A Calendar of Events letting you know what, where and when is happening throughout the Chopin Year:
- Events: concerts, exhibitions, shows and many others
- Reports
- Interviews
- Kordegarda CHOPIN 2010
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How hard it is to fully grasp the cosmos of this music! The entire Poland is here: her national drama, her everyday life, her feelings, the cult of beauty in a human being and the humanity, the noble and proud character of the country, her ponderings and songs.
Chopin is a bond joining together all the Polish people dispersed around the world, whose lives have unfolded similarly to Chopin’s.
Chopin is a symbol. A symbol of success and suffering, a symbol of joy and sorrow, and finally a symbol of longing for the lost homeland, never to be seen again, and of unbeatable hope for its resurrection.
Chopin is a common language for many millions of people of different nationalities, who need this music like they need bread and salt.
In truth, he invented everything on his own: himself, his sources and – partly – the piano, an instrument which resounded for the first time with such an abundance of nuances and tones, and which manifested itself through him.
The love of his wonderful music is timeless. As long and the art of music exists, Chopin’s music will have one of the most prominent places in it.
What was a refined decoration in others, in him seemed like flowers vibrant with colours; what was technical competence in others, in him seemed like a sparrow flying.
Chopin is so dear to us precisely because, with his music, he enters the artistic atmosphere which surrounds us as our contemporary; as a close, well-understood and beloved friend.
His character was indeed not easily understood. A thousand subtle shades, mingling, crossing, contradicting and disguising each other, rendered it almost undecipherable at a first view.
Chopin is less a musician than a soul manifesting and communicating itself through all manner of music, even through simple chords.
The imagined world in Chopin’s works possesses charms and richnesses both unfathomed and extraordinarily special. Yet, despite all of its fantastic quality, this is a deeply human world, just as it is deeply human to fervently seek the ideal.
Chopin perceived his life as a tool to explore all life in the world and would thus lead this lavishly personal and indeliberately lonely existence of his.
If I wanted to show somebody what Poland is, I would play them Chopin mazurkas.
Since my childhood, Chopin has been the symbol of Poland for me – and exactly through the prism of Chopin, and not for example “Solidarity”, I perceive her today, too. […] Chopin is as if “above Poland” at the same time being her heart – not her part, but precisely, the heart of Poland.
… it is absolutely inconceivable how two genius abilities became united in Chopin’s person: that of the greatest melodist and of the most original master of harmony.
Chopin was a genius of the piano, that is why his every musical note is dear to us.
If Mozart was alive, he would be writing Chopin’s concertos.
It was an unforgettable picture to see Chopin sitting at the piano like a clairvoyant, lost in his dreams.
No one who loves music can be indifferent towards Chopin. […] His music contains unfeigned feelings, a dream of the future, and crystal-clear, fervid, exciting ideas.
The soul of Chopin's music - the melody - is never artificial, contrived or schematic; it is born of life and genuine emotions - this is what gives it its power.
What makes Chopin great is the fact that no matter how simple he is he never becomes common, while his most complicated works never become overly sophisticated.
You can love Poles for this one thing itself, that they had Chopin!
Those two – Chopin and Lutosławski – are enough to make a forty-million nation feel proud of its music.
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Recommended
"Polish Artists Have Played for Chopin" – a project related to celebrations of the 200th anniversary of Fryderyk Chopin’s birth. It brought about an album featuring compositions of four different electronic music genres – IDM, ambient, breakcore and experimental – all drawing on the great Polish composer’s work. Young artists participating in the project have created an unprecedented combination of state-of-the-art digital technologies used for music making and classical works by Chopin.