2015-07-14

The Chopin and His Europe Festival, which will be held between 15 and 29 August under the slogan: "Before the Great Competition. From Chopin to Scriabin", is a musical countdown to the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition which starts on 1 October. The festival concerts will be filled with Polish music of the 19th century, which will be perfomed by the most outstanding artists.

The festival concerts will be filled with Polish music of the 19th century. Next to the works by Fryderyk Chopin (Piano Concerto in E minor Op. 11, Piano Concerto in F minor Op. 21 and solo pieces), we will hear the music by Henryk Wieniawski (Violin Concerto in D minor Op. 22, Legend Op. 17, Polonaise in D major Op. 4), Mieczysław Karłowicz ("Rebirth" Symphony in E minor Op. 7), Ignacy Jan Paderewski (Violin Sonata in A minor Op. 13, Mazurka in A minor, Cracovienne Fantastique, Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 17), Michał Kleofas Ogiński (Polonaise in D minor No. 10, Polonaise in C minor No. 6, Polonaise in D minor No. 16), Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński (Fantasy on "Don Giovanni" Opera Op. 59) and Karol Lipiński (Mazurka in E-flat minor).

The festival programme is also open to the jubilees of Peter Tchaikovsky, Alexander Scriabin and Jean Sibelius that are celebrated around the world.

The list of festival performers is quite impressive: orchestras from Moscow, London, Freiburg and Warsaw, Chopin Competition winners, including those who triumphed at its most recent edition, but also other musicians of great international renown, such as Alexandre Tharaud, Sergej Krylov, Louis Lortie, Nelson Freire, Andreas Staier, Nikolai Lugansky, Jan Lisiecki, Ivo Pogorelic, Truls Mørk, Matthias Goerne, Sol Gabetta and Bertrand Chamayou. The festival will also feature a performance by the sensational Apollon Musagète quartet and two concerts of Tobias Koch, a pianist who has won the hearts of music lovers with his interpretations of Polish music. This time, he will perform music from Chopin’s time on at least three different pianos, not forgetting about Michał Kleofas Ogiński, a distinguished artist of great significance to at least three different nations.