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

  17.08.19 NIFCCD 070 Paderewski, Moniuszko, Duparc/ Songs Saturday 17:00 Witold Lutosławski Studio of the Polish Radio Vocal recital Performers Christoph Prégardien  tenor     Christoph Schnackertz  piano Program Stanisław Moniuszko  (1819-1872) Les larmes Les plaintes de la jeune fille Le chant de la tour Le Nièmen Le joueur de lyre, cz. 4 Oui, chantons encor Henri Duparc  (1848-1933) Chanson triste Soupir Le manoir de Rosemonde Phidylé L’invitation au voyage Robert Schumann  (1810-1856) Zwölf Gedichte, Op. 35 to words by Justinus Kerner Concerts are never real music, you have to give up the idea of hearing in them all the most beautiful things of art.'   Chopin said to one of his students ( Chopin: Pianist and Teacher: As Seen by His Pupils  Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger).  Far be it from me to contradict Chopin, but this was certainly not the case in the song recital I attended this evening. On this rarest of occasions, I h...

17th. Chopin and his Europe International Music Festival So far away, and yet so close… 14-31 August 2021 All  photographs by  Wojciech Grzędziński / NIFC Tuesday 31.08.21 18:00 Moniuszko Hall of the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera Symphonic Concert And so we arrive at the final concert of this remarkable Festival, Chopin and His Europe 2021 . It has been a long and winding road of the most exquisite musical pleasures and some occasional bathos. The Artistic Director  Stanisław Leszczyński is to be congratulated once again on his unstinting efforts to 'keep the show on the road', especially in the face of the pandemic which has so curtailed international travel for artists. As a 'foreign critic' I find the international publicity restrictions in Poland a severely limiting cultural barrier of the most unfortunate kind, especially in view of the Polish musical renaissance now in progress. There is in progress a rich rediscovery of Polish E...