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

The present turmoil at the Warsaw Chamber Opera, a highly respected institution with a distinguished cultural history both in Poland and abroad, is an unfortunate reminder that the period of ideological transition is not yet over in Poland, at least in matters of what might be loosely termed 'high culture'. Remnants of past attitudes and adherence to the 'old' thinking and business practices of the past (sometimes impractically idealistic and humanitaran) remain deeply imbedded in the psyche. This has resulted in the present anguished transition of this company to modern more pragmatic business practice and disciplined financing arrangements vital for its continued survival. I cannot go into details as I am  not intimately familiar with what will undoubtedly become another labyrinthine Polish saga. I just hope that the musician and Artistic Director Stefan Sutkowski is treated with the respect and care...

Click on photos to enlarge - far superior  My copy of a two manual Flemish eighteenth century instrument by the esteemed original maker and inheritor of the Ruckers tradition, Joannes Daniel Dulcken (1736-1769). The instrument is based on the 1745 original in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. The instrument was made for me in 1978 in the Oxfordshire village of Duns Tew by the late great luthier and supreme maker of classical guitars, viola de gambas, chests of viols and violins David Rubio (1934 - 2000). He also made the Taskin copy much beloved by Gustav Leonhardt for his  recordings by the French composers Duphly and Forqueray The soundboard of my instrument decorated by Pauline Whitehouse for David Rubio. I had all the known species of Norfolk Island butterflies depicted on the soundboard. Norfolk Island was the Pacific Island I lived on for some years in my twenties among the descendants of the Mutiny on the Bounty. Bone naturals ...

I feel no compelling need to express my thoughts on this event and add to the vast number of column inches, television and radio time already devoted to the event.  However I do think the capricious BBC coverage of the event indicates a great deal about the values of the society we live in. And judging from the newspaper commentaries it seems we do not like what we see in the mirror. After all the producers are only reflecting what they consider or perceive to be the general Zeitgeist of the nation . I have had my say concerning the river pageant in an earlier post. The Jubilee concert on Monday evening was clearly a wonderful event for all those who are nostalgic for a period when popular music was composed by authentically talented musicians and also performed well by them. Good to see Lang Lang, despite his undoubted uncanny virtuosity, being accurately and deservedly placed among popular musicians and entertainers rather than taking an undeserved p...