Sunday, November 22, 2015

Moonrise Press Co-sponsors the Third International Maria Szymanowska Symposium in Paris, November 25-27, 2015



The 3rd International Symposium about the composer Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831) and her times will take place on 25-27 November 2015 at the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Paris Center (74, rue Lauriston, Paris 16e). The previous conferences took place in 2011 and 2014. This edition of the Szymanowska Symposium will be dedicated to "Talents of Women: The Borders between Myth and Reality."  We will focus on the question: "What do we know about the cultural heritage of women (“matrimoine” in French) of this epoch?"

Researchers and musicians from 10 European countries and the U.S. will be discussing the recent scholarly findings and the current state of knowledge about Szymanowska and other women of influence from her time period. A rich musical program of works composed by women will be presented. Singers will be accompanied on the period instrument, Johann Alois Graff pianoforte (1825). This concert, held on Wednesday, 25 November 2015, entitled “Fondness for music” will open the Szymanowska Symposium, filled with scholarly presentations and musical interludes. 

A historic Graf pianoforte, private collection, Paris

The Director of the Paris Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Dr. Marek WIĘCKOWSKI will open the proceedings moderated by the President of the Maria Szymanowska Society, singer Elisabeth ZAPOLSKA-CHAPELLE. The participants include scholars from Poland, France, and the U.S.: Helen GEYER, Valérie COSSY, Maja TROCHIMCZYK, Françoise PITT-RIVERS, Jérôme DORIVAL, Jean-Marc WARSZAWSKI, Irena PONIATOWSKA,  Maria STOLARZEWICZ, Irène MINDER-JEANNERET. The music will be presented by Ms. ZAPOLSKA-CHAPELLE with pianist Bart VAN OORT, as well as an international group of pianists: Marcia HADJIMARKOS, Edoardo TORBIANELLI, Claudia Dafne SEVILLA CARRION, Francoise TILLARD,  Petra SOMLAI, Ekaterina GLAZOVSKAYA, and Iwo ZALUSKI. 

The 3rd International Maria Szymanowska Symposium  has been organized jointly by the Maria Szymanowska Society and the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Paris Center. The program is reproduced below (in French). For more information & reservations contact the Maria Szymanowska Society: societe.mariasz@laposte.net. 

3e Colloque international 

Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831) et son temps

Talents au féminin: Mythes et réalité

Sous le Haut Patronage de l’ Ambassadeur de Pologne en France Son Excellence Monsieur Andrzej Byrt
                                               
Paris, 25-27 Novembre 2015, Centre Scientifique de l’Académie Polonaise des Sciences, 74, rue Lauriston, Paris 16e
                                                                          
organisé par la Société Maria Szymanowska et le Centre Scientifique de l’Académie Polonaise des Sciences à Paris





MERCREDI 25 Novembre - Wednesday, 25 November 2015
Opening Presentation
18h00    Allocution d’ouverture

Monsieur Marek WIĘCKOWSKI, Directeur du Centre Scientifique à Paris de l’Académie Polonaise des Sciences
Concert autour du piano Johann Alois GRAFF in Wien 1825 (collection Petra Somlai & Bart van Oort, Pays Bas)

Concert - Gourmandise de musique
Elisabeth ZAPOLSKA, mezzo-soprano & Bart VAN OORT, piano
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (1797-1848) / Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Lied des Harfners                                                                         
Maria Theresia von Paradis (1759-1824) / Johann Timoteus Hermes
Morgenlied eines armen Mannes                                              
Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831) / Louis-François Jauffret        
Complainte d’un aveugle qui demandait l’aumône au Jardin du Roi à Paris
Hortense de Beauharnais (1783 – 1837) / François Guillaume Ducray-Duminil
Romance                                                                                                       
Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836) / Metastasio
Nocturne N°6 à voix seule avec accompagnement de Piano Forte    
Isabelle de Charrière (1740-1805) / Le Comte de St-Méran
Air avec accompagnement de Clavecin                                                                 
Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831) / Madame de Saint-Onge
Ballade                                                                                                         
Louise Reichardt (1779-1826) / Philipp Otto Runge
Die Blume der Blumen                                                                                              
Louise Reichardt (1779-1826) / Ludwig Tieck
Genoveva                                                                                                      
Sophie Gail (1775-1819) / Anonyme
N’est-ce pas [d’] elle                                                                          
Bolleros                                                                                                                                      
Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831) / Cervantes, trad.Florian
Le Départ                                                                                                     
Fanny Hensel née Mendelssohn (1809-1847) / Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Harfners Lied                                                                                               
Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh                                                          
BART VAN OORT, piano             
Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831)
Romance du Prince Galitzine                                                                                   
Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836)
4e Sonate, en sol mineur                                                                                           
Allegro con molto espressione (1er mouvement)                                   
MARCIA HADJIMARKOS, piano
Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831)
Menuet N°4  en sol mineur : Vivace                                                                        
Polonaise en fa mineur                                                                              
EDOARDO TORBIANELLI, piano                            
Caroline Boissier-Butini (1786-1836)
1ère sonate Allegro (1er mouvement)                                                                    
Variations sur deux airs languedociens : 
Introduction-Lento-Andante-Andante-Presto
CLAUDIA DAFNE SEVILLA CARRION,  piano
Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836)
Etude N°113                                                                                                
Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831)
Nocturne en si bémol majeur       
FRANÇOISE TILLARD, piano
Fanny Hensel née Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Lied pour piano en mi bémol  majeur : Andante espressivo - Più Allegro - Tempo primo
Lied op. 4 n°2 en do dièse mineur                                                            
Lied op. 6 n°4 en la mineur Il Saltarello romano                                                 
PETRA SOMLAI, piano
Clara Schumann (1819-1896) - Soirées Musicales op. 6
N° 2 : Nocturne en fa majeur                                                                                    
N° 3 : Mazurka en sol mineur                                                                                  
N° 5 : Mazurka en sol majeur                                                                                  
PETRA SOMLAI & BART VAN OORT, piano
Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831)
Nocturne Le Murmure, version à 3 mains                
20h00    Cocktail d’inauguration
Participants of the 2014 Szymanowska Symposium, Prof.  Halina Goldberg at the Piano.


JEUDI 26 Novembre - Thursday, 26 November 2015   
Scholarly  Papers with Musical Interludes    
10h15    Accueil des intervenants par la modératrice du Colloque
               Elisabeth ZAPOLSKA-CHAPELLE
10h30    Helen GEYER     
               The four women conservatories of  Venice : models of  life, rivalry and outstanding examples of quality                
11h15    Valérie COSSY
               Du "talent" pour demoiselle à l'expression de soi : la musique selon Isabelle de Charrière et Jane Austen
                              p a u s e  d é j e u n e r
14h00    Première madeleine musicale - par Marcia HADJIMARKOS, piano
14h30    Maja TROCHIMCZYK
               Szymanowska in the Circle of Duchess Maria Czartoryska de Wittemberg
15h15    Françoise PITT-RIVERS
               Madame Vigée Le Brun, Angelica Kauffmann, deux peintres  musiciennes
               pause café
16h15    Jérôme DORIVAL                            
               Influence d’Hélène de Montgeroult sur la génération romantique
               avec l’aimable participation de Marcia HADJIMARKOS, piano


VENDREDI 27 Novembre -  Friday, 27 November 2015.  


Scholarly  Papers with Musical Interludes  

10h15    Jean-Marc WARSZAWSKI
               Musiciennes au temps de Maria Szymanowska : un contrepoint  d’inégalités et de préjugés
11h00    Deuxième madeleine musicale – par Claudia Dafne SEVILLA CARRION,piano           
11h10    Irena PONIATOWSKA                   
               Etudes  et  Préludes  de Maria Szymanowska : leur apport dans l'art pianistique européen des premières décennies du XIXe siècle
11h50    Troisième madeleine musicale – par Ekaterina GLAZOVSKAYA, piano                         
               p a u s e  d é j e u n e r
14h00    Quatrième madeleine musicale – par Iwo ZALUSKI, piano
14h15    Maria STOLARZEWICZ
               History of a musical friendship : Michał Kleofas Oginski & Maria Szymanowska
15h00    Irène MINDER-JEANNERET
               Entre cosmopolitisme et patriotisme : les « airs nationaux »  dans les compositions de Caroline Boissier-Butini (1786-1836)
15h30    Cinquième madeleine musicale – par Edoardo TORBIANELLI, piano                            
               pause
17h00    Salon musical de clôture  -Invite à la danse

18h00    Cocktail de clôture

For a full program visit: Chopin with Cherries blog.


Entrance to the PAN - Paris Center

Thursday, October 29, 2015

The Music and Poetry of Chopin's Raindrops

Rain Clouds in California.

The most famous piece of "rain" music in the classical canon is Fryderyk Chopin's Prelude in D-flat Major, Op. 28, No. 15.  Several contemporary poets wrote about this work for the anthology published in 2010, Chopin with Cherries: A Tribute in Verse.

To accompany the readers on their Chopin-inspired journey, here are some links to various pianists' interpretations of the Prelude:


Prelude in Majorca

Christine Klocek-Lim


The wet day carried rain into night
as he composed alone.
With each note he wept
and music fell on the monastery,
each note a cry for breath
his lungs could barely hold.
Even as his world
dissolved around him
“into a terrible dejection,”
he played that old piano in Valldemosa
until tuberculosis didn’t matter;
until the interminable night
became more than a rainstorm,
more than one man sitting alone
at a piano, waiting
“in a kind of quiet desperation”
for his lover to come home
from Palma.

When Aurore finally returned
“in absolute dark”
she said his “wonderful Prelude,”
resounded on the tiles of the Charterhouse
like “tears falling upon his heart.”
Perhaps she is right.
Or perhaps Chopin “denied
having heard” the raindrops.
Perhaps in the alone
of that torrential night
he created his music simply
to hold himself inside life
for just one note longer.

Notes:

Prelude No.15 in D-flat Major, Op. 28. 

Quotes from Histoire de Ma Vie (History of My Life, vol. 4) by George Sand (Aurore, Baronne Dudevant).

(c) 2010 by Christine Klocek-Lim, published in Chopin with Cherries (Moonrise Press, 2010).




Chopin’s “Raindrop”

Cheryl M. Thatt

A steady rain
drop
drips down
insistent as the minutes
he looks out the window
cannot escape it.

He translates rain
drop
damp spirit
travels inward
passionate
notes whittle away the dreary
steady rain
drop
a clock
in the distance punctuates the gray day
wrestling with his own dark language
his soft fingers caress the keys to sanity
slowly he shapes adversary into ally…
pounds out melancholy
drop
by precious damn drop…

A steady rain
drop
dripped down
like the click of a shutter
slippery hours
captured forever.                                                                  


(c) 2010 by Cheryl M. Thatt, published in Chopin with Cherries (Moonrise Press, 2010).




Prelude in D-Flat Major, Opus 28, No. 15

by Carrie A. Purcell


You have to
my teacher said
think of that note like rain,
steady, but who,
my teacher said
wants to hear only that?

On Majorca in a monastery
incessant coughing
covered by incessant composition
and everywhere dripping

sotto voce
move the rain lower
let it fill the space left in your lungs
let it triumph

We die so often
we don’t call it dying anymore

(c) 2010 by Carrie A. Purcell, published in Chopin with Cherries (Moonrise Press, 2010).