Concerts mark birth of Chopin 209 years ago
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
01.03.2019 10:21
In line with a long-standing tradition, the anniversary of the birth of the great Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin, 209 years ago on March 1, is being marked with two concerts in or close to Warsaw.
Photo: geralt/pixabay.com/CC0 Creative Commons
At noon, young Polish pianist Krzysztof Książek gives a recital at a historic mansion in Żelazowa Wola, west of Warsaw, the composer’s birthplace.
An evening gala Chopin anniversary concert is to be held at the National Philharmonic Hall, with Chopin’s F minor Concerto to be performed on a copy of a 1830 Pleyel piano by Tomasz Ritter, the winner of last year’s Chopin International Competition on Historical Instruments.
Other works on the programme are the Symphony in C major by Karol Lipiński (1790-1861) and the Fantastic Overture ‘The Fable’ by Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872), whose birth bicentenary will be marked on May 5.
A wide range of concerts and recitals to mark Chopin’s birth started on February 22, his date of birth as per his baptismal certificate.
However, according to Chopin’s mother, the composer was in fact born on March 1.
The discrepancy is attributed to his father, Mikołaj Chopin, who mistakenly told a priest at the parish church in Brochów, close to Żelazowa Wola, that his son was born a week earlier. (mk/pk)