Classical Music In Poland & The Europe Of Chopin
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Australian author and classical musician Michael Moran, seriously studied the piano and harpsichord in London for many years. Explore Classical Music in Poland and the Europe of Chopin - From the Reviewer's Notebook.
Classical Music In Poland & The Europe Of Chopin
3d ago
A joyful picture of Arthur Rubinstein dancing a sevillana in the back yard of a tenement house at 78 Piotrowska Street, Łódź, where he lived his childhood. Taken on his visit to the city commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic.
A number of memorable moments are associated in my mind with the genius of Artur Rubinstein. One was some time after I gave a short recital of Chopin at the age of 8 in the Town Hall in Melbourne. At that time I was vainly cultivating the illusory dream of becoming a concert pianist. I first heard t ..read more
Classical Music In Poland & The Europe Of Chopin
1w ago
And so the circles of brutality resume their merciless course…..
Will humanity never change its self-destructive, murderous, imperial urges ?
Collective narcissism of the most ruthless, paranoid and evil kind.
Surely the grimmest of ironies today is that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish …..
as is Benjamin Netanyahu
Just now I cannot help reflecting on the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, living as I do where these tragic events occurred not so very long ago. I decided once again to read what I had written in my Polish book about this particularly valiant and frantic mo ..read more
Classical Music In Poland & The Europe Of Chopin
3w ago
The Pigeon of Peace in flight from the Cenotaph at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park
This evening I have just arrived in Hiroshima in Japan from Warsaw on this is my first visit to the country. Such a long and tiring journey from Poland but worth every minute given the humanist aim. I intend to keep a daily internet journal of my experiences here over the next four days as part of an initiative known as the ‘Music for Peace’ project. Perhaps a few more personal observations as well.
The concept brings together communities of differen ..read more
Classical Music In Poland & The Europe Of Chopin
3w ago
Click on photos to enlarge for a superior image
One of the beautiful wooden formerly Orthodox (now Roman Catholic) churches in the remote Bieszczady region of S-E Poland
Below is an extract from Chapter 16 Vistula – Of Dragons, Martyrs and Lovers taken from the book
A Country in the Moon: Travels in Search of the Heart of Poland by Michael Moran (London 2008)
In Poland I feel strongly surrounded by the atmosphere of religion particularly at Easter. During my first experience it was as though childhood religious feelings had bu ..read more
Classical Music In Poland & The Europe Of Chopin
1M ago
The young Maurizio Pollini
The indiscriminate power of Nature has now claimed the soul of Maurizio Pollini, one of the greatest of legendary pianists.
He accompanied me in sublime Chopin all my adult life in London and through Bach and innumerable piano compositions leading ultimately to the more inaccessible end of the music spectrum, the piano compositions of Arnold Schoenberg, Boulez, Nono, Stockhausen …..
Glorious, uplifting musical memories overwhelm me at this cruel, depressing and fraught time in world history
Sublime creation lies here, not destruction
At such moments a ..read more
Classical Music In Poland & The Europe Of Chopin
1M ago
NIFCCD 146 Lessel, Haydn, Vorísek, Beethoven, Chopin (2023)
I feel have nothing left to say about this magnificent, electrifying recording apart from the fact it is without doubt the finest period piano recording I have ever heard.
In my adopted role as music critic I have experienced many!
Here is an extract of my criticism of the Ritter performance in Stage II of the competition when he won the 1st International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments in September 2018 :
Tomasz Ritter has had a distinguished career associated with both the harpsichord and the histor ..read more
Classical Music In Poland & The Europe Of Chopin
1M ago
Eric Guo
Winner of the 2nd International Chopin Piano Competition on Period instruments
Warsaw, 2023
Fryderyk Chopin 214th Birthday Concert, Warsaw
1st March 2024
Photographs by Wojciech Grzędziński
Eric Guo chose to play the infrequently performed Chopin F minor concerto arranged for solo piano by Chopin. Remember despite the opus number, this was the first piano concerto Chopin wrote. It follows the Mozart model and was directly influenced by the style brillant of Hummel, Kalkbrenner, Moscheles and Ries. Schumann wrote of it ..read more
Classical Music In Poland & The Europe Of Chopin
1M ago
Eric Guo
Winner of the 2nd International Chopin Piano Competition on Period instruments
Warsaw, 2023
Fryderyk Chopin 214th Birthday Concert at Żelazowa Wola
1st March 2024
Performed on an 1838 Erard
The Dworek at Żelazowa Wola, the birthplace of Fryderyk Chopin, 1st March 1810
The Eric Guo recital at the Dworek at Żelazowa Wola, the birthplace of Fryderyk Chopin on 1st March 1810, is on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPiGYtSvCkU
My review
Variations in B flat major on a ..read more
Classical Music In Poland & The Europe Of Chopin
1M ago
Review of the recording by Eric Guo, winner of the 2nd. International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments. Warsaw 2023
NIFCCD 660
https://sklep.nifc.pl/en/produkt/77458-eric-guo
(photo Wojciech&nb ..read more
Classical Music In Poland & The Europe Of Chopin
1M ago
Eugen Indjic (1947-2024)
I was so shocked to hear of his death shortly after waking this morning.
A gentle and civilized man, warm, humorous, engaging, generous, a refined musical artist and magnificent pianist who had a profound understanding of Chopin.
I was fortunate to have heard him in moving recitals and as a teacher in empathetic Masterclasses in Poland at Duszniki Zdrój and Warsaw.
And he was only 76 …..
During his career he was successful in three piano competitions:
8th International Piano Competition Friedrich Chopin (1970) - IV Prize
Leeds Internat ..read more