KVT – Poland is Wonderful Again

KVT – Poland is Wonderful Again

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KVT 2013Anna Kijanowska

KVT has three good reasons for saying Bravo

The poles have done it yet again! Every year they seem to come up with a Polish musician extra-ordinaire and how well I still remember May 2011 when violinist Alicja Smietana hypnotized me with Shostakovich at the Opera House.

This year they gave us internationally renowned pianist Anna Kijanowska in recital to a capacity crowd at the Youth Theater.

Kijanowska didn’t pander to her audience and we got an interesting, somewhat challenging, but totally wonderful program of works by Polish composers ranging from Chopin (1810-1849) to Bacewicz (1909-1969).

I loved the manner in which she introduced the composers and the works she played and especially when she prefaced the recital with a story about Polish hero, politician and composer, Jan Padereweski (died 1941) who used to stop playing if audience members talked and apologized for interrupting their conversations.

This may have been part of the reason that Kijanowska’s audience was so attentive to her playing …though with such intensity at the keyboard, who’d bother to concentrate elsewhere!

When she stopped playing at the conclusion of a Szymanowski Prelude and indicated to the TV cameramen that they should leave (and they did!!!) I almost stood and cheered. It’s about time that performers took the initiative with extraneous noises and movement in Hanoiauditoriums……she also made sure that the audience had stern warning about mobile phones and cameras before she took to the stage….and FOR ONCE we had almost perfect listening conditions….BRAVO, BRAVO and BRAVO again.

Mind you, the bravos were even more deserved after the fabulous final work, Grazyna Bacewicz’ Piano Sonata No 2, a 20 minute, three movement work that left most of us gasping in admiration. Bacewicz was a prodigious composer for a lot of instruments and died too early in a car crash. She’s only the second Polish woman composer to have achieved international recognition and I wish her name would crop up more often on concert programs

The recital began with a lovely interpretation of Paderewski’s well known Minuet in G Major ( here played by the grand old man himself)

and then It was into two of the nine Preludes that Szymanowski composed as precocious teenager -and which were so delightfully interrupted with the cameramen interlude-followed by a selection of Mazurkas…a famous one of Chopin’s, of course, and six of the twenty from Szymanowski’s op 50….all of which I’ve been listening to Kijanowska play as I tap this text …as can you here

I thought that after a riveting performance of Chopin’s demanding Ballade No 2, the pianist’s fingers would have had enough but she stopped to give them a brief respite to tell us a little about Bacewicz before launching them into that wonderful final piece at the end of which even the sparkling grand piano was beginning to tell us that it had been played exceptionally.

A bouquet and lots of applause followed and she acknowledged the very appreciative crowd with that piece by Chopin that is a definite favorite with Vietnamese audiences, his Revolutionary Etude.

Wonderful again! Wonderful ending to a wonderful recital.

Thank you, you marvelous Poles for yet another fine night’s entertainment (and I understand that Goethe also needs a thank you as well)…and I can hardly wait until you surprise us all again.

Sorry about all the wonderfuls but it was an evening  for just such a word! And all for free! Where else but in Hanoi!

Polandis way up on my travel agenda this year…so it’s great that Kijanowski’s program has given me lots of practice with those difficult to spell polish names.

Kiem Van Tim is a keen observer of life in general and the Hanoi cultural scene in particular and offers some of these observations to the Grapevine. KVT insists that these observations and opinion pieces are not critical reviews. Please see our Comment Guidelines / Moderation Policy and add your thoughts in the comment field below.

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