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August 08, The 65th. This year is the th anniversary of the birth of Chopin who visited Duszniki Zdroj in 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 many occasions visiting relatives. I had to make an invidious choice this year as the marvellous Chopin i jego Europa Chopin and his Europe series of concerts in Warsaw began on August 1st and will last for a month rather then the usual two weeks. I will be able to catch the second half which is some consolation I suppose. So many great pianists of our time are coming to Poland this year it can scarcely be believed. The drive from Warsaw to Duszniki is always arduous. Route 46 is so rough and the trucks heading for the Czech border are a nightmare. It is raining and rather cold here. I always stay at the excellent Hotel Jarzebina which has excellent food and accommodation away from the centre of the spa near a tumbling mountain brook which soothes the troubled ear and induces excellent sleep. You can also hear them practise which is an education in itself. The way artist practises indicates so much about their approach to the music. Most heavily emphasise technique - I have rarely heard anyone experimenting with different interpretative approaches. This is the world's oldest piano festival inaugurated in and I always keenly anticipate coming to this small Polish spa town. The inaugural concert of both piano concertos was performed in a huge tent erected for the purpose in the Spa Park. The plastic keys on modern instruments become slippery in such conditions and the action becomes heavier. Paleczny gave fine performances of both concertos. With his strong left hand he emphasises the superb Chopin counterpoint and harmonic transitions usually hidden away under the scintillating right-hand filigree of the style brillant. The Larghetto movements of both concerti were lyrical, poetic with a luminous singing tone. The orchestral sound was badly affected by the conditions but the conducting was spirited and joyful although lacking in grace and finesse - for me at least. Rather conventional. The individual piano recitals take place in the Dworek Chopina where Chopin gave his charity concert as a young man while on a 'cure'. Disappointingly the recital to be given by the brilliant Yuja Wang in the afternoon was cancelled due to her illness. This 23 year old Chinese pianist now living in the US is one of the new meteors on the pianistic horizon. As a replacement we listened to the 6 young members of the Masterclasses which run alongside the festival. We also miss the exciting presence of the great pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk this year. He unfailingly brought a mastery of the instrument together with enormous charisma, musical projection and audience engagement of a great artist. There is no-one quite like him on the piano planet and the festival is scarcely the same without him. The evening's complete Chopin recital by Kevin Kenner was as exceptionally fine as we can always expect from this brilliant American and past winner of the Chopin competition. His playing is overwhelmingly dramatic and reveals his deep understanding of this composer over his many years of study the Scherzos in particular. I am not sure about his way of melding some of his recital pieces together with little or no pause between them but this is a personal thing and popular with even the greatest of pianists, say in performances of the Preludes or the Etudes. I am also slightly uneasy with the 'pot pourri' approach to playing groups of mazurkas and other pieces with arbitrary harmonic connections. Certainly the air of improvisation is completely justified by nineteenth century period performance practice but I feel this form of popularisation tends to remove the superb aesthetic feeling of each single mastercrafted work. Another personal view. However if it persuades more people to listen to Chopin, this is marvellous. We need more young listeners at classical concerts. Peter and Paul. The mass was a setting by Jozef Elsner, Chopin' teacher in Warsaw for soprano, mezzo, violin, viola, cello and organ together with a small choir. A beautiful reminder that Chopin was both an excellent organist and a devout Christian. Many invitations had been given to the local people of Duszniki to participate which was a lovely gesture by the festival organisers. This afternoon at 4. The Ballade No: 4 was very finely played but I feel she has not quite captured the elusive 'Polish element' Chopin spoke of in the rhythm of the group of mazurkas she chose. The Andante Spianato was lyrical and with beautiful tonal shading and fine tone but the Grand Polonaise lacked a certain sparkle and rhythmic tightness. In many ways the B flat minor Sonata was an excellent peformance but needs a little more work - it is a tremendously demanding work in profound musical and psychological ways. I feel her great strengths lie in Bach she gave a monumental performance of the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue at Duszniki some years ago perhaps the greatest I have ever heard , Schubert and Mozart. She has a great love of Chopin's music and plays it wonderfully well - it is all a question of musical and personal maturity which will inevitably come. She has a fine teacher and mentor in Eleanor Wong. Rachel is now 18 and no longer the Wunderkind but a maturing young lady, so a type of watershed has been breached. Good luck with your magnificent talent - God never gave me this! At that time it was known as Bad Reinerz in Silesia. With Ayako Uehara we move onto a different level of pianism. She was the first woman and first Japanese citizen to win the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in She has moved onto greater things including raising a young family which has matured her greatly from the young tyro I remember. The Schubert 12 Ecossaises D. The Beethoven sonata Op. The Adagio was moving and deeply reflective with luminous tone. Quite superb. Although perhaps Beethoven himself was a 'rougher diamond' than this! The Chopin waltzes Op. Rather mannered as a young person might imagine the past of aristocratic salons. Chopin himself loved dancing and was far more robust than this - but never crude. Not quite brought off on this occasion. The Chopin studies Op. Much of Chopin's inner counterpoint and harmonic adventurousness, usually overlooked in the rushed inflated dynamics of many modern players, were here brought out to superb effect. A wonderful and thought-proving set of studies, deeply musical and played with a rare refined and elegant pianism that was never bombastic but with full rich tone yet delicate and emotionally fraught when required. I wonder if she has recorded them - I truly hope so - it would be a unique set. I had heard him at this festival a few years ago and had wanted to walk out of the concert but was in fact hemmed in by the crowded row. For this pair of ears he truly made war on the instrument with ugly thumping masquerading as intense emotion as well as pounding the floor as a further percussive accompaniment. Any sort of detail, nuance or poetry seemed lost in the thunderstorm As a younger man he was a very fine pianist indeed and in fact won the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw in I had been told he had been ill on that occasion so I was prepared to hear him again in one of my favourite Schumann pieces Faschingsschwank aus Wien Op. The Schumann Arabesque in C major Op. However during the Op. It was a very self-absorbed, indulgent and rather egotistical approach to my mind but is this a genius at work? Of course I once heard Michelangeli play this piece in London many years ago and the wonder of that performance remains with me still. I am afraid I returned to my room at intermission. Let us be compassionate however and overlook these many strange manifestations of his health problems and remember his past glories. Few pianists actually play what Chopin actually wrote if the new Jan Ekier National Edition of his works is to be believed. I have studied many works with this new edition and even the greatest pianists ignore Chopin's fine detail subtle pedal and dynamic indications and even finer ear for graded articulation. Much depends on which edition they used when first learning a work as I imagine it is quite difficult to relearn the detail and commit it to memory when you have been playing a piece in a certain way for years. The muscular memory one builds up must be had to alter under the stress of concert performance. We are moving far away from Chopin's original intentions and the source of this music - the poetry, refinement, intimacy and nuanced tonal colour and gradations of touch so beloved of this composer - excepting of course Grigory Sokolov, Andras Schiff, Janusz Olejniczak, Krystian Zimerman - in the past the magician Paderewski, Rubinstein, Solomon yes, his Chopin is unknown and achingly beautiful Lipatti and Michelangeli. Physically exciting performances in - yes - but in the realm of sensibility Chopin wrote letters to his family on paper from this mill. It was famous in his time too and he mentions in his letter that the paper he is writing on is from there. August 9 At last the weather has turned sunny and warm! He is a very fine pianist who gave a superb account of the Bach Goldberg Variations in Duszniki a couple of years ago. He was dealing in this masterclass with the Polonaise-Fantasy by Chopin. He said it was one of the greatest pieces of Western piano music, so eloquent that he could hardly begin to use mere words to describe his feelings - they would cheapen it. One is the second movement of Beethoven's piano sonata Op. The student was a young Japanese girl. I had high hopes also of the recital given by the young Chinese pianist Sa Chen in the afternoon. She was to play the complete set of Preludes Op. The dynamics of the preludes was frightfully inflated as seems customary with young pianists today and any form of subtle intimacy was completely lost. Her artistic profile does not really suit this choice of programme. When I think that some of these preludes were composed on the small Pleyel pianino I have at home - Chopin used a similar instrument in Valdemossa - I feel that utilising the full huge dynamic range of a concert Steinway or Yamaha is simply absurd, even grotesque. The Dworek Chopina is not Carnegie Hall and so few of the pianists who appear here scale down their sonority to suit the size of this rather intimate room. I did not attend the second half of this recital. Bellini, Mme. Sand, Delacroix, and Balzac's mistress Mme. Hanska all owned these superb instruments. This is the type of instrument he had sent to Valdemossa. This palace the Hotel Lambert was the Parisian home of the Polish magnate Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski and a centre for the volatile discussions of the 'Polish question' in the mid nineteenth century. There was an annual Polish Ball and Chopin is seen playing a small Pleyel instrument when the artist could easily have depicted him seated at a far grander instrument. These instruments were not played against a wall as uprights are today but wheeled into the open area of a drawing room thus freeing their marvellous sound. They were customarily equipped with ormolu handles on either side of the case and castors for the purpose. If you would like to further your understanding of the sound world inhabited by Chopin himself if not vital the historical context I suggest listening to two contrasting pieces the Mazurka in B flat minor Op. They are performed on an Pleyel in this now rare recording by perhaps the most poetic and soulful of the Polish pianists playing today - Janusz Olejniczak. This rare man and gifted musician certainly inhabits the climat de Chopin and understands the potential of earlier instruments to give it dramatic and poetic voice. Certainly not all pianists trained on modern concert intruments have the sensitivity to transfer their digital dexterity and expression to the difficult single escapement mechanism of the Pleyel. Olejniczak was awarded sixth prize in the 8th International Fryderyk Chopin Competition in Warsaw in He was up against some brilliant competition in this particularly great year. I feel Janusz has retained the essentially Polish melancholy of this composer. The Etude erupts from the instrument with a potent anger sweeping all before it while the mazurka is a miracle of intimacy, poetry and tone colour. None of these sound qualities are any longer possible on modern instruments, however great the player. Even brilliant musicians can only resort to inspired approximations and brilliant over-pedalled fudges. It is the very limitations of the period instrument that adds so much to the subtle feminine intimacy and sudden contrast of flaring of masculine anger so characteristic of the complex personality of this composer. The completely physical and percussive treatment of the instrument in Chopin interpretation today is beginning to depress me inordinately. These young pianists possess such fabulous technique that has required enormous work and personal sacrifice to achieve. Why waste it thundering away? Is Chopin's music only to be offered up on the altar of egotistical virtuosic display, competition career building and monetary gain? There is no relation between Chopin's fastidious personality and this deformed augmentation of his masculine side at the expense of the feminine side of his nature, a man who abhorred 'the exhalation of the crowd'. A curious reversal seems to have taken place from Chopin the composer for schoolgirls his initial reception in England to a Chopin which seems to be considered as an only occasionally sensitive particularly at night , violent revolutionary alpha male. If one owns a Ferrari or Bugatti Veyron one does not drive it flat out all the time. However the tension lies in knowing that the reserve power is there even if not utilised. One can feel the reserve even at lower speeds. I feel that with the Steinway or Yamaha concert grand it is much the same - the enormous bass of these instruments does not need to be pounded out in Chopin for the audience to be aware of the underlying immensity of the sound and its harmonic significance. For Prokoviev,Scriabin, Mussorgsky, Rachmaninov and Liszt one might use the full resources of the giant percussive instrument effectively, even terrifyingly. However in Chopin the restraint of passion is far more powerful than the full expression of everything one has in mind. Chopin understood this principle to perfection. And naturally the teachers are riding the wave of fame of their students so they encourage this type of extreme behaviour in Chopin. He was a great teacher himself and concentrated on the production of a beautiful touch and tone with his students - these aspects of playing seem to be neglected in academies in favour of structure and technical facility. Students should be encouraged to listen to Gould or Lipatti who place expressiveness, spirituality and musical poetry far above virtuoso display. Gould never counted himself among the pianists he amusingly and accurately categorised as 'a typical triceps terror'. A delicacy and refinement of touch coupled with a richness and fullness of tone when required avoided using the piano solely as a percussion instrument. Digital dexterity and power, however awesome, is no substitute for profound musical imagination. All piano students should be required to at least try out pianos of the period in which the music they are performing was composed. Placing music in its proper cultural context in order to understand what the composer was trying to achieve gives it life. It is not the hand of the deathly historicist. Beethoven sonatas are magnificent and fully realised in sound on modern Steinway concert instrument in a large hall. However when performed on an instrument of his period in smaller salons one can additionally feel the tremendous tension and excitement of a revolutionary composer trying to break through the sound restrictions of his limited instrument. The evening recital by the Vietnamese pianist Dang Thai Son was as elegant and refined as one might expect from this mature artist. He has been coming to Duszniki since the mid s when it was accessible only with great difficulty by road and there were no restaurants for food. What a change to today! Miroirs by Ravel were an Impressionist delight with a superb range of tone colours, touch and articulation. The Debussy Children's Corner Suite was similarly a wonderfully naive view of childhood through the eyes of an adult. The pianism was ravishing in these works. The refinement of his Chopin interpretations is well known the live recordings of the concerti on historic instruments with Franz Bruggen and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century are recommended. A fine Barcarolle although there was rather a heavy dynamic sometimes for this song inspired by the gentle movement of a boat - the piece was loved by Debussy. Too many pianists play the opening as if the boat was crashing into the wharf. The rarely performed Bolero always astounds me with its modern 'jazz' thematic content and this pianist's rhythmic tension was a real source of pleasure. The Tarantella was equally spirited although this piece has never given me the idea of a victim reduced to a frenzy of movement by the bite of a poisonous spider the creative source of this dance. But even this pianist seemed to have caught the virus of dynamic inflation in sections of the Polonaise-Fantasie - a fine performance but no more than that. I remember the magisterial reading of this work years ago at Duszniki by Grigori Sokolov - the greatest living pianist and 'soul' to my mind. The morning began with a recital by some of the Polish participants in the International Chopin Piano Competition. All were excellent but some shone in various genres of pieces more than others. I felt M arek Bracha was the most promising. I have recently leant that after Duszniki he was awarded equal second prize with the American pianist Esther Park at the Chopin International Piano Competition, Marianske Lazne the former Marienbad in the Czech Republic which took place from 9 - 14 August No first prize was awarded. There is a special exhibition devoted to Chopin at Bad Reinerz running there at present In the afternoon a recital by the beautiful Croatian pianist M artina Filjak. She came to Duszniki with the laurels from winning the International Competition in Cleveland in She has won many other prizes and awards. As an especially pleasing choice for me as a harpsichordist and pianist the first item on her programme was a group of harpsichord sonatas by Padre Antonio Soler. These were carried off with great verve and reminded one of the harpsichord in the lightness and articulation. The Chopin F major and F minor Ballades were finely played in the more lyrical sections but inflated percussive dynamics finally took over. One does not shout when telling a story - just a raising of the voice is all that is required at moments of drama and tension. The second half of her programme suited both her style of playing and the instrument's resources. Prokoviev's fourth sonata in C minor Op. Then the Scriabin Prelude and Nocturne for the left hand Op. Taking on the likes of Josef Lhevinne and Alexander Gavrylyuk in Balakirev's Oriental Fantasy Islamey was an ambitious undertaking and although it was effective, the pianist for this piece must have overwhelming command of the instrumental keyboard and terrific stamina. The formal and elegant Nokturn by candlelight in the evening is always a high point of this festival. The wonderful Professor Irena Poniatowska, a marvel of energy, wit, fairness and intelligence was given the keys to the town of Duszniki by the Mayor. On this occasion the host of the evening was the distinguished Polish actor Krzysztof Kolberger who read some poetry by Norwid, Konopnicka and others which was punctuated by 'nocturnal pieces' by the participants on either of the two pianos the Yamaha and Steinway. Another high point was a tremendously sensual, even erotic performance of the Scriabin Prelude and Nocturne for the left hand by Martina Filjak. A memory that will remain with me for some time Again I was afflicted with transient tinnitus at the volume extracted from the Yamaha in this salon-sized room. Why must they pound the keys when there is so much is in reserve? If you begin a phrase or movement at a high dynamic level and there is a crescendo where do you go except into the world of excess? Someone asked Artur Rubinstein why he played a particular passage, usually a tour de force of virtuosity, at a moderate tempo and mezzo forte. He answered 'Because I can. Rafal Blechacz who won the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, is not here this year. He is a modest and rather introverted pianist, ideal qualities for performing Chopin who possessed a similar temperament, quite different to Liszt. He plays the composer through the filter of Bach and Mozart rather than Scriabin and Rachmaninov and never inflates his dynamics and percussiveness of the instrument to Prokoviev levels. Rachel Cheung with her great musical sensitivity lowered her dynamic to suit the room as did the Polish pianist Ewa Kupiec in a beautiful performance of Nocturnes. T here were also songs by Chopin, Schumann and Rachmaninov for soprano and piano which reminded me strongly of the elegant salon days we have left behind in our adulation of the physical over the spiritual life of sensibility and poetry. August Weather is still sunny and warm with a lovely breeze as one walks in the pine-clad mountains near here or takes the waters. I often spend the mornings in this way as it allows me to think about the nature of performance and how Chopin should be approached. A lifetime study incidentally. I was particularly disappointed that the magnificent Argentinian Chopin pianist Nelson Goerner was forced to cancel his recital due to family reasons. His recent Chopin recording with EMI on a modern instrument caused a sensation and so it should have. His recordings and command of the Pleyel historic instrument can be heard on the Chopin Institute series of recordings called The Real Chopin. Ah well His place was taken by the young Russian pianist Yulianna Avdeeva who had played so beautifully during the Nokturn evening. She has won many prizes and has a fine future ahead. The 'Russian School' trains pianists so well to equip them for the entire piano repertoire. I would not like to have played at Duszniki on such short notice and replacing Nelson Goerner so I was a really sympathetic listener. The Chopin Fantasy in F minor Op. However the Scherzo Op. The Ballade No: 4 Op. The second Sonata in B minor Op. I must confess to not particularly liking the work that formed the second half of his recital - Moussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. It is usually heavy-handedly bashed out by virtuosi but certainly on this occasion the entire work seemed to have been rethought and persuaded me otherwise. He did some truly new, marvellous, imaginative things with this score - humorous, witty by turns, investing the instrument with sonorities I had never thought possible. The Orthodox bells truly rang out in the towers of Kiev. He is able to produce tremendous tone with no discomfort to the listener - almost terrifying with monumental magnificence. I was on my feet in seconds. Two of the encores were fiendishly difficult modern works by Ligeti and Shostakovich which I did not know and the third a Prelude of Rachmaninov. I was reminded of my own intense involvement in contemporary music as a young man. This happened long before my knowledge of the classical repertoire - Pierre Boulez the beautiful coloured notation of his piano sonatas , my period with Karlheinz Stockhausen as an observer in Cologne in the late s the Australian composer David Ahern was a close friend in those wonderful days of musical discoveries and excitement , Henri Pousseur, Xenakis This pianist will have a great career - a true artist - and he has a talented brother! Dear Mr. I fell in love with my own country after reading your book. Thank you. Yours sincerely. The afternoon concert today was by the first woman to win the Leeds Piano Competition in , the Russian pianist Sofya Gulyak. She chose a 'modern' programme which made great demands on the audience. She played the Rachmaninov Elegy Op. She has a formidable technique and uses the full resources of the concert grand piano in music composed for it. The Scriabin Poemes Op. Unfortunately for this pianist I had heard Grigory Sokolov perform this work in Paris and But this is unfair. This young lady is at the beginning of her career and has a transcendental technique and is utterly convincing and monumental in the repertoire that is clearly her favourite. The Chopin mazurka she gave as an encore was a superbly graduated and refined performance. Why does she not play more of this composer? The Duszniki Zdroj Festival never fails to provide drama of a high order. Concerning the evening concert of Chopin by the pianist Ewa Kupiec I will only say this is not my style or conception of performing Chopin despite the pianist being a Pole and actually born in Duszniki Zdroj. I had greatly enjoyed her beautiful performance at the Nokturn and thought at last we have a pianist who plays with the dynamic discretion of a Rubinstein. This discretion did not continue into the recital. She was clearly suffering serious stage-fright for some reason she is a native of Duszniki and her family still live there. Something terribly stressful must have happened in the background before her appearance, something of which I was not aware. One does not know all the details of what was clearly an incendiary mixture. I pass over this recital and the significant 'scandal' of the conclusion in silence. Others however will not and some damage will have been done to the reputation of what for me was a treasure of Polish cultural musical life. Compassion for pianists is the order of the day. It is a hugely demanding profession on every level. If you have ever studied the piano seriously and given recitals as I have you will know what a horror performing can become in the mind given the wrong circumstances. August 13 I managed to get myself caught up in so many social events that conclude this festival the Professors' Party is always by far the best and is just fantastic - especially if you imagine Polish music professors to be rather dull - not a bit of it! Singing, naughty stories, laughter and good cheer until 3. I had a terrible hangover and needed sleep so neglected this blog. Drank plenty of spa water from the Pienawa Chopina which seemed to help! However I will finish the posting now that I am back in Warsaw after the tiring 8 hour drive from Duszniki. Torrential rain and storms all the way home. I heartily agreed when he said that all piano students should play an instrument of the period work they are studying. This is to familiarise themselves with the sound world the composer may have been trying to achieve a Graf, Pleyel or Erard for the Chopin period or a Broadwood for say Beethoven, a Bechstein for Liszt. Various conclusions concerning say pedalling in Chopin could then be constructively transferred to the concert Steinway or Yamaha. It is a great pity that in the modern world audiences generally do not hear other marques of concert grands - Bluthner, Bechstein, Pleyel, Grotrian Steinweg the original Steinway and superior for Chopin to my mind. This marque was a favourite of my concert pianist uncle mentioned on this blog incidentally. Each brand has its own sound character. Jerome Rose made many enlightening remarks for the fortunate participants. Few pianists can capture the quirky, mercurial side of his complex nature and this pianist was only partly successful in this difficult interpretative aspect. There was occasionally far too much unacceptable dynamic contrast between the piano and forte sections in the Humoresque. The Chopin Ballades tell a story in absolute music - a type of mini-opera. The Op. That will come. His encores were similarly immaculately prepared I heard him practising them before the concert at the hotel. Debussy's Claire de Lune was ravishing in tone colour and sentiment. His 'Heroic' Polonaise of Chopin Op. No bashing or hysteria just glorious tone and musical accomplishment. What a future this young man has ahead of him! He was so perfectly prepared in all aspects of concert pianism, technique and musical understanding - watch out you Europeans! The evening recital by J ean-Marc Luisada a laureate in the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw and mazurka 'specialist' was almost as dramatic as the unmentionable episode with Ewa Kupiec. The truly fascinating aspect of the Duszniki Festival is that one can hear child prodigies, brilliant young winners fresh from competition triumphs, established pianists and even assess the growth or disintegration of great talents. Sokolov reigns supreme above all pianists on the planet, Bunin is no longer at his best for health reasons, Pogorelich has embarked on his own mysterious personal quest, Fialkowska showed immeasurable courage to return to the concert platform after cancer in her arm, Gavrylyuk now a comet in the sky after a car accident that almost took his life. Sadly the great Luisada seemed very distrait. He appeared with a page turner and the music scores - most unusual here. He travelled to Duszniki by train for some reason and arrived too late to practise. The tremendously difficult Ballades seemed unprepared with many appalling lapses of concentration - he did not even play the programmed fourth. Extinguishing the bright TV lights made little difference to the performance. One waited in trepidation for catastrophes, sick to the stomach. The maurkas were mannered but this has been ever the case with Luisada and his interpretations arouse strong emotions - I love their individuality although there were all sorts of sometimes unpleasant dynamic surprises. He sat at the instrument long before the interval concluded, clearly wanting to get the whole recital over with as quickly as possible. I dreaded the the Chopin Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise that concluded his concert but could not escape the hall without causing embarrassment. Yes, they turned out to be well founded fears although the Andante spianato was beautifully played but the Grande Polonaise - all my forebodings came true - pounding the instrument did not redeem his lack of preparation. I fled before any encores and walked sadly in the spa park reflecting on the passing of time and the enormous psychological pressures of being a concert pianist. I was told the Bach was good. I feel there is a problem of volume with the smallish room in the Dworek in which the recitals take place and with the hollow platform on which the piano is placed. The vaulted roof seems to throw the sound down heavily onto the audience much depends on where you are sitting. The hollow platform seems to amplify the sound and any extraneous movements made by the peformer. By day five of the festival the listener has incipient tinnitus caused by the full volume of a concert Yamaha or Steinway grand. I think pianists should try and scale down their dynamic to suit the space in which they are playing. As I am not a concert pianist myself perhaps this may be too difficult to achieve in practice but it is a thought. One always approaches the last day of this festival with a degree of sadness. The weather mirrored my mood and was changeable as it always is in the mountains. This beautiful, highly refined and immaculate girl of 24 gave a similarly beautiful, highly refined and immaculate performance. The Schumann Fantasy in C major Op. Her performance brought me close to tears - the singing of love songs in this work - the only pianist to really move me emotionally in this festival apart from Denis Kozhukhin. Her tone, touch and sensitivity belong with the Gods. I have been so impressed with the Koreans at Duszniki - so superbly prepared with never an inelegant mannerism or roughness of tone or touch. On the other hand the immensely physical and rather rough-hewn Danse macabre by Camille Saint-Saens arranged by Liszt did not suit her style - when Alexander Gavrylyuk performed this here one was carried away on a wave of fiendish energy by this powerful masculine virtuoso. The cantabile Scarlatti Sonata in B minor K. I thought the audience were oddly lacklustre in their appreciation of this beautiful and accomplished young pianist and she must have felt this. She did not give an encore - another Duszniki drama. In my memory this has never happened before. But then modern audiences seem to love and respond inordinately to 'bread and circuses' in other words loud and fast piano playing even the informed ones at Duszniki Zdroj. For me this was the most wonderful recital and the playing of a born Chopinist. One does not need to shout to express deep emotion but to hear her just for the superb almost otherworldly tone and touch she brings to the instrument was worth coming to Duszniki. The Koreans in playing the Polish Chopin, can readily identify with the expression of suffering under the period of Japanese colonial rule and the present partition of their own beloved homeland. Families remain tragically divided with much sadness. However, Asian interpreters in general tend to over-emphasise the tenderness of Chopin or emphasise his 'rediscovered masculinity', their readings often bordering on sentimentality rather than aristocratic refinement, restraint and detachment. Not every pianist of any nation can play Chopin convincingly - you need very special qualities as a human being to inhabit le climat de Chopin. The final recital was by the Italian pianist Fabio Bidini from Arezzo who replaced the originally advertised Yundi Li. H e has won many important competitions in Italy. He began with Carnaval Op. Absolutely correct. He does tend on occasion to play with a large dynamic which can be almost too rough. The quirkiness and whimsical fancies of Schumann did come through brilliantly however. Chopin was clearly harmonically rethought as if the pianist was tired of these works being played in the same way for two hundred years too true and this individual approach certainly fills an interpretative need. Many inner voices in the polyphony were accentuated in the famous B minor Scherzo Op. After the extraordinary luminous tone colours and exquisite feminine refinement of Yeol Eum Son his touch and tone did sound faintly agricultural. However this recital was a welcome injection of Italian warmth and colour to performances that are becoming increasingly standardised. He played as one of his encores the first movement of the childlike Sonata by Galuppi to quote Robert Browning - the one Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli was so fond of performing. Farewells and embraces were regretfully exchanged, promises to return next year were made in the cool damp evening air outside the Dworek Chopina. Members of what one might call the Familia Dusznicka - both audience and professors - come every year in the way Jane Austen's characters came regularly to Bath Spa. Certainly it was one of the most dramatic festivals I have attended with cancellations, histrionics, pounding dynamics, yet moments of extreme beauty and deep musicianship. One tends to overlook the extreme psychological and musical pressure on any foreign pianist who plays at a Chopin shrine in Poland before a Polish audience of fervent acolytes and esteemed professors. They have my greatest sympathy! A daunting task indeed which I think goes a long way to explaining the dramas and occasional excesses that ensue. This is the oldest piano festival in the world and reflects the emotional roller-coaster of Polish daily life to perfection. Astounding musical experiences a lways happen i n Poland! Has been happening to me for as I long as I began visiting the country to work in The astonishing recital by the child prodigy Elisey Mysin I watched online last night prompted me to write this review immediately. It was broadcast from the International Piano Forum, a Polish musical event now in its seventeenth year. The Forum lectures and concerts is held in the town of Sanok the 'capital' of the remote Bieszczady Region. I knew or know nothing about this remarkable Forum until last night. The concert was 'In Memoriam Tatiana Shebanova', that magnificent Russian pianist who died so tragically of leukemia in whilst at her pianistic peak. Tatiana Shebanova was one of the first pianists I heard play works by Fryderyk Chopin in concert in Poland in It was an over. Read more. August 12, July 29, He has appeared at the most famous international music festivals with all the great orchestras of the world under the most renowned conductors, at the finest music venues as well as having been awarded most of the glittering prizes. For me his most outstanding claim to fame is his close relationship with the composer and pianist Daniil Trifonov as teacher, guide, philosopher and friend. I was unfortunately unable to attend this recital and recordings of it are unavailable. Painting of Chopin at the inaugural concert of the festival. The Dworek Chopina where the recitals take place and the site where Chopin gave his charity concert in Organ grinder outside the Pijalnia mineral spring drinking fountain in Duszniki Zdroj who was moved on by the local police for not playing Chopin - poor chap. The famous 17th century paper mill at Duszniki Zdroj dates from My Pleyel pianino of No: Of course one cannot build a concert career on such an instrument but one can learn something of the intimacy that Chopin unlike Liszt strove to achieve in performance. Nokturn in the Dworek Chopina - photographs during performances were strictly forbidden. Lovers discovered in flagrante from a naive wall-painting at the paper mill Duszniki Zdroj. There is a special exhibition devoted to Chopin at Bad Reinerz running there at present. The 'official' Chopin memorial in Duszniki Zdroj unveiled in where the Festival is opened ceremonially each year. Moran exploring the bed of the Bystrzyca Dusznicka river that tumbles through the village. Polish Professors enjoy themselves late night at a secret location - Duszniki Zdroj. One of the attractive spa mansions in Duszniki Zdroj that still reflects the German influence in the architecture when the spa was known as Bad Reinerz in Silesia. The Bystrzyca Dusznicka river that tumbles through Duszniki Zdroj.