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)

4^e Sonate, en sol mineur                                                                                           

Allegro con molto espressione (1^er 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)

1^ère sonate : Allegro (1^er 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

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:

• Artur Rubinstein (a classic)
• Martha Argerich (a classic)
• Valentina Igoshina (with the pianist as a romantic star)
• Yundi Li (fast, elegant, and delicate)
• Evgeny Kissin (with a romantic painting as a backdrop)
• Grigory Sokolov (extra slow and expressive)

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).