Tonight’s Concert begun at half-past-seven sharp, with a small manifestation from Maestro Antoni Wit, who ostentatiously ordered his music stand to be removed. Then followed the speech made by Andrzej Sułek, Director of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, who welcomed the honorable guests and announced the highlights of the coming week.
Symphony No. 2 in C major Op. 61 filled the first half of the evening. The Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra was seated in a classical way, with second violins on the right-hand part of the stage and with ‘cellos in the centre. This certainly added to the clear-cut dialogues between various instruments groups.
The time that had passed between the tuning up of the Orchestra and the first bar of the Symphony was audibly devastating to the precision of intonation of both woodwinds and brass sections. This certainly deducted from the expression of introductory Sostenuto assai. Fortunately, the matters went better with time and the following Allegro ma non troppo, conducted with energy, was far more convincing. The Scherzo was given enlivened performance, with noticeable change of mood in the middle section. Adagio espressivo was the climax of the interpretation, especially in contrapuntal fragment that was conceived with amazing simplicity and was full of meaning. The final Allegro molto vivace, on the other hand, was played in a great tempo, perhaps just a little bit too fast, as some details were redundant. The whole movement was presented as one wave from the beginning till the ultimate climax. The audience offered a warm applause in return to the efforts of maestro Antoni Wit and his Orchestra.
After the interval Fryderyk Chopin’s birthday party finally begun. A warm welcome was given to the pianist, Rafał Blechacz, who jumped onto the stage to perform Piano Concerto in F minor Op. 21. The tutti exposition, as well as the whole part of the orchestra, was played according to the best Polish performing tradition. It was the more enjoyable that just few days earlier London Symphony Orchestra had carefully performed all of the notes of the Concerto, but stripped the work out of all ideas of great Polish conductors that already form the canon of the performance. This tradition can be traced back to Grzegorz Fitelberg, and even to Karol Kurpiński.
The skilled performance of Rafał Blechacz attracted our attention from the very first note. The musical text was given flawlessly, while playing was spontaneous and energetic. The freedom of performance was as evident as was pianist’s control upon the musical time and phrase. Without challenging the performing tradition of the work, Blechacz was able to introduce his own ideas, which came in particularly large amount in the Finale. The famous Larghetto was truly memorable; the cooperation between soloist, conductor and orchestra was exemplary. The dialogue with bassoon was remarkable moment of the interpretation. Moreover, the horn player dealt successfully with his arduous part. The whole performance was energetic, and the mazurka in third movement was given an apt execution. Therefore it was not at all surprising that the audience reacted in standing ovation that convinced the pianist to offer two Mazurkas as encores. The first of them, Mazurka in A minor Op. 17 No. 4, was phenomenal. Blechacz gave unforgettable performance, his interpretation was mesmerizing: no one dared to applaud as the last note vanished in the air. There was still silence. Everyone tried to stay as long as possible in the Chopin’s World, brought to us by Rafał Blechacz with skill and sensitivity.
Krzysztof Komarnicki
