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

                         My 1978 David Rubio  (Duns Tew)  harpsichord  A copy of a Flemish 18th century instrument by Joannes Daniel Dulcken A sketch of me by the Italian artist Rosetta Berardi in 1980 Suanono piano... All softly playing With head to the music bent And fingers straying Upon an instrument ti ricordo!   Rosetta https://www.rosettaberardi.it/ I have recently been completely tied up with recent activities of a definitely non-musical nature. www.casualcars.blogspot.com However I have recently been doing far more harpsichord practice than usual - mainly Bach, Couperin and Scarlatti. Like many of you I expect I have been watching and listening in awe to  the extraordinarily gifted young people taking part in the Tchaikovsky Competition on medici.tv I am looking forward to attending the Duszniki Zdroj International Chopin...

Click on photographs to enlarge - far superior rendition We had a lovely day at the Palace of Otwock Wielki on May 3rd  'Constitution Day'.  Cupid strikes! Detail from a restored tapestry in the palace The Lake For more details and photographs  see:   http://casualcars.blogspot.com/2015/05/pic-nic-at-country-house-of-otwock.html

Click on photographs for a superior image (Nikon F 2 and Fuji Film taken in 1992) Approaching Auschwitz on the Ferry in 1992 Winter sunset at Auschwitz 1992 Crematorium remains at Birkenau  1992 Zyklon B crystals Majdanek Camp Museum 1992 Detail at the Children's Memorial at the Jewish Cemetery, Warsaw Unkempt Jewish Cemetery at Lesko, south-east Poland The compression of time into an instant image. Birkenau - the 'Little Wood' [Behind the main Birkenau camp there were two more crematoria, Krems IV and V.  They were considerably smaller than II, and III but were still of sufficient size to kill many people each day.  The area was cordoned off with barbed wire. Branches of leaves were woven thickly into the wire to deaden noises and shield the crematoria and gas chambers from view. The first view is of the path leading to Krematorium V that began operations on April 4, 1943. It had a cremation capacity of 768 corps...

Eddie Cahill and his Ridgeback bitch 'Noni' in Somerset West, South Africa 1952.   When she felt she had heard enough of his practicing, she would place her paws on the keys as above to indicate 'Enough!" Photography by the distinguished English travel writer H.V.Morton, a friend of Edward Cahill. Just to say briefly to the 'happy few' who may be following this blog that the first draft of my biography of my great-uncle the brilliant Australian concert pianist Edward Cahill (1885-1975) announced in June this year has now been fully edited and completely revised. The work has been recast from being a straight biography to the far more entertaining form of a 'family quest', the subject of the search being my great-uncle.  The story is so similar  to that of Billy Elliot. An artist emerges from a humble working class background full of prejudice but with extraordinary artistic perseverance and courage triumphs.  The differen...

Strangely I go to few concerts in Warsaw these days. The reason became perfectly clear last night. As Thomas Mann said in Dr. Faustus 'Music is a cabbalistic craft.' The problem is that few musicians touch the soul with arcane magic, the spiritual source of all music as in the manner of this evening. I felt the entire programme was perhaps overshadowed, possibly even inspired, by reflections and elegiac thoughts on the recent death of the pianist's wife. Fanciful? Possibly. Certainly there was nothing 'interpretatively standard', no obeisance made towards the conventional in this recital. The utterance was of a creative artist. Sokolov is what Russians call 'a soul' and this became evident from the opening note of his recital. The tempo he adopted throughout was rather moderate for those accustomed to a sparkling, energetic Bach. For me this was all to the good in the Bach Partita in B major BMV 825 (1726). I play the harpsichord and...