Kraków events of the 200th anniversary of composer's death

This music doesn’t age. It has survived more than one cultural revolution, the births of jazz and rock and the appearance of electric instruments yet... it still delights the whole world. Before us lies the extraordinary Chopin Year.

In the summer of 1829, the young Chopin arrived in Kraków, which lay on the route of his journey to Vienna. The week he spent here certainly made a considerable impression on him, since, despite his great devotion to his family and friends, he wrote to one of them: “Kraków has occupied me to such an extent that there were few moments that I could devote to thinking about home and you”. Today the situation has turned on its head. In the year of the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth, the whole of Kraków will be occupied with Chopin and his extraordinary music.

Chopin Year in Kraków will officially begin on 28 February on Wawel Hill. After a solemn mass in Wawel Cathedral, in the National Poets’ Crypt a ceremonial unveiling will take place of a medallion containing a likeness of the composer – a copy of the image on Chopin’s grave in the Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

“Through his talent a citizen of the world”

Fryderyk Chopin – avowed patriot and brilliant artist – has turned out to be a splendid ambassador for Polish national identity. His name is recognised and his oeuvre performed over the whole world. This year will be a special opportunity to hear the works of Chopin interpreted by foreign guests. And what guests!

Playing in the Kraków Philharmonic Hall will be the famous Orchestra of the 18th Century conducted by Frans Brüggen who this year will mainly be bringing to Poland the oeuvre of “the poet of the piano”. They will be accompanying the marvellous pianists, Kevin Kenner and Dang Thai Son (25 February). Also the next instalments of the Recitals by the Masters in Chopin Year concert cycle began last year would appear to be very promising. Performing will be Yefim Bronfman, a Grammy winner who regularly plays concerts with the best orchestras in the world, such as the Berlin and New York Philharmonics, and also the Royal Concertgebouw (3 March), and Olga Kern, winner of a gold medal at the prestigious Van Cliburn Competition in 2001 (16 May).

Meanwhile the organisers of the Ludwig van Beethoven Festival have invited Louis Lortie to Kraków. This superb interpreter of the works of Chopin recently recorded all the Polish composer’s etudes for the Chandos label – for the second time! – and they will also feature in his concert on 18 March.
Awaiting us in autumn is the Second International Royal Cracow Piano Festival (24-31 October), mainly devoted – what else? – to the music of Chopin. Alexander Kobrin and Kevin Kenner have already confirmed their participation and the list of those taking part is still growing.
In the holiday months, Chopin’s music will be appearing on the royal hill. The Wawel at Dusk – to Chopin Festival begins on 3 July with the concert of Aleksander Gawryluk and the Aukso orchestra conducted by Marek Moś.

There will also be no shortage of Polish performers. Janusz Olejniczak and Agata Szymczewska will be appearing on 21 March in a concert forming part of the Kraków-based events of the Ludwig van Beethoven Festival, while the Kraków Philharmonic has invited the undisputed winner of the Chopin Competition in 2005, Rafał Blechacz, to its concert hall (28 May). A concert series is also being prepared by the Academy of Music – its students and graduates will be presenting early works by Chopin (9 March); a marathon of his music is also planned (16-18 April). In the autumn the national Chopinomania project will be coming to Kraków – the Polish composer’s works performed by Krzysztof Jabłoński and the Beethoven Academy Orchestra led by Łukasz Borowicz will be resounding in unusual places: the roof of a public building in Warsaw, the beach near the Sopot pier and the KS Cracovia stadium...

Improvising Chopin

Chopin’s output inspires musicians to experiment and is not only a source of inspiration for performers of classical music. That’s why the programme for the jubilee celebrations also includes less traditional interpretations of his works. And there’s no shortage here of big names. In early spring the international fado star, Mísia, will be visiting us. We can discover for ourselves how this encounter between Polish and Portuguese musical sensibilities will turn out during the Our Chopin Affair concert organised as part of the Ludwig van Beethoven Festival (25 March). In the meantime the next sensation awaits us – Bobby McFerrin at Wawel! The American artist whose voice has no limitations will be appearing on 18 August during the Summer Jazz Festival with the NDR Big Band in a special programme based on the music of the Polish genius of the piano. This same festival also features Jazz Night, which this year will be dominated by Chopin’s mazurkas, polonaises and preludes (17 July).

We can also hear jazz arrangements of them at the Philharmonic Hall (Chopin Improvisations, 28 February), and also at the Academy of Music, where during the Chopin in Blue concert, appearing on stage on 11 April alongside recognised Polish jazzmen – Wojciech Groborz, Leszek Żądło, Joachim Mencel – will be young disciples of the genre.

As well as making connections with jazz in the works of Chopin, artists also find ethnic, folk and even Latin-American motifs. The fruit of their explorations include the projects by the Pro Musica Mundi association (the Ethno-Chopin, Chopin & Jazz and Chopin & Tango concerts) or the Benedictine Institute of Culture (the Mystical Chopin series).

Music for the Eye

Although the programme for the Chopin Year celebrations is dominated as would be expected by sound, we can also find in it exhibitions and presentations that will be pleasing to the eye. We’ll be able to see manuscripts of Chopin’s works (apparently the amount of crossings-out and careless nature of his writing triggered off an orchestra mutiny...), and also valuable first editions and early publications of the two concertos, among other works. An exhibition of manuscripts – including many of Chopin’s – in the Jagiellonian Library (18 March – 2 April) will accompany the Kraków-based events of the Beethoven Festival.

The Kraków Festival Office (KBF) is organising an open air exhibition of watercolour prints by Jerzy Duda-Gracz. The To Chopin series from which they come was created in the final years of the painter’s life under the influence of the piano master’s works. Set up at various points in the city will be acoustic showers – multimedia sculptures inside which we can hear the works of Chopin – as well as replicas of Chopin’s piano. Six full-sized instruments made from various materials will be painted by famous Polish artists. In the Wyspiański Pavilion, thanks to cooperation between the KBF and the Wojciech Weiss Museum Foundation, we can see the sketches by a neo-romantic artist for a portrait of the composer, and also landscapes alluding through their atmosphere to the music of Chopin, while the Jagiellonian University Museum, whose collections include one of the most famous Chopin mementos – the Pleyel on which the artist played when he was staying in Scotland – will be commemorating his stay in Kraków. Included among the initiatives celebrating the 200th anniversary of his birth are also unusual ideas, for example the painting of keyboard on benches and on staircases in various places in Kraków or the competition announced by the Manggha Museum for a kimono design alluding to his person and oeuvre.

Arthur Rubinstein once remarked: “I have met with lack of understanding for Bach in some places, with slight enthusiasm for Mozart in Italy, with a curious antipathy to Brahms in Latin countries and with a hatred of Tchaikovsky in France, but Chopin has a hold on the hearts of men everywhere”. Is it possible to harbour any doubts that this is the case?