Daniel Barenboim will play Chopin’s concerti for piano and orchestra

Teatro Comunale di Firenze, 25 May, 8:30 p.m.

For the bicentennial anniversary of the birth of Frédéric Chopin, Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta and the outstanding Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino will perform the Concerto in F Minor Opus 21 and the Concerto in E Minor Opus 11, masterpieces by the young, love struck Polish composer. The program also includes The Miraculous Mandarin by Béla Bartók.

I would like to tell you about one concert in particular that is on the program of the great Florence music festival, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, that is now in its 73rd edition (and please check out the great program at www.maggiofiorentino.it )

In my opinion, this concert is absolutely not to be missed. We will have an opportunity to hear two of Chopin’s rarely performed masterpieces.

Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin, rendered in French as Frédéric François Chopin, was the greatest of Poland’s Romantic composers. Famous mainly for his piano music (the sonatas, the etudes, preludes and nocturnes, etc.) his works for piano and orchestra are perhaps less known. His first composition for piano and orchestra was Variations on “Là ci darem la mano” from Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”. Opus 2 written in 1827, the second the Grand Fantasy on Polish Airs, Opus 13 and the third Concert Rondo Krakowiak opus14 (1828) while the Concerto in F Minor that was performed by Kempf was written in Warsaw during the autumn of 1829 and completed early in 1830. It was first performed at Chopin’s home during a rehearsal on 3 March 1830 and then at the Warsaw theater on 17 March. The reception, as Chopin wrote to his friend Titus Woyciechowskj was not satisfactory. Then Chopin wrote the Concerto in E Minor and left for Paris at the end of 1830. These concerti were meant to introduce himself as a great pianist. As we know, this never happened, but later Chopin developed into the greatest Polish – and perhaps the greatest Romantic – composer of all times.
These two pieces that were little known during the nineteenth century were reappraised by the great pianist Paderewski and then became staples of the interpreters of Chopin in the twentieth and now, twenty-first centuries.

The Concerto in F Minor is dedicated to Delfina Potocka but on 13 October 1829 the composer confided to his friend Titus that the Larghetto was inspired by the singer Konstancja Gladkowska, whom Chopin loved secretly – he never told her! I urge you to enjoy this enchanted movement: the young composer’s brilliance blends with his penchant for Polish folk melodies (as in the dramatic recitative where the piano sings over the almost electric vibrations of the violins). And, in spite of the criticism of Chopin’s terse orchestration, I believe that this is precisely what reveals the thrilling beauty of his music.

The Concerto in E Minor op. 11 is another jewel, and since it is performed more frequently has less need of introductions. It is interesting to recall that he dedicated it to the great pianist of the Biedermaier period, Friedrich Kalkbrenner whom he had heard and described to his friend with these words: “You would not believe how curious I was to hear the Liszt [pieces], etc. I am nothing compared to Kalkbrenner… it is very difficult to describe his calm, his bewitching touch… he is a giant who humbles the Herzes, the Czernys, etc., and me as well”.

The Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is located on Corso Italia, not far from Porta al Prato.
By train: the theater is a 15 minute walk from the Santa Maria Novella Railroad Station
By bus: Line 26, D, NS (Navetta Stazione-Station Shuttle), get off at the Via Curtatone stop.
Taxi: call 055.4242 or 055.4698

www.maggiofiorentino.it