The Chopin Currency - June 10th, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

Rafael Viñoly's Musical Refuge
New York Sun - United States

The world-famous concert-hall architect somehow finds time to practice, practice, practice...

The Uruguayan-born Mr. Viñoly is no mere collector. He is a bona fide musician who once contemplated a career as a pianist; he attended a music conservatory before switching fields, and knows how to finger those 88 ivories.

"Amazingly, I should confess that I still do consider sitting down to work out something as it deserves to work out," he said. Scores by Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, and Schumann clutter his pianos.
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Chopin in the Blogosphere:

All Robbins
By Philippe Boucher

Ballet-loving blogger goes to the Pacific Northwest Ballet program and finds more fulsome praise for Our Man Jerome and his unique take on Chopin...

In the Night was stunning set to the Nocturnes of Frederic Chopin, my favorite composer. Nocturne in F minor Op. 55 was played (a piece that I know how to play). What the program said about In the Night: Jerome Robbins' rapturous In the Night features three couples, in varying stages of relationships, who eventually meet in a dance for six. Each couple's pas de deux possesses a distinct character and in the end, all drift offstage in each others' arms like stars fading at dawn. Mesmerizing.
Last, but definetly not least The Concert (or, The Perils of Everybody): A Charade in One Act.It was just hilarious and gorgeous. The curtain lifts up and we see another curtain with a drawing by Edward Gorey. It lifts again. An empty stage with a grand piano to the left. From the right comes the pianist....

Le blog d'Anne - http://blogsofbainbridge.typepad.com/leblogdanne/

Celebrities and Depression
By Alicia Sparks, NAMI Affiliation Leader

It's "Celebrity Health Week" on the Mental Health Notes blogstie, and Fryderyk finds himself A-listed on the Celebrity Depression List amongs Buzz Aldrin and Abe Lincoln...though what is this composition called "Nocturne" she speaks of?

Frederic Chopin, often regarded as the greatest Polish composer (I absolutely love Nocturne and am, as a matter of fact, listening to it right now) battled depression before his death 1849.

Mental Health Notes - http://www.mentalhealthnotes.com

The Chopin Currency - May 21st, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews

Must male pianists be pin-ups?
guardian.co.uk - UK

Provocative column from Guardian blogger about "making glamourpusses out of pianists..." The readers think it's more of a generation gap...

In the crisis-laden economy of classical music concerts, pianists today are often marketed as "hunka hunka burnin' loves," however inappropriately. A few years ago, I interviewed the talented, poetic young Chinese pianist Yundi Li in his New York manager's office. Then in his early 20s, gawky and skinny, with tousled hair under a baseball cap, Yundi looked like the provincial Chinese youth he was. I was amazed to see how his recording company packaged his remarkable CDs of Chopin and Liszt, adding heavy makeup and swooning poses for an androgynous look. Yundi Li's artistry was the same, but he became a different artist to look at.....

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Piano Lessons
Voice of San Diego - San Diego,CA,USA

Review of the San Diego premiere of "Beethoven As I Knew Him," the latest installment in Hershey Felder's trilogy of composer portraits....

First, Hershey Felder presented his fantastic one-man show, "George Gershwin Alone," and urged theater-goers to join in on a sing-along of Gershwin hits. It was like drawing flies to honey; the enthusiastic Felder inspired gleeful audience members young and old to sing their hearts out. It was a sight (and sound) to behold.

Then came Felder's portrayal of the emotionally intense Fredéric Chopin which gave audiences a peek into the cultural sophistication of the 19th century Parisian salon.

Now, the Old Globe presents the final installation (and world premiere) of Hershey Felder's "Composer Sonata" trilogy of one-man performances based on famous composers' lives with "Beethoven, As I Knew Him." [...]

A natural and engrossing storyteller, Felder was at his best during "Beethoven" at the piano bench. Using discourse and music, Felder took the audience through pieces like Beethoven's Fifth symphony, expounding on the famous fate-at-the-door theme. The "Moonlight" sonata rendering was exquisite. Throughout the night, Felder used anecdotes and visuals (conducting to the night sky of stars!) to enhance the overall musical performance.

Though starker and narrated at a more measured pace than both "Gershwin" and "Chopin," "Beethoven, As I Knew Him" offers a poignant introspection into the austere composer's beloved music....

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Prometheus celebrates a distinctive vision
Boston Globe - United States

20th-anniversary production by the Promotheus Dance Company of Boston gets high marks for everything but a Chopin-based performance...

The world premiere on the program, "Lignage," seems disappointingly tame in comparison. A work for eight women set to a series of Chopin preludes, it contrasts slow floor work with flurries of sweeping movement - swirling turns with arms outstretched, legs carving great arcs. The women roll, cradle one another, then rise in rushes about the stage. There are a lot of stops and starts, and it has the crowded, slightly aimless feel of a work created to showcase young dancers.

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The Chopin Currency - May 7, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, & Previews:

A scintillating fiesta of melodies
The News - International - Pakistan

It's not often we get Chopin reviews from Karachi!

The evening’s programme opened the Polish-French composer Frederick Francois Chopin’s Waltz in F Major. Ayesha Tariq gave a delightfully precise interpretation of the composer’s characteristic style, buoyant, perky and lively. The way her fingers moved over the keyboard in quick time with perfect ease, really made the rendition come alive with exuberance and vivacity.

Ayesha, originally from Uzbekistan, and married to a Pakistani in Karachi, is a graduate of the Tashkent Conservatoire and has been playing the piano since she was seven. She certainly stole the show of the evening with her wizardry at the keyboard.

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Review: Fliter plays with passion, precision
Kansas City Star - MO,USA

Ingrid Fliter's fingers fly impressively in KC....

The second half of the program displayed Fliter’s comfort with Chopin, from the intimacy of the Nocturne in B Major, Op. 9, No. 3, to the complexity of the Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58.

While Fliter impressed with the ascending left-hand chromaticism of the Allegro maestoso and the presto flash of the opening measures of the Molto vivace, it was the third movement, the Largo, that was representative of this 34-year-old pianist’s manner: a flow of beauty in the arpeggios, and a delicate precision of melody and passionate crescendoes.

Fliter played two encores, the first was the crowd-pleasing Minute Waltz.

But it was the second that provided another highlight (besides the Chopin Largo): Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera’s “Danza del gaucho matrero.”

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Chopin in the Blogosphere:

Chopin in Motion: Simplicity, Virtuosity, Structure
By George Jackson

A Danceviewtimes review of an Isadora Duncan revival in Bethesda, MD takes a fascinating detour into the history of Chopin and Dance....

Six of the pieces were to Chopin’s music and particularly the “Prelude” (Duncan 1902; Chopin Opus 28 #7) and the “Mazurka” (Duncan undated; Chopin Opus 33 #3) reminded me of Mikhail Fokine’s ballet “Les Sylphides” that historians tell us was “supposedly” influenced by Duncan. . The Duncan dances move persistently, they pulse musically and posses a purity and simplicity [...]

There were other Chopin ballets in the early 1900s. Stockholm had one and so did Vienna. The Viennese one, “Chopin’s Dances”, might have influenced Fokine. Formally at least, it sounds like the first version Fokine made of his Chopin ballet and titled “Chopiniana”. “Chopin’s Dances” premiered two years earlier than the Fokine, on 16 April 1905 at the Court Opera in Vienna on a bill with the operas “Cavalleria Rusticana” and “I Pagliacci”. It had choreography by Josef Hassreiter and initially was to have told a bit of a story – “… Chopin would have appeared on stage, and loved and died in the course of a pas de deux and ballabile”. That “starting” notion was rejected. The result was plotless. “Chopin’s Dances” proved to be long: an hour and a quarter’s worth of national character and classical dances. “The unfortunately piecemeal nature of the music was countered by the charm of the dances.” Particular praise went to the “Minute Waltz”, a pointe variation for ballerina Irene Sironi. “The familiar and beloved music together with the precision and dance joy of the ensemble earned the work much applause and secured it a place in the repertory”. Actually, “Chopin’s Dances” lasted only three seasons in its entirety and totaled just 20 performances in the years 1905 to 1907. However, some of its numbers were added to the divertissements in Johann Strauss’s operetta “Die Fledermaus."....

danceviewtimes - http://www.danceviewtimes.com/

The Chopin Currency - May 2, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

From Georgia with love
Jerusalem Post - Israel

Georgian Pianist Alexander Korsantia prepares to play a concert with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, whose home venue of Henry Crown Hall just happens to be located on 5 Chopin Street...

I perceive Israel as my country," says pianist Alexander Korsantia, who will perform Chopin's Second Concerto together with the Jerusalem Symphony under Leon Botstein in a special concert celebrating Israel's 60th Independence day and 70 years since the orchestra's founding. "13 years ago Israel embraced me. Since then our relationship only strengthens and I try never to let down the local audience," the pianist adds. Korsantia's career received a significant international push after he won first prize at the Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in 1995.

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High praise for Chekhov at Hycroft
Vancouver Courier - BC, Canada

A rare Vancouver twin-bill of one-act plays by the Russian playwright reveals a heretofore hidden Chopin talent:

After the show, back home, I went scurrying to my Chopin CDs--Chopin because not only did actor Olesia Shewchuk completely steal my heart with her Natalia Stepanovna (in The Proposal) and Elena Ivanovna Popova (in The Bear), but she plays Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu on the Hycroft grand piano as part of the show. Multi-talented, she also translated "The Bear" from Russian.

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GILMORE FESTIVAL HIGH NOTES
Kalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com - Kalamazoo,MI,USA

From the behind-the-scenes blog at the Gilmore Festival in Kalamazoo, MI:

Rafal Blechacz CD wins rave

Rafal Blechacz, who performed Sunday at Western Michigan University's Dalton Center Recital Hall, is getting great press on his new CD, ``Chopin: The Complete Preludes'' (Deutsche Grammophon).

``Rafal Blechacz looks on his CD cover like he can't be older than 14 (he's 22),'' wrote Arizona Republic music critic Richard Nilsen in an April 6 review. ``But his new recording of Chopin's Preludes -- and a couple of Nocturnes to fill out the disc -- has to be one of the best debut albums since Glenn Gould's Goldbergs. It's that good.

``New young pianists pop out of the woodwork almost daily. Some have a great PR campaign behind them; others burst briefly from the many piano competitions before disappearing in the grind of concert tours with every second-rate orchestra in the world. Blechacz is different: He actually has something to say, and a personality that infuses his playing. ... This is truly refreshing pianism.''

-- James Sanford,

Kalamazoo Gazette

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Chopin in the Blogosphere:

15 Questions to Freddy Kempf Can you tell who Freddy Kempf is by ...
By pianoplayer0123(pianoplayer0123)

From the "Solo Pianist" blogsite, an online Q & A with classical music's "Man in Black"...

I am at home, in London, – in my wife’s “office” as we have a good friend of ours staying in my room! I am feeling heart-broken and depressed because I have just spent the whole afternoon practising Chopin’s 2nd piano concerto – it is such a wonderful feeling! I also feel great as I went to the gym today and ran my usual 3km in record time – 9 mins. in fact... well just kidding but one day I’ll get it down to 9 minutes... Some day...

What’s on your schedule right now?
On my schedule? Well tomorrow I fly to Sweden to do Chopin 2nd with a really great conductor friend of mine. I’m really looking forward to it as we always seem to make such good music together as well as having such fun. He sent me an SMS today saying, “Hi Freddy. When you arrive? Dinner? Weather is rubbish orchestra is great."

Solo Pianist - http://lyudmilachudinova.blogspot.com/

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The Chopin Currency - Dyngus Day Edition - March 24, 2008

Dyngus Day to proclaim Polish pride
Buffalo News - NY, United States

Today we tip our hat to the venerable Chopin Singing Society, proud keepers of the Dyngus Day flame in Western New York...

For the clueless, Dyngus Day is a Polish-American tradition marking the end of Lent, the 40- day period of prayer and self-denial preceding Christianity’s joyous celebration of Easter. The unofficial holiday — typically observed with pussy willows and squirt guns — has been observed in Buffalo since the first Polish immigrants arrived in the 1870s.

However, after the Chopin Singing Society held the first modern celebration on Kosciusko Street in 1961, Dyngus Day began to outgrow its ethnic and geographic confines. It is now celebrated by Poles and non- Poles throughout Buffalo and Western New York.

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Preparing for a party
Cheektowaga Times - NY, USA

More on Dyngus Day...

Judge Ann Mikoll of the Chopin Singing Society agrees, noting that Dyngus Day is not a religious holiday.

"It's a social get-together that's based on a long-standing tradition over the centuries," Mikoll added.

The day has become so popular in the area that it inspired Jerry Darlak and the Buffalo Touch to record a song, "Everybody's Polish on Dyngus Day," that immediately became a local hit. One of the lead singers for the Touch, Ray Barsukiewicz, is credited with penning the lyrics.

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Other Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

Dance Review: Complexions Contemporary Ballet
Jerusalem Post - Israel

Another modern ballet work set to the timeless music of Chopin, (though with yet another spelling of his first name!) on tour in Israel:

"Dear Fredric," which opened the evening, is perhaps a more ambitious work, set to music by Chopin. The strong and highly physical troop was challenged in this piece, which required stamina and rapid, powerful movements. With this athletic sprint approach, though, too little attention was dedicated to Chopin's spirit. It didn't take long before the congested dance phrases became tedious.

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Listening Post: Music from 'Heroes,' Switches, Mozart, Koz and more
Buffalo News - NY, United States

A Dyngus Day review of Alexander Tharaud's new Chopin/Mompou CD:

Chopin and Mompou, “Preludes and Etudes,” Alexandre Tharaud, piano (Harmonia Mundi). I like the thought that Tharaud gives to his music. He wants to perform Chopin’s 24 Preludes without a pause, so I’m guessing he recorded them that way — and you have to respect any pianist who doesn’t take advantage of modern technology to edit everything to death. Tharaud’s strength at the piano is his crisp, controlled tone. He can get wild, and sometimes his herky-jerky tempos can throw off the character of some of the more delicate pieces — the second of Chopin’s “Trois Nouvelles Etudes,” for instance. But he boldly brings out inner voices and draws your attention, gently, to harmonies you may have not noticed before. The approach gives poetry to the more harmonically challenging Mompou. _★★★ (M.K.G.)

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Chopin Videos:

Chopin Prelude e-minor
By Admin

Chopin on a dark Polish road...

... src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/atW2XWdR2b8/2.jpg" width="320" height="240" border="1" />Chopin Prelude e-minor

The Chopin Currency - Feb. 21, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, & Previews:

Byron Janis Celebrates 80th Birthday 3/10 in Concert with Hensley ...

Celebrated Chopin interpreter (and more recently, composer of Broadway songs) Byron Janis is set to present two shows - celebrating his 80th birthday (and Chopin's 198th!) in March at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza in New York....

Broadway World - New York,NY,USA
The birthday festivities continue with "An Evening of Song with Pianist as Composer with a Touch of Chopin," a concert on Monday, March 10 at 8pm where he ...
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Pianist follows own jazz road

Previewing an appearance in Detroit's Orchestra hall, notes about the classical roots of jazz pianist Jacky Terrasson...
DetNews.com - Detroit,MI,USA
... to a French father and an American mother, the classically trained pianist says he still loves to work his fingers in Bach and Chopin. ...
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Chopin Photos

Chopin's family church

Nice photo of medieval Polish village church where Chopin's parents were married. “28.06.1806. I, Ignacy Marzański, the curate of this church, having delivered three banns on Sundays and not having found any canonical obstacles, this legal marriage of Mr Mikolaj Chopin, tutor in Zelezowa Wola, a bachelor and Ms Justyna Krzyzanowska..."
Church of St. Roch and st. John the Baptist in the village of Brochów, close to the village of...
TrekEarth - Europe Travel Photo Gallery - http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Europe/

Chopin in the Blogosphere:

Thursday Thirteen #25

13 things to know about Chopin, part of an entertaining series from a Southern California blogger. "#13 -- It was not 'love at first sight' for Frederick and Georg [Sand]. "Something about her repels me," he wrote his family. Sand, however, in a letter to a friend in June, 1837, debated whether she should end a current affair to begin one with Chopin -- repelled be damned! -- even though she knew he was reportedly engaged to a woman named Maria Wodzińska."

By Lara Angelina(Lara Angelina)
We were big faves of Frederick Chopin as I was growing up and I've carried that love into my adult life. My mother and I would watch "A Song To Remember" (Cornel Wilde played a robust Frederick and Merle Oberon played a beautiful Georg ...
Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing - http://larachronicles.blogspot.com/

Tudor and Limon Celebrated

From the excellent blog danceviewtimes, a review of an American Ballet Theatre 100th birthday retrospective on the works of Anthony Tudor and Jose Limon:

This "Suite from 'Mazurkas,'" staged by veteran Limón dancer Sarah Stackhouse, includes eight of the work's twelve sections. In a post-performance discussion, she explained that the work was inspired by the company's visit to Poland as part of a 1957 European tour, during which they paid a visit to Chopin's home. She described the individual sections as "little gifts" from the choreogrpaher to each dancer who had been on that tour. Certainly Limón can be seen as being ahead of the curve in creating a Chopin piano ballet, something that became a more familiar type of dance about a decade later.

By Susan Reiter
Limón's 1958 "Mazurkas," which served as the evening's appetizer, is an uncomplicated and sweetly open-hearted piano ballet to Chopin, and thus quite different from what one generally associated with the choreographer. ...
danceviewtimes - http://www.danceviewtimes.com/