The time when the 18th Chopin Competition was to be held, (the competition has been postponed to next year), will remain a celebration of Chopin’s music and great pianism. The Fryderyk Chopin Institute invites you to a series of piano masters’ recitals and chamber concerts, which will include performances by the most outstanding pianists of the previous editions of the Competition.
The cycle of ten evenings will open on 1 October – the day of the International Music Day and the originally planned inauguration of the Competition – with the concert of Seong-Jin Cho, the winner from 2015. In the following days we will hear recitals by Nelson Goerner (Critics’ Award, 1995), Lukas Geniušas (Second Prize, 2010), Marc Laforêt (Second Prize, 1985), Yulianna Avdeeva (Winner, 2010), Philippe Giusiano (Winner, 1995), Gabriela Montero (Third Prize, 1995), and the outstanding Finnish pianist Olli Mustonen.
On 17 October, the anniversary of the death of Fryderyk Chopin, we will traditionally invite you to the Basilica of the Holy Cross to listen this time not to Mozart’s Requiem, but to a concert of music and poetry, performed by Szymon Nehring (winner of a distinction in the 2015 Competition) and Jan Englert in front of the composer’s heart. The evening is dedicated to the memory of the composer on the 171st anniversary of his death and to Pope John Paul II, in the year of the 100th anniversary of his birthday. The concert programme includes works by Fryderyk Chopin and poetry by Cyprian Kamil Norwid and Czesław Miłosz.
The cycle of concerts of masters referring to the competition finals will be complemented by the two Chopin’s Piano concertos in the chamber version, interpreted by Kevin Kenner (winner of the 1990 Competition) accompanied by Apollon Musagète Quartet and Sławomir Rozlach (double bass) – it will also be a gala presentation of the latest recording of the concertos by these artists.
The concerts, with the exception of Olla Mustonen’s recital and the concert on 17 October, will take place in the National Philharmonic Concert Hall and all of them, except for the concert in the Basilica of the Holy Cross and Seong-Jin Cho concert, will be available for viewing and listening online.
A detailed programme is available here: https://muzyka.nifc.pl/en/koncerty/przed-wielkim-konkursem
