Enjoy a free 50-minute performance by the Freszel Duo featuring Chopin’s mazurkas and more! This action-packed program celebrates the dynamic mazurka, beginning with Chopin and continuing through a lineage of inspiration that includes Paderewski, Szymanowski, Tansman, and Friedman, who each put their own spin on the art form. The program presents a compelling narrative of musical geniuses evolving the mazurka across lifetimes, interspersed with more than a few lovely songs by these same composers, a ballad and a foxtrot from Lutosławski, and an aria from Różycki. 

“Polish Music on Stage / US Edition” is performed by the sublime Freszel Duo. Together, they have toured Poland for “Polish Music on Stage” and recorded the noteworthy anthology album “Śpiewnik polski”.  Joanna Freszel is a soprano who, among other honors, has won the Golden Orpheus from the Académie du disque lyrique; she sang in the National Opera in Warsaw, as well as the Operas in Estonia, Seville, and Poznań. Łukasz Chrzęszczyk is a pianist who has played for the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, TVP Kultura, and Polskie Radio, and now teaches at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music. Thanks to his work, we now have recordings of many once overlooked mazurkas!

The program is as follows:

• Fryderyk Chopin
  • Mazurka in A-minor Op. 17 No. 4
  • Songs Op. 74
    • No. 1 Życzenie [A maiden’s wish] (1829)/ words: Stefan Witwicki
    • No. 2 Wiosna [Spring] (1838)/ words: Stefan Witwicki
    • No. 16 Piosnka litewska [Lithuanian song] (1831) / words: Ludwik Osiński

• Ignacy Jan Paderewski
  • Mazurkas Op. 9 (1884)
    • No. 2 A-minor
    • No. 3 A-major
    • No. 4 B-flat
  • Six songs Op. 18 (1893) / words: Adam Mickiewicz
  • No. 2 Piosnka dudarza [The Song of Bagpipe Boy]
  • No. 5 Tylem wytrwał [I endured so much]
  • Four Songs Op. 7 (1888) / words: Adam Asnyk
  • No. 1 Gdy ostatnia róża zwiędła [When the last rose wilted]

• Karol Szymanowski
  • Mazurka Op. 50 No. 1 (1924-1925)

• Aleksander Tansman (mazurkas)
  • 1er recueil (1915-28) No. 10 Lento (Berceuse)
  • 2e recueil (1932) No. 3 Animé
  • 3e recueil (1941) No. 1 Allegro comodo No. 2 Vivo
  • 4e recueil (1941) No. 9 Postlude. Lento

• Witold Lutosławski (songs)
  • Spóźniony Słowik [The Late Nightingale] (1947-48) / words: Julian Tuwim
  • Pan Tralaliński [Mr. Tralalinski] (1947-48) / words: Julian Tuwim
  • Plamy na słońcu [Blots on the Sun] (1950-60) / words: Jerzy Miller

• Ignacy Friedman
  • Mazurkas Op. 85 (1925)
    • No. 1 E-major (Allegretto, semplice)
    • No. 2 D-minor (Sciolto, vivace)
    • No. 3 G-minor (Con sentimento, quasi Andante)

• Ludomir Różycki
  • Caton’s Waltz from opera “Casanova” Op. 47 (1921–1922)

The “Polish Music on Stage / US Edition” tour has been supported by the National Institute of Dance and Music, Poland and the Ministry of the Culture and Heritage of the Republic of Poland.

More: You can listen to Joanna Freszel’s performances on her YouTube Channel here. You can listen to Łukasz Chrzęszczyk’s performances on his YouTube Channel here.

by NS