The captivating performance of tutti exposition o Chopin’s Second (Sinfonia Varsovia lead by George Tchitchinadze) gave us absolutely no warning about the forthcoming events. From the first bars of piano part it was obvious, that very strange things are about to occur on the stage tonight.

We cannot state that this was far from our understanding of Chopin’s style and music, as there was really very little of this composer’s music presented, if at all. There was only Ivo Pogorelić, boring and unconvincing.

With our regret, we have to state that pianist was not prepared for tonight’s performance. The clues for such a statement are as follows. First of all, the pianist was not familiar with his part. The score that was in front of him was seemingly his personal enemy. Therefore he had attacked every single note with merciless stroke that resulted in most harsh sound we ever heard. The grand piano did not stand such a treatment and the instrument was out of tune by the end of the first movement. Second, the tempi. The pianist did not take the tempo from the orchestral tutti and begun his part at half of that tempo. The first movement lasted for 15 minutes, which is almost five minutes more than average performance of this work. It was not Maestoso; it was Larghetto, and a slow one. The Larghetto proper lasted about four minutes longer than usual and the whole work was presented in generous thirty-seven minutes.

Then, the reading of the score that should be taken literally. Our impression was like the pianist never came across this work before. His focus was on pitch entirely, leaving aside such nuances like dynamics, articulation, phrase, use of pedals… From the other hand there were improper, accidental accents and some unbearable mannerisms, as forceful attack on upbeat and making following downbeat inaudible. This mannerism was ridiculed already by Aleksander Fredro in one of his famous 19^th-century comedies. In one moment during the third movement the pianist decided to abandon the melodic line altogether, playing just some ruthlessly attacked notes on the first measure. The remaining of those few bars, if at all attempted by player, was inaudible. Lastly, the pianist did not play according to any pulse, did not keep the beat, except for those moments where it is absolutely impossible to play with metronomic precision. We talk about those irregular rhythmic groups consisting of five or seven notes that are to be played rather freely. Equally, the Chopinesque free figures consisting of dozens of notes were played with mathematic precision, as far as possible from Chopin’s own understanding of rubato. We were expected much more from the pianist invited to play amongst his most highly regarded colleagues, winners of Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw!

But maybe we are wrong. Maybe we were faced with thought out performance of Chopin’s work? Let us assume for a moment it was all prepared. We can only state that every piano remark in the score was reproduced with harsh force, the forte was ignored, legato, so important for brilliant style of the Concerto, was not at all present and the phrase was lacking logic.

According to Beethoven, the artist’s freedom is not without limits. On the contrary, the freedom of the artist results from limits imposed on his own art by the artist himself. We may assume that for performing artist the score is a border of what is allowable and what is not. We grant the artist right to go beyond the frontiers if it is done to show us unforeseen beauty of the work. But we cannot accept denying of all performing tradition of Chopin’s Concerto in F minor and ignoring of all of composer’s remarks noted in the score, we cannot accept brutality and aesthetics of sound that were more appropriate for Bartok’s Allegro barbaro – and all that applied only to strip one of the most delightful works in the piano literature of all its charm.

The Third International Congress CHOPIN 1810-2010 takes place this week in Warsaw. Wojciech Nowik will present a paper “In Search of Turpistic Tendencies in Chopin’s Music”. Tonight’s performance shall undoubtedly serve as an illustration to this research report.

The audience was divided into two parties. A small group applauded loudly and ostentatiously, while the majority remained silent. We are afraid there would be some booing; fortunately enough there is no habit in Poland to boo after the classical concert.

Many people left the building after the first part of the evening and that was a mistake. There is no better remedy for the aftermath of such experience than few bars of a well-played symphony. We were not at all disappointed in our expectations: Sinfonia Varsovia gave attractive, appealing performance, sensitively reacting to the precise gesture Tchichinadze. Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 in D minor Op. 120 was performed in its full glory. We were thoroughly satisfied, our belief in some values that we were thought about were brought back to us by the artists. We are again convinced about the meaning of music, the sense of phrase, the logic of melody, the necessity of quest for the beauty of sound, form and contrast. A remarkable performance, which had the power to reunite the audience. There was long, warm, well-deserved applause.

We would like to express our deepest gratitude to both the Conductor and the Orchestra.

Krzysztof Komarnicki