YEAR OF CHOPIN CONTINUES...

The Polish parliament declared 2010 the Year of Frederic Chopin and a series of cultural events dedicated to the life and career of the Polish composer are being held around the world. Azerbaijan has also joined in celebrations to mark the Year of Chopin. The Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Polish embassy, the Azerbaijani State Philharmonic Hall and the Baku Music Academy are the direct "promoters" of the Year of Chopin in our country. Concerts and master classes held in Baku by the famous Polish pianist Stanislaw Deja, a successful piano competition for music school students and frequent events associated with this significant date - these events aroused great interest and were a tribute to the great Polish genius.

The programme of commemorative events, published in the most important and popular world media, may be considered to some extent a guide to the major concert halls and centres of world culture. Concerts, symposia, conferences, exhibitions, competitions, films about Chopin and his career, the re-issue of a collection of the composer's works and books dedicated to him, as well as the release of new studies, do not cover all the events planned for the current year.

"The Polish Mozart"

The great Polish composer Frederic Chopin was born (according to official documents) on 22 February 1810 in Zelazowa Wola. The composer, however, believed that he was born on 1 March, and this was confirmed by his mother. He grew up in Warsaw at a hostel for children of noble birth, which was opened by his mother. His father Mikolaj Chopin - a Frenchman by birth and the educated son of a peasant winemaker - came from Lorraine and remained in Poland to avoid service in Napoleon's army. His mother Justyna Krzyzanowska served as a housekeeper to Countess Skarbek at her Zelazowa Wola estate. Chopin spent his youth learning the mysteries of composition with Jozef Elsner, rector of a conservatoire. He made rapid progress in playing the piano, attended Warsaw parties, concerts at fashionable salons and spent his summer holidays on his friends' estates. Chopin's musical talent manifested itself very early: at the age of eight he was called the "Polish Mozart". On 24 February 1818, little Frederic gave his first public concert and became the talk of Warsaw. He was a keen observer of life around him: he observed the changing styles and fashions, especially in the art world, and the Warsaw disputes between proponents of classicism and romanticism. At the same time, he was developing as a pianist. His performances attracted the attention of the public and press, first in Warsaw and then in Vienna. In Vienna, Chopin heard the news of the Warsaw uprising which began in late November 1830 and this caused the composer to undergo a serious spiritual crisis. After all, many of his friends participated in this uprising. The tragic experiences of that time were reflected in the etudes he created. Three etudes were called "Revolutionary", by virtue of their exceptionally dramatic character. Reflections on the fate of Poland and his patriotic spirit appeared later in his Heroic Polonaise, while echoes of nostalgia for Poland can be heard in some mazurkas written in Mallorca and Nohant.

In the autumn of 1831, Chopin arrived in Paris. His first Parisian concert immediately brought him immense popularity. He soon conquered Parisian salons with his brilliant sense of humour and improvisational genius, and joined the select circle of artists. Here he met Liszt, Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, Halevy, Heine and Mickiewicz, who unsuccessfully tried to persuade him to write a patriotic opera. Significant in Chopin's life in that Paris period was a well-known writer, Aurore Dudevant, who wrote under the penname of George Sand. Chopin visited her summer residence in Nohant and was accompanied by Madame Sand on a trip to Mallorca when he was already seriously ill. In those years, Chopin's best works were written - Ballades, Scherzo, Fantasy in F minor, Sonata in B-flat minor and B minor, Barcarole, a number of waltzes and mazurkas, the Polonaises in F-sharp minor and A-flat major and the Polonaise-Fantasy. His career came to an end in Nohant. After parting with George Sand, the composer went to England and Scotland for several months. In October 1849, Frederic Chopin died of tuberculosis. He was buried in Paris' Pere Lachaise Cemetery to the accompaniment of Mozart's Requiem and his own Sonata in B-flat minor (the funeral march). This was subsequently played at all funeral ceremonies. Before his death, Chopin had asked for his heart to be sent home - to Poland. The heart of the great Frederic is still preserved at the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw. On a column there is a plaque with the inscription: "To Frederic Chopin - compatriot." Several years ago, the Polish authorities refused to allow scientists to do DNA tests on the heart: they wanted to test Chopin's heart cells to establish whether he really died from cystic fibrosis, not tuberculosis, as was stated after his death.

Chopin was one of the greatest creative personalities in the history, not only of music, but of world culture. He consciously devoted himself to the piano and wrote no operas or symphonies. He was the first to turn piano music into an independent and powerful artistic realm.

Chopin everywhere

Celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of Polish composer Frederic Chopin opened in Azerbaijan with a joint concert by the famous Polish pianist Stanislaw Deja and Azerbaijani musicians. The concert was held with the support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation at the Azerbaijani State Philharmonic Hall. Stanislaw Deja also performed in Qabala and Lankaran and conducted master classes at local music schools. As well as playing Chopin's works, he told the young music lovers about the great man's art.

Then the festivities moved back to the capital. This summer the Uzeyir Hacibayli concert hall of the Union of Composers of Azerbaijan hosted a music and poetry soiree dedicated to the great composer. The initiator and director of the soiree was People's Artist of Azerbaijan and head of the Composers' Union, Professor Firangiz Alizada. In her opening remarks, Mrs Alizada pointed out: "Throughout the world, there is no one who does not know and does not love Chopin's art. And this is to be expected, since Chopin's music reflects the best of human feeling and thought."

She offered the guests in the hall a short history of the milestones in the great musician's life and works, and then music was played. Honoured Artist of Azerbaijan, Murad Huseynov, played the Polish composer's most striking works on the piano and, in an original touch, the music was accompanied by poetic texts. Among them were Boris Pasternak's great poems "Being Famous is Indecent" and "In Everything I Want to Get to the Bottom of Things", R. M. Rilke's dedication to the composer - "That's a gift!" and a poetic epitaph "On the Death of Chopin" by C. Norwid. Guests also heard excerpts from Frederic Chopin's letters to his family, his father and his sister Ludwika, in which the composer shared his innermost thoughts and confided the truth about his state of mind and creative thoughts to his loved ones.

In early August, Niyazi's house-museum hosted a musical soiree dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the great Polish composer and pianist, organized by the Azerbaijani State Museum of Musical Culture. At the same time, the museum hosted an unusual exhibition called "The Life and Career of Chopin in Illustrations". The displays included rare artefacts from museum collections - posters, concert programmes, photographs of famous performers of Chopin's works and plates. In addition to the exhibition and a concert which included the immortal composer's works, a slide show of illustrations was also presented - a sort of virtual tour of Chopin's life. For a few minutes the audience viewed his childhood, adolescence and youth. Visitors learnt about the only photograph taken during the composer's lifetime - in the year of his death. Devotees of Frederic Chopin's music learned much about him from the exhibition. It seems that he sat down at the piano for the first time when he was three years old and that he was interested in cartoons and loved to draw caricatures of himself. The Year of Chopin continues. On the agenda are new projects, concerts and master classes by renowned artists, exhibitions and musical soirees.