Chopin with Cherries Poems at Chopin Festival in New York, November 17, 2022 (Vol. 13, No. 5)

"Chopin with Cherries" poems found their way into the program of the 24th International Festival Chopin and Friends held in New York in November 2022. The festival featured 6 concerts and ended with “Grand Finale: Polish Frescoes” at the Polish Consulate in New York on November 17, 2022.   Hosted, by actress Weronika Wozniak, host, the program featured an AV Installation "Where is Chopin" by Jaroslaw Kapuscinski (Professor at Stanford University). 

The program of November 17 Gala Concert included Franz Liszt - Liebestraum A-flat No.3 played by Matthew Pulick - piano; Fryderyk Chopin - Ballade in G Minor Op.23, Antoni Kontski - "L'lsolement". Meditation op. 47 and Marcel Chyrzynski - Reflection no.8 for Piano (American premiere) played by Slawomir Dobrzanski - piano with poetry readings by Weronika Wozniak of poems by Maja Trochimczyk inspired by the music of Chopin. After the intermission Fei-Fei played Claude Debussy's Suite Pour le Piano " Bergamasque": Prélude, Menuet, Clair de lune, Passapied and Fryderyk Chopin's Andante Spianato et Grande Polonaise in E-flat Major Op.22.

Photo by Elżbieta Popławska from her review in Nowy Dziennik.

As journalist Elzbieta Popławska wrote in a review in Nowy Dziennik, “Weronika Woźniak, a Polish actress with great charm and talent, hosted the last evening of the festival. Weronika was born and raised in Poland. She graduated from acting school in New York. He is trying to conquer the New York scenes and break into the acting elite. She has already performed in many New York theaters, as well as in the Teatr im. Juliusz Słowacki in Krakow.” The first pianist was a talented sixteen-year-old student who currently studies music and often appears in concerts in New York.  In addition to  the Ballade op. 23 by Fryderyk Chopin, and a piece by Antoni Kątski, Dobrzanski gave the American premiere of a work by Marceli Chyrzyński, a graduate of the Academy of Music in Krakow, who teaches composition there as full professor since 2020. He holds the full range of Polish academic titles: Prof. dr. hab. In her review, Popławska thus described Prof. Sławomir Dobrzański: “an outstanding Polish pianist who distinguished himself with his playing technique and expressive performance.” 

 https://dziennik.com/wielokulturowy-pociag-zakonczyl-trase

The reviewer reserved the most enthusiastic praise for the pianist of the second half of the program, Fei-Fei of China, who had won Concert Artists Guild competition and was a finalist of the 14th International Van Cliburn Piano Competition. The non-musical aspects of the evening were provided by an  audiovisual installation "Where is Chopin" was prepared by Jarosław Kapuściński, a pianist and composer who studied in Poland at the Chopin Academy of Music and in Paris. He received his doctorate at the University of California and is  a professor at Stanford University.

Chopin Monument in Lazienki, Warsaw, photo by Maja Trochimczyk

As Kapuściński wrote in the program note for his work, "Where is Chopin (audiovisual projection, 2010, 31 min) explores the relationships between facial expressions of people listening to Chopin's Pre- ludes Op. 28 and the artist's re-composition of the music. To carry out the project Kapuściński traveled to 12 cities around the world where Chopin has never set foot but where his music has a meaningful cultural presence. He conducted interviews and performed the preludes in one-on-one sessions with over a hundred music lovers in Beijing, Buenos Aires, Helsinki, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Mexico City, San Francisco, Santiago, Seoul, Sydney, Tokyo, and Welling- ton. In each city he collaborated with a local photographer who documented the perceptions and emotions appearing on people's faces as they listened to or spoke about the music. The artist wanted to observe the psychological, perceptual and cognitive processes of music in its greatest human richness. The project shows how emotions emerge from music, how musical structures are interpreted, and what they mean to people around the world." 

http://www.jaroslawkapuscinski.com/Where_Is_Chopin/index.php

My three poems from the Chopin with Cherries anthology provided interludes for the music. They were recited by actress Weronika Wozniak, a graduate of Acting Conservatory at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. While still in school, Weronika’s first short film Lost In The Wind dir. by Dan L. Nguyen Phan was screened at Cannes Film Festival. Upon graduation, since 2016 she has performed on numerous Off- and Off-Off-Broadway stages as well as in Hollywood Fringe Festival, Juliusz Slowacki Theater in Krakow, and Polish Theater Institute. Currently, Weronika is hosting a radio program “Trochę Kultury” at Nasze Radio USA – a young Polish international radio that boomed during the pandemic. Aside from acting, Weronika is a deshi at Ken Wa Kan Karate where she’s training for her black belt in Kyokushin/Oyama style. www.veronikavozniak.com

Veronika Wozniak recites Chopin with Cherries poems

The Chopin with Cherries poems have been posted on this blog, but let’s read them again, while listening to Chopin’s music. They are all based on memories of my Polish childhood, saturated with Chopin's music.

A Study with Cherries

After Etude in C Major, Op. 10, No. 1 and the cherry orchard

of my grandparents, Stanisław and Marianna Wajszczuk

I want a cherry,

a rich, sweet cherry

to sprinkle its dark notes

on my skin, like rainy preludes

drizzling through the air.

Followed by the echoes

of the piano, I climb

a cherry tree to find rest

between fragile branches

and relish the red perfection –

morning cherry music.

Satiated, sleepy,

I hide in the dusty attic.

I crack open the shell

of a walnut to peel

the bitter skin off,

revealing white flesh –

a study in C Major.

Tasted in reverie,

the harmonies seep

through light-filled cracks

between weathered beams

in Grandma’s daily ritual

of Chopin at noon.

Here's the famous Etude in White, Chopin's Etude in C Major, Op. 10, No. 1 played by Maurizio Pollini:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMM6h9Yf348

Postcard with Chopin's portrait and his birthplace in Zelazowa Wola.

Harvesting Chopin

 ~ for my Grandma Nina Trochimczyk and father Aleksy Trochimczyk, who took me harvesting

The straw was too prickly,

the sunlight too bright,

my small hands too sweaty

to hold the wooden rake

my uncle carved for me.

I cried on the field of stubble;

stems fell under his scythe.

I was four and had to work –

Grandma said – no work no food.

How cruel! I longed for

the noon’s short shadows

when I’d quench my thirst

with cold water, taste

the freshly-baked rye bread

sweetened by the strands

of music wafting from

the kitchen window.

Distant scent of mazurkas

floated above the harvesters

dressed in white, long-sleeved shirts

to honor the bread in the making

The dance of homecoming

and sorrow – that’s what

Chopin was in the golden air

above the fields of Bielewicze

where children had to earn their right

to rest in the daily dose of the piano –

too pretty, too prickly, too bright

My most popular and most often read poem from the Chopin with Cherries anthology is a recipe for mazurka of emigrants, a recipe - since the word "mazurka" refers both to a cake and the dance.  More information about the anthology is here: https://moonrisepress.com/chopin-with-cherries.html

Easter table in Trochimczyk's home in Poland in 1983, Warsaw, Poland.

How to Make a Mazurka

                        After Mazurka in A Minor, Op. 17, No. 4,

                        for my Grandparents, Stanisław and Marianna Wajszczuk,

                        who could play and bake their mazurkas like no one else

          Take one cup of longing

for the distant home that never was,

one cup of happiness that danced

with your shadows on the walls

of Grandpa’s house, while he played

a rainbow of folk tunes

on his fiddle, still adorned

with last wedding’s ribbons

            mix it – round and round to dizziness

stir in some golden buzz of the bees

in old linden tree, add the ascent

of skylark above spring rye fields,

singing praises to the vastness of blue

            mix it – round and round to dizziness

add chopped walnuts, figs, dates

and raisins, pour in some juice

from bittersweet grapefruit

freshly picked in your garden

            mix it – round and round to dizziness

  

add dark grey of rainclouds in Paris

that took Chopin back to the glimmer

of candles in an old cemetery

on the evening of All Souls’ Day

            mix it – round and round to dizziness

bake it in the cloudless heat

of your exile, do not forget to sprinkle

with a dollop of sparkling crystals,

first winter’s snowflakes at midnight 

Here’s the Mazurka Op. 17 no. 4 played by Helen Grimaud: https://youtu.be/KMg3mSk-BF8.

A Chocolate Mazurka with Almonds and Candied Orange Peel

After the concert, Slawomir Dobrzanski commented: "Your poems are beautiful! The festival audience in New York City loved them. Dzięki!"  The poems were also noted by Stan Borys and Marek Probosz who both attended the concert. Thank you for the kind words and special thanks to Jakub Polaczyk for including my work in the program. 

He earlier interviewed me, Jarek Kapuscinski, and Marek Zebrowski for his radio program, now available in podcast format.