Chopin Project Via The Educational Channel

The premiere of The Chopin Project on The Education Channel will be cablecast tonight, March 7th at 5PM Eastern Time (22:00 GMT).  Month-long live streaming is available for convenient access anywhere via this SCHEDULE.

The Chopin Project Special, produced by the Education Channel through the stewardship of the Sarasota County School Board, is original programming highlighting The Chopin Project® — as it celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Fryderyk Chopin. The one hour documentary highlights the educational outreach component of Chopin Project’s mission to carry the music of the Polish master to young people everywhere. The program was designed as an integral part of the multi-concert Sarasota Chopin Festival presented last November by The Artist Series of Sarasota and The Chopin Project.

Daniel Rodriguez was a photojournalist for the Colombian daily newspaper El Espectador from 1936-66. His work, nearly all in black and white, is known for its beauty and simplicity. It shows a face of Colombian culture transporting the viewer on a nostalgic journey full of contrasts. Chopin’s Mazurka in F Minor, Op. 63 No. 2 performed by Polina Khatsko establishes the tone for our introduction to the photographic works of this Colombian master.

The Daniel Rodriguez Archive consists of approximately 3,500 negatives (mostly 2 ¼ x 2 ¼ inches) and 350 prints (mostly 8 x 10”).  It covers Colombian history and society from1935 through 1970.  Daniel’s photographs have been exhibited in Berlin, Barranquilla, Colombia, and Tampa, Florida. Beginning February 25, 2011, and running through April 16, selected photographs from the Daniel Rodriguez Archive will be on display in the city of Bucaramanga, Colombia. The Exhibit will showcase 60 of his photographs that are owned by the Bank of the Republic of Colombia, (Banco de la Republica del Colombia) which, like the US Library of Congress,  exists as a repository for the cultural and artistic richness of Colombia.  Bucaramanga is hosting the first exhibit in a series that will occur in twenty-three Banco de la Republica offices throughout Colombia.

Enjoy this very rare kinescope of a recital by William Kapell; and especially the second piece, Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 55 No. 2 (1835) appearing from 3′ 28″ to 8′ 14.” This extraordinary rendering from Alistair Cooke’s “Omnibus” series (CBS-TV) was recorded live March 15, 1953 at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is the only known video of any performance by Kapell who died tragically seven months later, and was mourned by the musical illuminati of the time. We also suggest a wonderful three part tribute to Kapell here:  Part 1; Part 2; and Part 3.

And for our visitor who remembers Alistair Cooke’s superb introductions for PBS’ Masterpiece Theatre (or those who recall his earlier Letter From America for the BBC), we commend the wonderfully revealing homage entitled The Unseen Alistair Cooke. It is accessible through PBS stations around the country and for viewing online now.

Copyright 2010 Hanna and Juliusz Komarnicki

“Sometimes, through the window which opens onto the garden, strands of melody waft upwards from Chopin, and mingle with the songs of nightingales and the fragrance of roses. He never stops working.”

This from Eugene Delacroix to a friend, (from Nohant, June 7, 1842), may only hint at the precision that belies what seems often from Chopin to be pure improvisation.

Listen now to Chopin Project pianist, Olga Kleiankina bring these contrasting sensibilities to the first of three Mazurkas from Opus 56.

Historic Asolo Theatre at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota

From November 12-16, 2010  The Artist Series of Sarasota in association with The Chopin Project will proudly present concerts, films and special events as part of the international celebration of the Fryderyk Chopin Year.

The programs will feature six acclaimed Chopin Project pianists: Arthur Greene, Dmitri Vorobiev, Xiaofeng Wu, Olga Kleiankina, Svetlana Smolina and Maxim Mogilevsky; and two guest soloists, cellist Abraham Feder, and soprano Hein Jung.

• Hear Arthur Greene play the exquisitely poignant and almost unknown “Valse melancolique” in F-sharp Minor (1838). He will perform this with other Chopin rarities in the Monday evening program November 15 at 7:30PM.

Click here for ticket information.

In brief:

Friday, Nov. 12 – 7:30PM: Opening performance and reception — Arthur Greene in solo recital featuring Chopin’s Four Ballades at the beautiful USF Sarasota-Manatee Rotunda;

Saturday, Nov. 13 – 2PM: A screening of the 1945 Academy Award winning Chopin biography “A Song to Remember.” Historic Asolo Theatre;

Saturday, Nov. 13 — 7:30PM: “An Evening with the Artists” – Live performance, conversation, and a festive Polish themed dinner, at a unique Sarasota residence.

Sunday, Nov. 14 — 2PM: “Chopin’s Europe” — Historic Asolo Theatre – Concert and multi-media presentation with Chopin Project pianists performing Chopin rarities and favorites – with full-stage images from the new book, “Chopin’s Europe” depicting the regions in Europe where Chopin lived, loved and composed – with live narration.

Sunday & Tuesday, Nov. 14 and 16 – 7:30PM – Historic Asolo Theatre – “Chopin: Favorites and Rarities” — 2 different programs featuring all six Chopin Project pianists.

Monday, Nov. 15 – 7:30PM – Sarasota Opera House: Chopin Spectacular: More Favorites and Rarities.  Six Chopin Project pianists and guest soloists, soprano Hein Jung and cellist, Abraham Feder.

NC State's Dr. Olga Kleiankina

Raleigh, North Carolina One of the most exciting projects new faculty pianist Olga Kleiankina brought with her to her job at NC State is her involvement in The Chopin Project. Since its genesis at the University of Michigan, the Chopin Project is devoted to exploring the entirety of Fryderyk Chopin’s works for solo piano online and in live performance. And in this bicentennial year of his birth, Chopin’s music will take center stage as part of the Faculty and Guest Recital roster of Music@NCState October 15-17, featuring Arthur Greene, Dmitri Vorobiev, and Svetlana Smolina with the Music Department’s own Olga Kleiankina.

The Festival’s two recitals taking place at Stewart Theatre (Sat. Oct 16 at 7PM and Sun, Oct 17 at 4PM) features the most beloved works by Chopin, from miniatures — such as waltzes, nocturnes and mazurkas — to major works including Ballades, Preludes and Sonatas. Purchase tickets here.

In collaboration with Ruggero Piano, the artists will also present a Benefit Concert for the Artist of Tomorrow Scholarship Fund and a free master class that focuses on Chopin’s works. Read more here.

Many of the photographs provided by Hanna and Juliusz Komarnicki from their beautifully crafted “Chopin’s Europe” and employed in our video by James De Mauro and Evelyn Bless, depict just what the couple would have seen during their walk to and from Sarzay.

Share the sights, the history and especially the music at once described by Klindworth as “entrancing”; by Huneker as “noble”; and by Hadow, as “perhaps the most exquisitely tuneful and graceful of all his Mazurkas.”

These adjectives have also been used to describe the musical sensibility Arthur Greene brings to this studio performance of Chopin’s Mazurka in A-flat Major, Op. 59, No. 2.

Click the image anywhere to watch/listen:

Purchase here: Chopin’s Europe: A Photographic Essay

Purchase the Chopin Project iPhone App (now with 25 titles)

So why is it rare? Chopin marked up some of his scores for his piano students which have been fascinating for musicologists to examine. He sometimes added fingerings and other instructions. And occasionally, as here, he added extra notes and even special cadenzas. So . . . listen closely if you know this piece and you’ll hear some lovely original additions by Monsieur Chopin himself.

The complete Opus 9 was originally published as “Les Murmures de la Seine” and dedicated to the wife of Chopin’s friend Camille Pleyel. Marie Pleyel is the woman pictured in the cameo on the album cover.

In celebration of the six month anniversary of Chopin’s 200th birthday, we are offering it as a free download until September 1, 2010.

• Download Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 (original cadenzas) MP3

The Chopin Project is proud to present the first in a series of short videos that show you where Chopin lived while creating his magnificent music. This episode focuses on Nohant Manor, the country home of Mme George Sand. Hear a musical gem performed by Polina Khatsko, see photos of Nohant Manor and read about manor life. The story is based on the book Chopin’s Europe by Hanna and Juliusz Komarnicki and Pamela and Iwo Zaluski.

Order the book here: Chopin’s Europe: A Photographic Essay

Download Chopin Project release: Mazurka in C-sharp Minor, Op. 63 No. 3

Princess Cristina Belgiojoso, Underwriter of Hexameron

When Vincenzo Bellini, a great composer of bel canto opera and one of Chopin’s musical idols died in 1835, a group of pianist-composers in Bellini’s circle chose to honor him by writing a set of six variations on a march from the last of his operas, “Il Puritani.”

The six friends were coaxed into this project by Princess Cristina Trivulzio Belgiojoso, and led by Franz Liszt, who contributed a substantial part of this nearly twenty minute long collection. The Princess, who adored Bellini, is pictured here and is separately a subject of extraordinary interest as a Parisian-exiled Italian heiress, a music loving society celeb, feminist, author, social activist and political revolutionary, teacher and pioneer.

The Hexameron was not a new musical instrument come to market in the 1830’s. Though of biblical genesis, the title for this homage to Bellini was named Hexameron rather for the six separate components of this collaborative work. There had been a longstanding legend that at one time all the pianists were gathered in the salon of the enterprising Princess, to perform the variations on six pianos; but as an acclaimed exponent of this difficult work, pianist Raymond Lewenthal reflected in his comments on Hexameron, it would have been wonderful if that had occurred, but there’s not an iota of confirmation.

Vincenzo Bellini

Other than Liszt, composers of Hexameron were Sigismund Thalberg, Johann Peter Pixis, Henri Herz, Carl Czerny and finally Fryderyk Chopin. About fifteen years earlier, a similar type of multi-composer project bore a set of fifty variations written by fifty composers on a theme of Diabelli. This theme also inspired Beethoven, who independently created a magnificent set of thirty-three variations, Op. 120 (Diabelli Variations), which became one of his crowning acheivements.

In Hexameron we hear mostly virtuosic, bravura variations. Perhaps predictably Chopin’s contribution is of a different nature, as it offers the listener a rare moment of reflection. In Chopin’s hand, Bellini’s theme is intoned as largo (slow) and his dynamics are sotto-voce (soft), accompanied by nocturne-like left hand playing and rising and falling two-note chords. The only change of mood takes place in the middle of the variation, when more dramatic, sharper rhythms and fuller dynamics break the climate of meditation.

• Download Sheet Music for free for Variation No. 6 in E Major for the Hexameron, by Fryderyk Chopin

'Tributo a Chopin' 80 x 36 Oil on Canvass ©Camargo Vilardy, 2009. Photo courtesey of Angela Bustamonte (c) 2009

Today’s posting embodies a grand fusion of the 19th century music of Fryderyk Chopin and the visual expression of twenty-first century Colombian sculptor and painter, Carlos Camargo Vilardy, whose love for Chopin’s music provided enormous impulse for the enterprise.

The creation of the painting presented here in video format occupied ten days in Tampa, Florida, where Vilardy and his son, Barranquilla filmmaker Felipe Camargo were immersed in the music, the painting and the experience.

Click on the video below to watch and listen. As always, we encourage your comments.

© Copyright Felipe Camargo

Iowa Public Radio’s brand new performance series, “PERFORMANCE IOWA” premiers tonight in celebration of Chopin’s 200th Birthday.

Host Jacqueline Halbloom presents Dmitri Vorobiev, Chopin Project pianist and UNI Assistant Professor of Music in live performance of two Chopin rarities: Tarantella in A-flat Major, Op. 43 (1841) and Allegro de Concert, Op. 46 (1834-41). Pianist Ksenia Nosikova, Associate Professor of Piano of University of Iowa will play pieces by Liszt and Schumann, each in honor of the composers’ association with Chopin in this Bicentennial year.

“PERFORMANCE IOWA” aspires to bring listeners closer to the music by including the views and observations of the performers.

Tonight’s performances will be broadcast live state-wide on Iowa Public Radio Classical frequencies. Listen at 7PM Central DT (00:00:00 UCT/GMT). A link to open the live player can be found at:

http://iowapublicradio.org/scheduleGridDay.php?dayOfWeek=5&signal=KSUI

then click the “listen online” link at the top of the page.

Acclaimed Chopin Project pianist Svetlana Smolina will play Chopin’s Twenty-four Preludes, Op. 28 as part of her performance tomorrow at 4:30PM (Friday, March 5th) at the Winter Garden main stage in New York’s World Financial Center. Ms Smolina is among the virtuosi performing in the 200 hour Wall Street marathon celebrating the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth.

Chopin once wrote, “When one does a thing, it appears good, otherwise one would not write it. Only later comes reflection, and one discards or accepts the thing. Time is the best censor, and patience a most excellent teacher.”Upon further reflection, Chopin must have realized that this Waltz was an all-time keeper, a favorite of piano virtuosos and amateurs alike since Chopin’s own time. It was a notable favorite of Artur Rubinstein. In fact, the Chopin.Net site has a nice anecdote about Rubinstein:

When people asked him how he could continue to play the same waltz for over 75 years, he replied, “Because it’s not the same, and I don’t play it the same way.”

• Download sheetmusic for Waltz in C-sharp Minor, Op. 64, No. 2 by Fryderyk Chopin
• Download Easy to play sheetmusic for Waltz in C-sharp Minor, Op. 64, No. 2 by Fryderyk Chopin

While the composer’s music was sublime, his personality was another matter entirely

Chopin is no less fascinating for being a difficult personality. Novelist, journalist, pre-concert talker, blogger – Jessica Duchen joins others, including Chopin’s lover George Sand, in casting a critical eye on the musician’s relationships with others. The exquisite sensibility that produced music overflowing with feeling also made the composer hard to live with. — Eve

It’s never a good idea to judge art by the artist’s character, as we too often do these days, and there are few better examples of why not than Frédéric Chopin. He is set to be the romantic hero of 2010, his bicentenary year: concert halls and record companies are preparing a barrage of celebratory events and CDs. But anniversaries can be mixed blessings for the dead: look closely at any adored individual and it is likely that something less than savoury will be lurking. There’s no doubting the greatness of the Polish pianist-composer’s music; but that greatness came at a heavy price for those who were close to him, or tried to be . . . Click to read more

Emanuel Ax

Ring in the New Year

Stephen Dankner reports Polish-American pianist Emanuel Ax will present a solo recital at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, MA on Saturday, Jan. 2, at 7:30 p.m.  commemorating of the 200th birthdays of Frederyk Chopin and Robert Schumann, and promises a thrilling experience.

A brilliant young musician’s mysterious change in direction

A LOCAL LIFE: Preble Earle Donoho, 79

By T. Rees Shapiro
Washington Post

Starting in the late 1930s, when he was in knee pants, Preble Earle Donoho was the Washington area’s leading piano prodigy.Before reaching his teens, “Prib,” as he was known, was a veteran of major concert halls from Washington to New York. The Washington Post wrote that he played with “brilliance, speed, power and accuracy.” The Washington Star described him as “mature musically and technically beyond his years.” Click to read the full text of Mr. Shapiro’s story.

Newspaper obituaries used to be assigned to rookies. Now they have bylines. Obits can sum up the themes in a person’s life, the key meanings a person gives to those  left behind. Preble Earl Donoho (“Prib”) was a prodigy, a boy for whom music was a gift; and yet he abandoned Chopin recitals to become a newspaper typesetter. Mr. Donoho was raised to be a concert pianist; he wanted to be a spy. What’s the meaning? We all have multiple possible lives. A gift does not always carry with it a compulsion to be used. For Mr. Donoho, the mysteries of everyday life were ultimately more seductive than the melodies of Chopin. -Eve

Shanghai Marathon to Celebrate 200 Years of Chopin

SHANGHAI’S artistic directors are working overtime to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth next year.  Piano lovers are in for a treat as the world’s top interpreters visit for a series of awe-inspiring concerts, notes Nie Xin. 

For people in Shanghai, 2010 is a speical year. Besides the six-month World Expo, next year also marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of great pianist and composer Frederic Chopin.

The classical music stage in Shanghai has geared up to celebrate the master’s influence as a great Polish composer.

The first heavyweight event will be kicked off in January by Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra (SPO) with its “12-Hour Chopin Marathon” at Shanghai Concert Hall. 

Read more: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=423710&type=Feature#ixzz0aehe6ePV

Performance Today is broadcast on 245 public radio stations across the country and reaches 1.1 million listeners each week. Since each station decides what time to air the program, the most direct route to hear the show is the Performance Today website (Program Archive June 1, 2009) until Tuesday, June 7th. 

On an earlier Performance Today program, host Fred Child, described the Chopin Project as

“. . . working towards being a comprehensive site of information about and music by, Frederic Chopin: lots of audio, lots of news bits, and . . . even a Chopin quotepage!. This is kind of Wikipedia-style project and they’re inviting YOUR feedback and YOUR information as well. ”

• Download the sheetmusic and learn more about “Three Ecossaises,” Op. 72

We thank you for your comments! 

Produced and distributed by American Public Media, Performance Today is broadcast on 245 public radio stations across the country and is heard by about 1.1 million people each week. Each station individually decides what time to air the program. You’ll also be able to hear the show on the Performance Today website (Program Archive July 9, 2008) until Tuesday, July 15th.