Classical Music in Poland and the Europe of Chopin - From the Reviewer's Notebook

The 65th. International Chopin Festival at Duszniki Zdroj (a charming tiny spa in Silesia on the mountainous Czech-Polish border not far from Wroclaw) began on Friday August 6th. My enthusiasm for it and description will be familiar to all the readers of my literary travel/residence book on Poland A Country in the Moon: Travels in Search of the Heart of Poland  (Granta, London 2009) now translated into Polish as Kraj z Księżyca: Podróże do serca Polski (Czarne 2010) http://www.michael-moran.net/poland.htm Not all the music is by Chopin - Liszt, Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Rachmaninov, Scriabin.....the entire piano repertoire is on offer. This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Chopin who visited Duszniki Zdroj in 1826 (then Bad Reinerz  in Silesia) for a cure suggested by his teacher the Silesian composer Joseph Elsner. Chopin gave a charity concert there and this is celebrated in modern times by an annual piano festival. Mendelssohn also came to  Duszniki Zdroj on ma