Chopin memoir: French pianist Dana Ciocalie plays one of Chopin’s masterpieces at Jakarta Playhouse. JP/Ricky Yudhistira
One of the world’s legendary composers, whose music has a lyrical and romantic tone, was Frederic Chopin.
He was born in Zelasowa-Wola near Warsaw, Poland in 1810. His father, Nicolas Chopin, was from France and his mother, Tekla-Justyna Kryzanowka, came from Poland.
From childhood, Chopin showed extraordinary talent and became masterful in creating piano compositions. He played with skill and improvisation, powers that were very innovative considering that he was not yet 10 years old.
Frederic Chopin became the international leader in the romantic era of classical music, and played a very important role in the field of formal and informal musical education that encompassed everything, through the works he created for the piano, and other works for the piano and orchestra.
This year is an important historical moment because 2010 commemorates the birth 200 years ago of the genius composer Frederic Chopin — it’s the bicentennial of Chopin. Chopin was destined to live for only 39 years, dying at a time when he was in the process of maturing and achieving his career peak as a creative composer. However, he succumbed to the disease that killed him.
He became a symbol of inspiration for international musicians such as Rubinstein, Vladimir Ashkenaszy, Clara Haskil, Von Cliburn, and Indonesian pianists like Iravati Soediarso, Soetarno Soetikno, Rudy Laban and other young musicians.
Two hundred years of Chopin were celebrated with the Bicentennial Chopin Classical Music Concert, which was held in Jakarta by the French Cultural Center and the Embassy of Poland in Jakarta.
The concert was opened by Dana Ciocarlie, a pianist who undertook her music education in Romania and France. She started the concert by playing some of Chopin’s works like the Five Waltzes, which she played with a neat technical quality.
The romantic melodies were freshly presented through her dynamic playing which contrasted with the rapid intonation and plot, but which moved clearly with texture and style. Character, in the form of the waltz dance song, flowed ceaselessly like water.
Dana Ciocarlie showed the lively and sweet touch of her fingers through the playing of three pieces of the Mazurka Opus 59 from a selection of the 55 pieces of the mazurka that Chopin created.
The mazurka was a typical Polish folk dance with certain characteristics, such as a tempo that varied from a rather slow movement, gradually increasing to a faster tempo (allegro). The mazurka developed rapidly throughout Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries and helped inspire Chopin.
In the beginning, the mazurka’s role was to accompany the dance. But Chopin created it as a complete musical composition and included it in his concert repertoire.
As with the minuet, Dana Ciocarlie played this music, with a freshness of harmony through melodic plots accompanied by chromatic scale techniques, with virtuosity.
This is difficult to play in fast tempo and requires a balanced tone to ensure quality. It was the same with the Polonaise Number 7, which expresses a festive character, the motif of repetitive play presented through a developing tempo.
The freshness of melody and color ran the gamut of modality with a harmonic progression that was exotic. This made the polonaise sound great but still remain energetic, accentuated by a full rhythm. It was the same with the Rondo ala Mazurka, which completed Dana’s stunning performance.
The themes flowed with the motif of intervals that created a mutual dialogue between the left hand and the right hand so they became a complete unit. Chopin was actually a genius composer when he created works for solo piano like ballades, impromptus, etudes, preludes, fantasies, scherzos, polonaises, mazurkas, nocturnes, waltzes, sonatas and piano concertos, and sonatas for Piano and Cello.
Chopin will always be Chopin, full of innovation and creativity, although his compositions are difficult and demand a high virtuosity and powerful skills, but are fantastic. The Sonata for Piano and Cello is unique and consists of several parts, played by the Indonesian pianist Ary Sutedja, and cellist Asep Hidayat. This work was quite long; its character and varied tempo were presented very well.
This duo of piano and cello had the same hard role of playing the difficult phrases with a wide tonal range and with significant intervals. These varied in a register from a low tone, jumping to a register in the high tone, in which the strings of the cello had a quality of tone and a beautiful romantic color.
The balance in the intonation is very important and needs to be played well so that the piano dialogue and cello are able to perform with more expression and clarity.
But unfortunately, the piano lid was fully open so that the tones of the cello sometimes sank to a point where they almost could not be heard, especially in the passages which were very soft (pianissimo), and were covered by the beat which was full and moved quickly.
The last episode in the Bicentennial Chopin Classical Music Concert presented shades of harmonies and styles, which were very different. Adam Makowicz, the senior pianist who is 70 years old, was born at Zelazoa Cheko. His parents came from Poland.
Since childhood, he was very talented and at the age of 15 began to play jazz. At that time jazz was considered taboo because it was judged to be the product of Western music. However, jazz music became his creative source in developing innovations in piano playing, and to forge a life for himself as an international jazz pianist.
At the age of 18, he was able to pursue a career playing jazz as an early step in his musical journey in Europe, America and England.
In the United States he collaborated with world-class musicians like Benny Goodman, Herbie Hancock, Earl Hines, Freddie Hubbard and Sarah Vaughn, and several international symphony orchestras such as those of Warsaw, London and Moscow.
He was the star of this concert. The Chopin repertoire, which is difficult to play by the average pianist, was performed by a maestro. Adam Makowicz was fluent and fast with his energetic fingers, virtuous and perfect.
Five pieces in the Preludes Opus 28 were played with energy but still retained their romantic nature because the melodies are typical of Chopin. It was the same with the Nocturne Opus number 15,
Ballad number 38, Fantasy Impromptu Opus number 66 and the Mazurka number 4 Opus 17. Overall they were played smoothly.
Chopin’s music, with its romantic character, was expressed with a melancholy melody composed for the development, and the accompaniment was lyrical.
Adam Makowicz was able to play it all with virtuosity, which was as high as his interpretation was deep, so that the night atmosphere gave the sound character and a unique harmony; it was full of dissonant chords and improvisations with the addition of embellishments and elements of decoration for variety.
The dramatic and lyrical themes are the basis of the strong character in Chopin’s works, but they are also full of heroic spirit and a deep romanticism. Adam Makowicz made the atmosphere more relaxed and not too stiff, so that he was able to create an intimate communication with the audience.
From their applause, it seemed that some in the audience did not know when the composition which was being played had finished, and added more applause when the maestro was still playing the phrases, which were expressive and very soft.
Chopin will always be present and remain as Chopin, able to be a source of inspiration for the pianists of the world, particularly the young pianists of the world.
The world’s genius composer has become the inspiration for making music and for the development of musical education in both classical and jazz.
Chopin, the virtuoso pianist, a genius creator who was capable of combining folk music with the rhythms of Poland and had the technical capability which was of a high standard but still remained romantic, and amazed everyone, including the world composer Franz Liszt, whose works were also inspired by Chopin.
Frederic Chopin, the greatest pianist and composer, always and forever a world maestro.
The writer is a pianist, composer and cultural observer.
