Junichi TADA: Discovering Chopin in Warsaw - My memories from the Chopin and His Europe Festival and the Second Chopin Competition on Period Instruments

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Junichi TADA

Japanese musicologist, publicist and teacher-pianist. Author of the first Japanese biography of Frederic Chopin, published in 2023.

Ryc.: Fabien Clairefond

other articles by this author

18th International Chopin and His Europe Festival

.Since the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2010, the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth, a gradual increase has been observed in the individual performances of Chopin’s works and changes in performance styles. This is particularly remarkable after the 1st International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments in 2018 and the 18th International Chopin Piano Competition in 2021, which are currently at a transitional stage. I thought I needed to know how the prize winners of the 18th Chopin Competition in 2021 would perform once they had moved beyond the framework of the “judging” in the competition. Naturally, I attend the concerts of the competition’s prize winners when they come to Japan. However, a comparison of their performances would be easier if I could hear them all together on adjacent dates.

The International Festival of Chopin and His Europe is held annually in August. The theme of the 18th edition was “In the Year of Polish Romanticism.” Notably, all eight prize winners of the 18th Chopin Competition had opportunities for recitals. At this festival, the author of the article interviewed five Chopin Competition prize winners. The common question in all interviews was, “Would you like to incorporate into your performance the improvisational expression that took place at the 1st International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments 2018 into your own performances?”

The fifth prize winner, Leonora Armellini, performed all four of Chopin’s Ballades with works by Debussy and Schumann; her virtuoso element was on full display. On the meaning of her performance of the Sostenuto [WN 53] at the Chopin Competition as if a prelude to Waltz Op. 34 No. 1, she explained, “I was conscious of sounding fantastic as an introduction.” Regarding the question about improvisational expression, she replied, “Actually, I was thinking of adding some improvisational notes to today’s Ballade. I would like to try this next time.” She was also interested in performing on-period instruments and bought an 1844 Erard a few years ago.

The third prize winner, Martín García García, performed Chopin’s Waltz [WN 29], Waltz Op. 64-2, Three Waltzes Op. 34, and Sonata Op. 58 with works by J. S. Bach and Liszt. He made some changes to the repeated parts of Chopin’s works, such as the addition of ornaments and an emphasis on Lefranc. Regarding improvisational performance expression, he said, “I think it is natural to include improvisation in Chopin’s works, which are salon music. I think it is the same whether it is performed on a modern piano or a periodic instrument.”

The second prize winner Alexander Gadjiev performed Chopin’s Preludes Op. 45, Polonaise-Fantasy Op. 61, Sonata Op. 35, and Schumann’s Fantasie Op. 17 with beautiful sound, a naturally wavering musical flow, and a high level of construction. In response to a question about improvisational expression, he said, “I am interested in adding improvisation to Chopin’s works. At the Hamarikyu Asahi Hall in Tokyo a year ago in September, I added improvisation as an encore, and at a concert in Italy two weeks ago, I inserted improvisation between the Fantasy, Mazurka, and Sonata.”

The two Japanese pianists’ concerts were a sudden increase in the Japanese audience at the Philharmonic Hall, with the second prize winner, Kyohei Sorita, performing on August 21 and the fourth prize winner, Aimi Kobayashi, the following day, on August 22. This was mainly because tickets for their concerts were sold out quickly and were difficult to get in Japan. Moreover, Japanese people living in Germany, the UK, and other European countries were interested in their performances. The fact that Sorita and Kobayashi were the first Japanese prizewinners in the Chopin Competition since 2005 made daily headlines on television and the Internet, and the whole of Japan was excited. Keywords such as “Chopin Competition,” “first-second prize in 51 years,” and “Kyohei Sorita” have impressed even non-classical music fans, and Japan is currently witnessing the most active classical music boom since the bubble period. Sorita performed Chopin’s Prelude Op. 45 and Sonata Op. 58 with works by J. S. Bach and Brahms and encored with Largo “Boże, coś Polskę” and Polonaise Op. 53, which he had performed in the third round of the Chopin Competition. As for improvisational expression, he said somewhat cautiously, “I would like to try to incorporate it perhaps in ten years’ time, after I have a complete and thorough knowledge of all of Chopin’s works.” Kobayashi selected Chopin’s 24 Preludes Op. 28, which she performed in the third round of the Chopin Competition with works by Schumann and Schubert and attracted the audience with an extremely introspective performance that did not lose focus for a moment. As for her improvisational expression, she said, ‘It is well known that Chopin never made the same expression twice, but I would like to pursue Chopin’s music with performance expressions such as dynamics and phrasing, rather than adding notes and ornaments.”

It was apparent that each of the five pianists, with their own way of thinking, tried to incorporate the diversity inherent in Chopin into their performances.

The winner, Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu, performed Variations on a theme from Mozart’s Don Giovanni’s (“Là ci darem la mano”) Op. 2 by Chopin in a total of three concerts at this festival. In the first of his recital, he performed the piano solo version by the modern piano, and in the second concert of the same day, he performed the concerto version of this work with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century on period instruments, the Erard. On the final day, he performed the Piano Concerto Op. 21 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, followed by an encore. He initially performed the theme alone, and immediately after he finished the theme, conductor Vasily Petrenko appeared on stage and performed the concerto version, which was a witty surprise. The festival brought forth all his entertainment potential.

19th International Chopin and His Europe Festival

.Having spent an exciting time of discovery and inspiration at the festival a year ago, I returned to the festival this year. Last year, I wrote a report about the festival for the monthly magazine Chopin, and this year, I obtained reports for three more magazines, including Musica Nova and the web magazine Bravo. The interest displayed in the festival by all these magazines is a reflection of the tendency of the Japanese to favor Chopin’s works. The 19th edition was titled “NOT FOR THE FIRST TIME!” foreshadowing the 20th anniversary the following year.

This year, there were cancellations or replacements due to hand problems or ill health. On the third day of the festival, Kevin Chen, one of the most remarkable pianists of the year, gave a recital as a replacement. He performed the complete Etudes Op. 10 at the 78th International Duszniki Chopin Piano Festival just prior to this festival, where his perfect technique attracted much attention. For this festival, however, he chose the complete Etude, Op. 25. In a statement about his choice, he said, “I chose Op. 25 because it had been broadcast by the same radio company and on YouTube, so I thought it would not be good to repeat Op. 10.” Despite receiving an offer to perform at the festival only one week earlier, this responsiveness is hardly surprising. He knew how to enter his own world from the beginning of the first work in a concert and how to draw the audience into it. His performance is characterized by the fact that it is not intuitive but shows signs of thoughtful consideration of the meaning of notes and marks, articulation, and phrasing. As a composer-pianist, he looks forward to further success.

At this festival, Chopin’s Piano Concerto Op. 21 was performed by three performers, each in a different form and version. The first was performed by Ivo Pogorelić and the Basel Chamber Orchestra on a general form of modern piano and orchestra. Pogorelić’s music is based on strong impact and firm conviction. Hugo Ticciati was concertmaster and conductor at the same time, although Pogorelić’s tempo changes were very delicate, so he sometimes stopped his violin performance to concentrate on conducting. The audience responded with enthusiastic applause to this innovative performance by an individualistic pianist who had become a maestro and never faded.

Additionally, the concert features a Piano Concerto performed in silence, in direct opposition to the enthusiasm. A version transcribed for guitar was given its world premiere by Mateusz Kowalski and {oh!} Orkiestra at the festival (transcription by Jerzy Koenig)[i]. The orchestra was almost at a normal volume during the prelude and tutti; however, during the guitar solo, the volume was reduced to a very low level, and the audience listened to the guitar as it continued to play under near-silent conditions. This was a magical time for healing and tension, and it was also the historic moment that announced the beginning of a new chapter in the history of Chopin’s Piano Concerto.

Tomasz Ritter, winner of the 1st International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments, successfully completed his originally scheduled recital and made further replacements on a different date. He performed a chamber version of the Piano Concerto Op. 21 with the Consone Quartet using the Pleyel, which was built in 1848. He knew how to play the various period instruments so well that he checked each note with his fingers, making them sound more refined and beautiful. According to Rittel, when he performs Chopin’s works, he not only reads all the commentary of an Urtext but also uses autographs and first editions, as well as the website “The Online Chopin Variorum Edition (OCVE),”[ii] to consider his own performance expression. He said, “The most important thing is that you really feel yourself wanting to play this way rather than playing differently every time, no matter what.”

The 19th edition of the festival witnessed an increase in Japanese audiences, with five prize winners of Chopin Competition performing during the two days of the concert. Chopin Competition winners Dang Thai Son and Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu, the relation between teacher and pupil, performed Mozart’s Concerto for two pianos K. 365 together in the first half, and Lukas Geniušas performed Haydn’s Piano Concerto in the second half. The next day, Dang’s pupils, Kate Liu and Eric Lu, performed the Concerto for two pianos, K. 365, and Dang played the Piano Concerto, K. 414. The orchestra consisted of a London Mozart player. The festival, held in Warsaw, enabled programs that would have been impossible to realize elsewhere.

The 2nd International Competition on Period Instruments

.Five years after Naruhiko Kawaguchi won second prize at the 1st International Chopin Competition for Period Instruments in 2018, the second edition of this competition attracted much attention in Japan. Of the 84 candidates, 23 were Japanese, outnumbering the 15 candidates from Poland. Of the 35 participants who passed the judgment on the DVD, 10 were Japanese.

Three main factors contribute to this astonishing number of Japanese participants: The first point was that a documentary television program entitled “Chopin, Travelers in Time: The First International Competition on Period Instruments” was broadcast on NHK BS1 and received a great response. Second, after winning the competition, Kawaguchi energetically held numerous concerts on period instruments and contributed to the popularization of period instruments in Japan. Third, even before Kawaguchi won the prize, his teacher, Kikuko Ogura, steadily expanded the audience through concerts on period instruments and the release of CDs. Furthermore, since 2018, the Fortepiano Academy SACLA, produced by Ogura, has been held annually in July, providing an intensive study of the period instruments[iii].

The 2nd International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments began with a surprise announcement the day before that Martha Argerich was performing at the inaugural concert with Tomasz Ritter and Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu. The audience was fortunate to hear this special concert, which could not be overstated in its title, “The Miracle of Warsaw.” No one in Japanese (including me) would have thought that a few days later they would get a surprise of a different kind in the Stage 1 results.

Of the ten Japanese participants, only one, Saya Kamada, passed Stage 1. Considering the scores the juries announced later, however, one must agree with this result. The 15 participants who passed Stage 1 were those who received “Tak (Yes)” from four of the nine jurors. The next six participants, including four Japanese: Satoshi Iijima, Yuya Nishimoto, Shun Oi, and Mana Shoji, received a “Tak (Yes)” from three jurors. They were one step closer to each other. In my opinion, Stage 1 was the most difficult to judge. There were many different types of pianists in the mix: period instrument pianists, pianists who played both the modern piano and period instruments, and modern pianists.

The fact that the jury members had different opinions on the question of how to perform the last ten bars of Mozart’s unfinished Fantasia K.397 and on the permissible limits to improvisation and arrangement for the Polonaise by Kurpiński and other Polish composers could have been imagined even before the competition. It should not be forgotten, however, that in traditional Chopin competitions, the Japanese failed to win prizes in two consecutive competitions—the 16th in 2010 and the 17th in 2015—but this did not reduce the number of challengers, and two pianists won the second and fourth prizes at the 18th in 2021. Many Japanese pianists will probably challenge themselves at the 3rd Chopin International Competition for Period Instruments.

In both Stages 1 and 2, the participants actively added improvised preludes to Chopin’s works and changed and added ornaments within the works. As an audience member, I listened with great interest to the improvisation, which was sometimes beautifully and sometimes extremely creatively expressed. The fact that the performance styles of Chopin’s period considered by each participant were expressed in the instruments of Chopin’s period is of great significance. The competition presents performance expressions that pianists who play only modern pianos would not have thought of trying, and there is much to be learned from this competition, where their wisdom is gathered.

Consequently, Eric Guo won the first prize and Piotr Pawlak won the second prize through consistent and stable performances from Stage 1 to the final stage, as well as an academic approach to Chopin’s works. In the second movement of the Piano Concerto, Op. 11, which they performed in the final stage, Guo and Pawlak included a variant that Chopin had written in his pupil’s score at bars 61 and 59, respectively. The evaluation of the addition of the prelude to Sonata Op. 35, which Pawlak expressed as a challenge in Stage 2, is likely to create a stir interpretation of this work.

.The question of how Chopin’s music is expressed continues to be addressed. The main place where that discussion will take place is Warsaw, where Chopin spent his youth. The journey of discovery of Chopin goes on forever.

Junichi TADA

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