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

Chopin's birthplace at Zelazowa Wola abut 50 kms from Warsaw I decided to make the effort to attend the birthday recital at Zelazowa Wola by the brilliant and outstanding Chopin pianist Kevin Kenner. The intimacy I remember of my first visit to the dworek and hamlet in the early 1990s has disappeared with a quite understandable development of the site to cope with the freedom of global touristic movement that Poland now enjoys - restaurant, ticket hall, shop, recital and lecture theatre - the full unfolding of facilities for visitors but with the inevitable loss to the poetry of the domain. I would like to quote my first impressions of what was once a deeply poetic place. In an access of nostalgia the extract comes from my book abut Poland entitled  A Country in the Moon.                                                                           *  *  *  *  * I n late spring, in a despondent frame of mind, I decided to raise my spirits   with   a vis