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

Perhaps some of you will have noticed my silence these past months. I am deep in researching the tumultuous 1930s period in Germany, London and the Riviera for the next chapter in my biography of the Australian pianist Edward Cahill. It takes something special to wean me away from writing in the morning and reading in the evening (mainly the marvellous Harold Nicolson, 'Chips' Channon, Duff Cooper and Diana Cooper Diaries of the period, Malcolm Muggeridge The Thirties and the 950 pages of the very recent brilliant and exhaustive study The Thirties: An Intimate History by Juliet Gardiner).    I have also been watching the superb documentary films of the period made by the GPO Film Unit directed by the brilliant Brazilian Alberto Cavalcanti and other now forgotten directors. These largely negected masterpieces of the short form (viz. Spare Time and Night Train )  have now been made available by the British Film Institute together with  informative booklets. Fascinat