddie' played in and the residences he lived in during the 1920s and 1930s. Some houses were bombed during WWII and some buildings completely redeveloped such as Brook House in Park Lane (now an Aston Martin showroom). Here is a selection of photographs I have taken with my trusty Leica.            Click on to enlarge 28 Kensington Court London W.8  The London home 'lent' by the Dowager Lady Swathyling where Edward Cahill performed in January 1926 Some of the fine houses in Kensington Court London W.8. Mainly nineteenth century Flemish Gothic. 28 South Street London ...

I was particularly chuffed to learn that David Winston of the Period Piano Company in Biddenden in Kent has finally been given some of the recognition as a piano restorer he so richly deserves. When concerts on original instruments are advertised the performer and instrument, perhaps also its provenance, are mentioned in glowing terms but never the restorer whose musical philosophy and painstaking work have brought the soul of the instrument from deep sleep to living inspiration. I first met David at the quite remarkable Chopin Forum  at the Royal Festival Hall in London in October 1999 held in honour of the 150th anniversary of the composer's death (17 October 1849). Some of the greatest Chopin pianists and Chopin scholars of our day discussed and played his music on Pleyel and Erard instruments supplied by David and explored Chopin's particular and unique sound world. Jim Samson discussed Chopin's Musical Style, David Winston the pianos of ...

 Click on photographs to enlarge  Franz Liszt and the violinist Armah Senkrah in Weimar 1885 (Louis Held Im Alten Weimar Fotografien 1882-1919, Weimar 2008)  Franz Liszt and some of his famous students in Weimar, 22 October 1884, his birthday. From the left upper row: Moritz Rosenthal, Viktoria Drewing, Mele Paranioff, Franz Liszt, Annette Hempel-Friedman, Hugo Mansfield Lower row: Saul (Sally) Liebling, Alexander Siloti, Arthur Friedheim, Emil Sauer, Alfred Reisenauer, Alexander Wilhelm Gottschalg (Louis Held Im Alten Weimar Fotografien 1882-1919, Weimar 2008) I must say I agree with Vladimir Ashkenazy when he was asked to 'comment on Mozart'. What can one possibly say on the subject?  The infantile contemporary response so beloved of Facebook:  Like - Don't like?  When I am confronted with the music of any of the great composers, so much has been written that anything I could say is bound to be redundant, bordering on the dull, p...

Perhaps some of you will have noticed my silence these past months. I am deep in researching the tumultuous 1930s period in Germany, London and the Riviera for the next chapter in my biography of the Australian pianist Edward Cahill. It takes something special to wean me away from writing in the morning and reading in the evening (mainly the marvellous Harold Nicolson, 'Chips' Channon, Duff Cooper and Diana Cooper Diaries of the period, Malcolm Muggeridge The Thirties and the 950 pages of the very recent brilliant and exhaustive study The Thirties: An Intimate History by Juliet Gardiner).    I have also been watching the superb documentary films of the period made by the GPO Film Unit directed by the brilliant Brazilian Alberto Cavalcanti and other now forgotten directors. These largely negected masterpieces of the short form (viz. Spare Time and Night Train )  have now been made available by the Br...

Franz Liszt in his travelling coat. Taken at the Liszt Museum, Bayreuth I always very much look forward to this quite outstanding series of concerts in Warsaw which follows directly from the Festival in Duszniki Zdroj. The main intention is to place Chopin in the cultural context of the Europe in which he lived and composed. This cultural context is absolutely vital to a full understanding of the composer and his contemporaries. The festival also promotes outstanding historical Polish composers that have been neglected or forgotten. The subtitle of the festival is ‘From Mahler to Liszt and Noskowski’  reflects this intention. One of the greatest attractions for me is the use of period pianos manufactured in the mid-ninetenth century by Pleyel and  Erard. I have a restored 1844 Pleyel pianino at home which has been a revelation in sound playing Chopin from the New National Edition of his works  overseen by Professor Jan Ekier.   The...