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).

Announcing a Non-fiction Book on Polish Aviation Pioneers, Brothers Joe and Ben Adamowicz

Across the Atlantic: The Adamowicz Brothers, Polish Aviation Pioneers

by Zofia Reklewska-Braun and Kazimierz Braun

Moonrise Press, September 2015 

ISBN 978-0-9963981-2-1, paperback, 240 pages, 

with 56 illustrations, a selected bibliography, and an index, $20.00

ISBN 978-0-9963981-3-8, e-Book (ePub format),  download, 4.97MB, $10.00

During the summer of 1934, two Polish amateur-pilots, Joe (Józef) and Ben (Bolesław) Adamowicz, who immigrated to the US more than twenty years earlier, flew over the Atlantic on a single-engine plane Bellanca. Their trip took them from New York to Warsaw; they were the first Poles to do so. They became instant celebrities, favorites of the journalists, photographers, and the public on both sides of the Atlantic. Alas, their triumph was short-lived, followed by a fall from grace, to imprisonment and bankruptcy. This richly illustrated book brings to life their forgotten story. Written by a historian, journalist and educator Zofia Reklewska-Braun and director, writer, scholar, and author of over 50 books, Dr. Kazimierz Braun, this book was originally published in Poland in 2011.

FROM THE INTRODUCTION

In this volume, we present our readers with the very first, comprehensive history of the lives and deeds of the Adamowicz brothers, Polish-American aviation pioneers. Across the Atlantic is the only comprehensive history of the lives and deeds of Joe and Ben Adamowicz – aviation heroes forgotten by time and the first amateurs, to have crossed the Atlantic by air.  We examine their victories and defeats, years of hard work, crowning achievements,  short-lived  celebrity,  and  their  illicit  business ventures leading to imprisonment and bankruptcy.  At the time, in Europe Hitler rose to power and was mobilizing to invade Poland. In America, Prohibition had only recently been revoked.

During the summer of 1934, two Polish amateur-pilots, Joseph (Józef) and Benjamin (Bolesław) Adamowicz, who immigrated to the United States of America more than twenty years earlier, accomplished an extraordinary feat. While using exclusively their own resources, skills, brains, cleverness, and diligence, and while taking an enormous risk, they flew over the North Atlantic on a single-engine Bellanca aircraft. Their  trip took them from New York to Warsaw.

Their arrival incited euphoria in Poland. Enthusiastic crowds shouting  their  names  met  them  as  they  landed  at  Warsaw’s airport, and then dozens of times during their triumphant tour of their  native  land.  The  highest  dignitaries  of  the  Republic  of Poland received them with honors: President Ignacy Mościcki, Prime Minister Leon Kozłowski, members of the government, mayors of the cities, and generals. During theatrical spectacles actors presented tributes that they designed and rehearsed especially for them. The pilots were amply honored and decorated; both received the “Cavalier Cross of the Order of the Resurrected Poland.” The two pilots were transformed into icons of both   resilient Polish patriots  and  successful  emigrants.  They  became  instant celebrities, favorites of the journalists, photographers, and the public on both sides of the Atlantic. [...]

After the initial enthusiasm, the Adamowiczes adopted country, the United Stated of America, treated them harshly. As non-professionals in the aviation world, distant from the elite pilots of their times, the flights by these Polish-Americans were not included in the registers of major achievements of American pilots. Similarly, the general history of aviation neglected to include them in its annals. When it did so, the Adamowicz brothers received only marginal recognition and were mentioned in a context diminishing their achievement. Lies distorted their real story and fun was made of them.

In fact, they were treated as a curiosity. Americans ironically looked upon the figures of two brothers, uneducated Poles, speaking in broken English, with a heavy foreign accent. These pilots were inexperienced in giving interviews, lacked manners, and did not know how to boast and brag about their feats. To make things worse, the disgrace which they carelessly brought upon themselves resulted in almost complete absence of coverage of their lives after their transatlantic journey. Many publications as well as internet files end their story just after their successful landing in Warsaw and the ten-week-long visit to Poland. Frequently, these incomplete accounts conclude with a variant of a remark:“Their further fate remains unknown.”

In  this  book,  we  break  the  curtain  and  narrate  both  the known and the unknown parts of the Adamowicz brothers’ story. These events deserve to be recalled. The brothers deserve that their true story be told accurately, with attention paid to the historical   detail   ─   not   filled   with   journalistic   gibberish, unconfirmed gossip, or deliberately fabricated lies.

The Adamowicz brothers accomplished something really significant. They conquered the North Atlantic only seven years after Charles Lindbergh. They were the first Poles to fly over the ocean. They were the very first aviators to fly from New York to Warsaw. It is imperative to give them justice and worthwhile to understand their motives. Why would two simple boys from a small village somewhere in eastern Poland who became laborers in Brooklyn find in their hearts such dedication and summon up enough courage and perseverance to do what they did?

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Zofia Reklewska-Braun is literature and theatre historian, journalist, and educator. She studied Polish Literature at the Warsaw  University,  earning  Master  of  Letters  degree.  She worked as editor at the State Scholarly Publishing House in Warsaw  and  as  literary  manager  at  the  Osterwa  Theatre  in Lublin. She was teaching polish language and literature in Polish and   American   high   schools,   Buffalo   State   College,   and University at Buffalo. She wrote a book,  How It Really Was (about the martial law in Poland) and co-authored, with her husband   Kazimierz   Braun,   a   monograph,   Director   Teofil Trzciński    and  a  historical  book  Good  Priests.  With  theatre scholar and critic, Konstanty Puzyna she wrote a study Jacques Copeau’s “Bare Stage.” She published several articles in literary, religious, sociological, and theatre journals in Poland, and she collaborated  with  Nowe  Życie  in  Wrocław,  White  Eagle  in Boston, Am-Pol Eagle in Buffalo, and New Daily in New York, as well as with Polish radio stations in Chicago, New Jersey, and New York. She was active as an Instructor of Girl Scouts in Poland and as an adviser in various organizations and Roman Catholic parishes in Poland and the USA. Her memoires I Was Born in Between, (Norbertinum, Lublin, 2009) was a bestselling book in Poland. For her merits and achievements in teaching and promoting Polish history, literature, and language she was decorated with  the Cavalier Cross of  the Order of Merit of the Polish Republic by President Lech Kaczyński.

Kazimierz Braun is director, writer,  and  scholar.  He received his Ph. D. in Letters and Ph. D. in Theatre at the Poznań University, Poland, as well as M.F.A. and Ph.D. in Directing  at  the  National School of Drama in Warsaw. He holds the Professor’s title in both Poland and the USA. He was artistic director and general manager of pro- fessional theaters in Poland, including The Contemporary Theater in Wrocław. He directed more than 150 productions, both professionally and academically, in Poland, the United States, Canada, Germany, Ireland, and other countries. He taught both at Polish and at American  universities,  including  Wrocław  University,  Poznań University, New York University, City University of New York, Notre Dame University, University of California Santa Cruz, and University  at  Buffalo.  He  published  more  than  50  books  in Polish, English, and Czech languages, including scholarly works, novels, and plays, which were produced in Poland, Canada, the United States, Ireland, and Russia. He also published extensively in Polish and American literary and theatre journals, as well as in encyclopedias. He received several prizes for theater, literature, and scholarship, including the awards of the Guggenheim, the Fulbright, the Turzańskis, and the Japanese Foundations. He is member of the International PEN Club, International Theater Institute, Polish Writers Association, and Polish Actors Union.

Zofia Reklewska and Kazimierz Braun married in 1962. They have three children: Monika, Grzegorz and Justyna, as well as five granddaughters: Anna, Joanna, Aniela, Zofia and Elżbieta.

ABOUT THIS BOOK

The Adamowicz brothers flew over the Atlantic on a single-engine plane Bellanca. Their trip took them from New York to Warsaw; they were the first Poles to do so. They became instant celebrities, favorites of the journalists, photographers, and the public on both sides of the Atlantic. Alas, their triumph was short-lived, followed by a fall from grace, to imprisonment and bankruptcy. This richly illustrated book brings to life their forgotten story. ~ Maja Trochimczyk, Ph.D., Moonrise Press

Intriguing and diligently researched, Across the Atlantic is a must-read for enthusiasts of aviation history, as well as those interested in Polish American history. The story of the Adamowicz brothers and their deft flight is a story of triumph and disappointment, victory and defeat, fame and oblivion. The authors are giving those aviation pioneers their second chance in history. ~ Anna D. Jaroszynska-Kirchmann, Professor of History

Zofia Reklewska-Braun and Kazimierz Braun’s book narrates the many entanglements and paradoxes of brothers Adamowicz life and achievements, as well the history of their times. Only seven years after Lindbergh, they were the first Poles, to cross the North Atlantic on a tiny Bellanca aircraft. The book is written with passion, care for the details, and perfectly documented; it is based on years’ lasting research in archives and on comparative analysis of various sources. All in all it is a fascinating story of the career, ascent, and catastrophe. ~ G. Eberhardt, author of "The World is Normal Anyway," 2014.