53rd National Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition , Warsaw, Poland
Stage III (FINAL) - February 7 - 8, 2025
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| Mateusz Dubiel |
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| Portrait of the young Chopin by Ambroży Mieroszewski (1829) |
The following pianists qualified for the final stage of the Competition:
- Mateusz Dubiel
- Antoni Kłeczek
- Julia Łozowska
- Yehuda Prokopowicz
- Kamila Sacharzewska
- Zuzanna Sejbuk
- Mateusz Tomica
- Krzysztof Wierciński
Maestoso
The Chopin F minor concerto Op.21 follows the Mozart model and was directly influenced by the style brillant of Hummel, Kalkbrenner, Moscheles or Ries. It is hard to reproduce this intimate yet fragile glittering tone on a Steinway or Yamaha. I felt that tonally Kleczek managed this internally iridescent maestoso style relatively well. Here in this early work Chopin magically transforms the Classical into the Romantic style. His account was spirited and convincing in its youth joy.
‘As I already have, perhaps unfortunately, my ideal, whom I faithfully serve, without having spoken to her for half a year already, of whom I dream, in remembrance of whom was created the adagio of my concerto’ (Chopin to his friend Tytus Woyciechowski, 3 October 1829).
The work itself was written 1829-30. As we all know by now, this concerto was inspired by Chopin’s infatuation, or was it youthful love, for the soprano Konstancja Gładkowska. Strangely, it was published a few years later with a dedication to Delfina Potocka. Kłeczek's understanding of the style brillant in the opening Maestoso movement and the Polish rhetorical gestures concealed within the work were well delineated.
Larghetto
However, the Larghetto love song could have been somewhat more moving and filled with considered poetry. He utilized an impressive gradation of dynamics but at times the contrasts in dynamic were exaggerated. The old, now extremely rare, magnificent recording by the Australian pianist Noel Mewton-Wood (1922-1953) with the Orchestre de Radio-Zurich under Walter Goehr is profoundly lyrical and romantic in expressiveness. The interpretation possessing a unique musical voice scarcely ever heard before or since. The eloquent ebb and flow of a whimsical landscape of love tide embraced by exuberant youth.
The Larghetto had
a most refined and elegant opening with unsentimental melodic lines. I felt the
movement slightly mannered but there were authentic feelings of yearning for an
inaccessible love here, a sensitive sense of longing. His fiorituras were
slightly rushed on occasion rather than being expressive, improvised
embellishments to the melodic line. Dynamic variations were moving and
persuasive, particularly when the longing begins to turn to resentment but
subsides again in nuances of pianissimo resignation to grey reality.
In many ways you could say that the whole work revolves around this movement. I always think of the sentiments contained in the 1820 poem by John Keats La Belle Dame Sans Merci when I hear this music with its passionate interjections.
That final forty-note fioritura of longing played molto con delicatezza always carries me away into Chopin's dreamy Romantic poetical world.
Arguably, this movement is the most beautiful love song ever written for piano and orchestra - the unrequited love of Chopin for Konstancja Gładkowska that Chopin 'enjoyed' at inaccessible psychological and physical distance produced yearning lyrical melodies of an intense order. As can be the way in life, it is said she preferred the attentions of the handsome uniformed Russian officers to our poetic genius!
Allegro vivace
The
testing Allegro vivace seemed to provide no technical
challenges that limited the unbridled youthful exuberance of this pianist that the movement
requires. An impressive, commanding performance of energetic musicality, fine articulation and excitement.
It thrills us with the exuberance of a dance of kujawiak provenance. It plays
with two kinds of dance gesture. The first, defined by the composer as semplice
ma graziosamente, characterizes the principal theme of the Rondo,
namely the refrain. A different kind of dance character – swashbuckling and
truculent – is presented by the episodes, which are scored in a particularly
interesting way. The first episode is bursting with energy. The second,
played scherzando and rubato, brings a rustic
aura. It is a cliché of merry-making in a country inn, or perhaps in front of a
manor house, at a harvest festival, when the young Chopin danced till he
dropped with the whole of the village. The striking of the strings with the
stick of the bow, the pizzicato and the open fifths of the basses appear to
show that Chopin preserved the atmosphere of those days in his memory.
(the renowned Polish musicologist Mieczysław Tomaszewski)
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Kamila Sacharzewska and the National Philharmonic Orchestra with their conductor Michal Nesterowicz  |
Allegro maestoso
A powerful and authoritative maestoso opening to this grand yet lyrical movement. However I felt it rather unstructured without a real emotional sculptured landscape of fluctuating moods and atmosphere. I feel the movement requires a sense of narrative and forward, inevitable crucial declamation.
Romance. Larghetto
Highly expressive of love and romance with restrained 'classical' nostalgia, if one can describe it so. In this movement it is good to remember the Chopin letter where he admits his dreams and illusions as musical inspiration.
Sometimes the abundant fiorituras felt slightly rushed without instinctive and poetic rubato and spontaneous embellishment which made them sound a little perfunctory. I just felt a slight absence of nuance and subtlety although the more agitated phrases were successful.
Rondo. Vivace
The Rondo captured the rhythms well but for me it did not quite sparkle enough
with exuberance and youth. The movement could have been a great deal more
expressive in the articulation, dynamics, and colour and rubato of the repeated
phrases which carry the shifting underlying moods in what can appear on the
surface as a simple cascade of notes. There were a few solecisms which probably emerged from competition stress and need not be considered seriously in judging, except by dreadful pedants.
Finals Day 2 (08.02.2025)
Zuzanna Sejbuk
Chopin E minor concerto Op.11
Mateus Tomica
Chopin F-minor concerto Op.21
(the renowned Polish musicologist Mieczysław Tomaszewski)
Krzysztof Wierciński
Chopin E- Minor concerto Op. 11
Allegro maestoso
Here we moved into another level of pianism altogether. A noble tempo at the opening containing great authority, discipline and control. His phrasing and breathing the language of music were impeccable. The manner was expressive which created a rhapsodic maestoso atmosphere. I felt he had something to say of the work, an emotional message to impart. His cantabile melodies were aesthetically beautiful in both tone and touch. The structure was well delineated and his virtuosic style brillant very uplifting of despondent moods!
Romance. Larghetto
He adopted a slow and appropriately reflective tempo in this movement. His phrasing was both eloquent and lyrically poetic. I was surprised at a small solecisms but no matter among such bouquets of flowers The movement was always emotionally moving.
Rondo
This was a suitable joyful, exuberant and carefree youthful account of this delightful dance movement in a finely articulated and decisive style brillant. He certainly has the technique and musicality to master this fiendish movement, which too many young pianists stumble over and fall. It did tend on occasion to revert to a simple cascade of glittering notes without a sculptural form but again no matter - an expression of carefree youth once again!
Certainly he should be one of the golden two !
Mateusz Dubiel
Chopin E minor concerto Op.11
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Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia at the Cavalry Review on the Saxon Square in Warsaw, 1824 Jan Rosen (1854-1936) |
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Military review in Saski Square before Grand Duke Konstanty in 1824Jan Rosen (1854-1936) |
The Rondo’s refrain had the rhythm of the krakowiak dance
with the articulation of a style brillant. The closing tumult that
crosses the keyboard at the conclusion reminds one of the background to this
provenance of this Romantic composition - the influence of Hummel and the
virtuosic style brillant. Again, the whole of Warsaw was drawn to
the National Theatre for the premiere. Dubiel gave us a rather spectacular,
triumphant conclusion.
‘Yesterday’s concert was a success’ wrote Chopin on 12 October 1830 to
Tytus Woyciechowski. ‘A full house!’ The Kurier
Warszawski reported ‘an audience of around 700’. It was
not just Chopin that was applauded, but also the two young female singers who
agreed to accompany him in the concert and the conductor, Carlo Silva.
Laureates Concert - February 9, 2025
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| Lt.to Rt. Prof. Piotr Paleczny, Director of the National Chopin Institute Arthur Sklener, Mateusz Dubiel |
High drama took place at this concert but it was not of the musical variety! There were the usual speeches and presentation of awards before the individual laureate recitals began.
Yehuda Prokopowicz performed a somnambulant and gentle Nocturne in F sharp minor Op.48 No.2. This was followed by Kamila Sacharzewska with the group of Chopin mazurkas Op.24. It was then the heavens fell ! A tremendous roaring sound erupted somewhere high in the ceiling over the balcony. This became louder and louder, deafening and so slightly alarming. With the television news inhabiting most people's minds we began to think the hall was under attack. However, in fine Polish style, there was no panic.
As no plaster cherubs were actually falling on us, we just rose, pretty well en masse, and began to leave the hall. Kamila played gamely on with immense poise as if nothing at all was happening! I so admired her for soldiering on, a behaviour usually only read about in novelsor seen on film. As I left the hall I was suddenly reminded of Wanda Landowska recording Scarlatti whilst bombs fell on London and Myra Hess playing Beethoven during the Blitz.
The problem was solved and Kamila returned to the stage and her charming mazurkas amid much cheering and applause as 'Here the conquering heroine comes!' The interpretation was idiomatic and rhythmically enlivening after our scare. Antoni Kłeczek then had the temerity to play the 'Heroic' Polonaise Op.53, a strangely appropriate work in the circumstances! His performance was powerful, spirited and rather exaggerated in the execution where the tone verged on the harsh rather than the noble on occasion. We were 'down in the quarry' unfortunately.
Julia Łozowska presented a rather dynamically undifferentiated and monochromatic view of the magnificent Polonaise in F sharp minor. It was accomplished pianistically but I did not find the work in possession of deep musical meaning and a sense of an emotional of narrative resistance. Krzysztof Wierciński gave an excellent account of the Ballade in A flat major Op.47 although I felt not a particularly penetrating interpretation.
Chopin wrote this work of immense narration at Nohant during the summer of 1841. The narrative is resplendent in contrasts from dark, even forbidding, elements to sun-bright sound and colour. The first theme is full of premonition. The second theme 'is dancing, coquettish, rhythmically wilful and constantly syncopating.' (Tomaszewski). A third theme 'spreads its charms all around, and then vanishes'
The receipt of the work historically diverting and is of great interest, so I will quote musically informed opinions here. Whether this might influence a pianist's interpretation is a moot point depending whom you speak on this thorny question. The Chopin monographer Arthur Hedley summarized the action of the A flat major Ballade as follows: ‘The only tale that the A flat major Ballade tells is how [the opening theme] is transformed into [its ultimate shape]’. Two possible sources of inspiration have been inferred. Interestingly, they can be reduced to a common, supremely Romantic, denominator. Schumann was captivated by the very ‘breath of poetry’ emanating from this Ballade. Niecks heard in it ‘a quiver of excitement’. ‘Insinuation and persuasion cannot be more irresistible,’ he wrote, ‘grace and affection more seductive’. In the opinion of Jan Kleczyński, it is the third (not the second) Ballade that is ‘evidently inspired by Adam Mickiewicz's tale of Undine. That passionate theme is in the spirit of the song “Rusalka.” The ending vividly depicts the ultimate drowning, in some abyss, of the fated youth in question’.
A different source is referred to by Zygmunt Noskowski: ‘Those close and contemporary to Chopin’, he wrote in 1902, ‘maintained that the Ballade in A flat major was supposed to represent Heine's tale of the Lorelei – a supposition that may well be credited when one listens attentively to that wonderful rolling melody, full of charm, alluring and coquettish. Such was surely the song of the enchantress on the banks of the River Rhine’, ends Noskowski, ‘lying in wait for an unwary sailor – a sailor who, bewitched by the seductress’s song, perishes in the river’s treacherous waters’.
As for the E-minor concerto played by Mateusz Dubiel, I really have nothing to add to my enthusiastic observations above. Massive standing ovation and cheering at the concluding operatic flourish! His encore was the Chopin A-flat major waltz. Least said about that performance the the better ... few winners actually expect to win!
I felt the National Philharmonic Orchestra under Michał Nesterowicz in this final competition occasion was far finer, detailed, more integrated and better balanced dynamically than at the beginning of the concerto stage !
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