© AI Training forbidden - Selected Classical Music in the Poland of Chopin - Reviewer's Notebook

I am afraid I was so disappointed in this keenly anticipated recital I cannot write about it at the moment with any degree of detachment. Too emotional. You know how lyrical I have been about his playing in the past. Just look at some of my past postings in the archive on this blog. All I will say is that there were some beautiful things, moments of finesse and nuance (flashes of the pianistic genius I remember) but also a large number of seriously unacceptable aspects of his interpretations (particularly in the Schumann) and an exaggerated display of keyboard virtuosity. I always considered  he was above this type of thing. He played Debussy Images Book I Nos:1 & 3, Chopin Preludes Op.28 and the Schumann Symphonic Etudes Op.13 plus sundry unfortunate encores. Much of the time he seemed out of control like a young thoroughbred stallion let loose in a field in sprin...

The Russian Antonov An-2 which first flew 31st August 1947 and the perfectly in period 1949 MG TC with yours truly MM at the wheel  May Day 2014                 I have not been inhabiting the world of culture for a few weeks but indulging my other passion of motoring and finishing various writing projects. The biography of Edward Cahill the pianist is almost complete. Details of my motoring if interested can be found at www.casualcars.blogspot.com Also I have yet to write up my family Easter experiences. I am also in the process of putting together another submission to the Australia Council for a grant to write an account of my great-uncle-in-law and his fighting during the Gallipoli campaign based on his diaries of the time. http://gallipoliviking.blogspot.com/ *However Daniil Trifonov is playing in Warsaw on Wednesday evening May 7th so I shall certainly be giving an account of his mu...

Here where I live in Poland there is a  intense  renewal of  the public expression of love and devotion to this great Polish religious figure, one of the rare world famous Polish historic beings apart from Fryderyk Chopin, Ignacy Paderewski, Madame Curie and possibly General Sikorski.  Large television screens have been set up in squares in the cities throughout the country where people have come together to watch the unprecedented simultaneous canonization of these two popes in Rome, Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II. This unique ceremony performed by the equally unprecedented presence of two living Popes, Pope Francis and the Emeritus Pope Benedict.  Here i n Warsaw i nstead of a number of cliched, no doubt platidudinous observations on my part after standing in the misty damp among crowds of an early spring morning, I will let Pope Francis speak in superior words of great...

Cockpit of a 1924 Bugatti Type 35 In case you think I have gone quiet for a serious reason, you might like to click on this link where I have been indulging my other passion - classic car racing. http://casualcars.blogspot.com/2014/04/72nd-members-meeting-of-goodwood-road.html Toodle pip!

For the 10th International Paderewski Piano Competition  November 6th -20th, Bydgoszcz, Poland www.michael-moran.org/blog  Ignacy Paderewski starring in the innocent, wonderful and lyrical film Moonlight Sonata (1936)  Ignacy Jan Paderewski (18 November 1860 - 29 June 1941) And so the lead up to the IX International Paderewski Piano Competition begins in earnest for me at least when I go to Bydgoszcz on October 24th for the technical briefing. The young pianists have been preparing for months if not years.  And what is the Paderewski connection with Bydgoszcz? In 1918 the 58-year-old composer spent some time on the platform of the Bydgoszcz railway station, walking, stretching his legs and smoking cigarettes. This is the only confirmed episode which unexpectedly turned into a huge Bydgoszcz myth becoming the permanent brand of this city situated on the Brda river. As Paderewski was considered in a similar way to Einstei...