The Chopin Currency: April 26, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews & Previews:

Puzzle pieces of past fall into place when playing a baby grand
Anderson Independent Mail (subscription) - Anderson,SC,USA

"This is a story about a piano, and a middle-aged woman, and the thrill of rediscovering an old love...."

The piano is a little long in the tooth now. It’s out of tune. Some of the keys stick. The hammers need to be re-felted. Old memories have to be dusted off when you take them out.

I sit down on the bench, open a piece of sheet music and -- surprise! -- my hands float automatically to their places on the keyboard. Treble clef. Bass. Andante. Allegro. The words of a long-forgotten language come back to me, one by one.

I can’t play very well. But I’m so happy, sitting here, my fingers finding their way over the keys again. It feels like the puzzle pieces of my past are falling back into place.

My rendering of “Greensleeves” is tentative. Halting. I miss the C-sharp. Next, one of Chopin’s “Nocturnes.” Not much better. But it’s music....

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Chopin in the Blogosphere:

Shabbat morning at Hemdat Hayamim, or; Chopin atop
By homefris(homefris)

Touching entry about a piano recital in the rare air of the Promised Land...

Yitzak Tavior wants you to appreciate. Since he gathered his family on the mountaintop of Hemdat Yamim in the late 1960’s, Tavior has been striving to remember the obligation that comes with living in such a beautiful place. “What our job here is to bring culture, to bring music, to the surrounding area,” he says over sweetened mint lemonade at his family’s café. Along with a few scattered guesthouses and the family’s house itself, the café complex is the extent of Hemdat Yamim, a “farm,” (as Tavior calls it) in the upper Gallilee where we’ve found ourselves this Saturday morning.

We came for the morning piano concert, and found ourselves stepping up into the trees. Each Saturday morning, Tavior performs a “pluralistic” piano recital for a few guests inside his airily vaulted wooden attic studio....

homefrid ocean - http://homefris.blogspot.com/

Chopin in the Videosphere:

WOJCIECH KOSSAK & FRYDERYK CHOPIN
By rss@dailymotion.com (za0108)

A nice "print show" pairing of Polish landscapes and military scenes by Wojciech Kossak with FC's music.....

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x57mv9_wojciech-kossak-fryderyk-chopin_creation
WOJCIECH KOSSAK & FRYDERYK CHOPIN
Uploaded by za0108