A Thoughtful Day in Warsaw after two Weeks of Glorious Music


'The Ghosts of Warsaw' Isaac Bashevis Singer Jewish Festival, Próżna Street, Warsaw – 1 SEPTEMBER 2009

Click on photographs to enlarge
  • A wonderful two weeks of concerts featuring the music of mainly of Chopin and Mendelssohn has just concluded in Warsaw.
It was the 5th Chopin i jego Europa (Chopin and his Europe) Festival - an annual event and a sign of how the capital has at last begun to attract some of the finest musicians on the planet. Now all the city needs is a proper modern concert hall and a more productive attitude and responsible financial support for the many fine and neglected home-grown Polish rather than foreign musicians.

In the festival I listened to the fine pianism of Martha Argerich, Garrick Ohlsson, Emanuel Ax, Alexander Melnikov, Nikolai Lugansky, Janusz Olejniczak, and the Japanese prodigy Aimi Kobayashi. The fortepiano virtuoso Andreas Staier and the tenor Christoph Pregardien gave a sublime and unforgettable performance of Schubert's Winterreise. The conductors Frans Bruggen and Philippe Herreweghe were presiding over Concerto Koln, Sinfonia Varsovia and and The Orchestra of the 18th Century.
  • However 1 September put me in a far more thoughtful mood with the historical realities of life rather than the consolations for its tears. There was a huge remembrance commemoration in Gdansk of the outbreak of WW II which was tarnished rather by the continuing tension between Poland and Russia over retribution, acknowledgement of blame and the apportioning of guilt. The wounds of war are slow to heal if ever they can be when 1 in 5 Poles (6 million) died as a result of their innocent country being sandwiched between two imperial nations with expansionist, ideological and genocidal agendas.
There is a deeply moving Isaac Bashevis Singer Jewish Festival running in Warsaw just now in the famous Jewish remnant Prozna Street. There is a modest renaissance and regeneration of Jewish cultural life in Poland, but tender shoots as yet. I leave you with a photograph I took of that street on September 1. The final night of the festival ended with a concert on stage. It was absolutely brilliant - humorous and professional in every respect with an accomplished and seamless musical score. Choreography, characterization, costuming all of Broadway standard. So much more entertaining than the classical music scene in Warsaw just now and I am deeply involved with that and the music of Chopin. The Jewish Theatre in Warsaw is always superb of course. I am slightly excluded as I am not fluent in the Polish language but Polish theatre in general is among the greatest in the world. No, I am not Jewish just amazed.

Popular posts from this blog

Elisey Mysin recital - XVII International Piano Forum - Bieszczady Without Borders - Sanok, Poland

Image
Astounding musical experiences a lways happen i n Poland! Has been happening to me for as I long as I began visiting the country to work in 1992. The astonishing recital by the child prodigy  Elisey Mysin   I watched online last night prompted me to write this review immediately. It was broadcast from the International Piano Forum, a Polish musical event now in its seventeenth year. The Forum (lectures and concerts) is held in the town of Sanok (the 'capital' of the remote Bieszczady Region). I knew or know nothing about this remarkable Forum until last night.  The concert was  'In Memoriam Tatiana Shebanova',  that magnificent Russian pianist who died so tragically of leukemia in 2011 whilst at her pianistic peak. The concert was organized by her husband, the Chairman of the Piano Forum Council, Prof.  Jaros ław  Drzewiecki.    Tatiana Shebanova was one of the first pianists I heard play works by Fryderyk Chopin (1810-18...
Read more

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995) and his Ferraris - not only an immortal Chopinist

Image
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995)   There is little need for me to introduce Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, one of the greatest pianists and musicians of all time.  I have been listening to a remarkable live recording of a concert he gave in Warsaw in 1955. His Bach/Busoni Chaconne from the Partita in D minor No.2 BWV 1004 is surely one of the greatest ever recorded.   Michelangeli's    knowledge and command of the piano as an instrument was unequaled, permitting his soul and ours to take unhindered flight. His total identification with the music, his majestic 'Olympian' and 'Apollonian' playing has often been described as 'unearthly' even to the point of bordering on the cold classicism of a perfect Athenian statue. I once heard him play Debussy and Beethoven many years ago  in the Royal Festival Hall in London, performing  on two distinct Steinway concert grand pianos, one for each composer, individually tuned and prepared by himself. His hea...
Read more

73rd. International Chopin Piano Festival 3-11 August 2018, Duszniki Zdroj, Poland

Image
The Chopin Bench in Havana, Cuba The  Dworek Chopina  where the piano recitals take place Full English details of the programmes, biographies of Artists and Professors as well as Masterclasses are available using this link: http://festival.pl/wp-content/uploads/73-MFCh_2018_EN.pdf From the Reviewer's Notebook  SATURDAY, AUGUST 11 CHOPIN'S MANOR 8.00 PM Piano Recital SERGEI BABAYAN This distinguished musician and pianist requires little introduction. He has appeared at the most famous international music festivals with all the great orchestras of the world under the most renowned conductors, at the finest music venues as well as having been awarded most of the glittering prizes. For me his most outstanding claim to fame is his close relationship with the composer and pianist Daniil Trifonov as teacher, guide, philosopher and friend. I was unfortunately unable to attend this recital and recordings of it are unavailable. ...
Read more