ICE - special Easter a real feast for music lovers in Poland
In predominantly Roman Catholic Poland Holy Week and Easter is a very special time for most people, a time of religious reflection along with centuries-old traditions, which are also observed by those who are indifferent to religion. Somewhat surprisingly, it is also a real feast for music lovers.
Easter Beethoven Festival
In addition to the usual fare of music by Bach, Haydn and Mozart, it is
this sort of music, which resounds every year in Polish churches and many
other venues in the run-up to Easter. Poland has a long-standing tradition
of Passion song, going back to the 15th century. It is also known for its
dramatized Palm Sunday processions staged mostly in monasteries and places
of pilgrimage. The range of the week's musical events in all Polish cities
is truly astounding and small wonder that it is a busy time for people
like journalist Marcin Sobczyk, who is also a bass in one of Warsaw's
early music ensembles.
"Poland has a relatively rich tradition of Easter music and passion music. And now there are more festivals organized during Easter time. It's a good time, it seems, for people to simply reflect. That's why its usually a very busy period for any singer, any music artist. Almost every day there is something, actually in Warsaw this week there will be so many things to choose from that music lovers will have to miss something in order to see something else."
In Warsaw, most music lovers try not to miss the Easter Beethoven Festival. The event is the brainchild of Elzbieta Penderecka, the wife of the famous composer Krzysztof Penderecki. Its programme includes some 15 concerts spread over ten days, ending on Easter Sunday, and brings together such household names as the pianist Garrick Ohlsson, the Norddeutscher Rundfunk Orchester under Christoph von Dohnanyi and the American conductor John Axelrod:
Ludwig van Beethoven
"I am undoubtedly impressed at the range and volume of music that is
offered over the course of this festival and particularly by the quality
of the orchestras and the soloists and the conductors who come and perform
here. I feel very honoured to be able to share the podium with the likes of
Dohnanyi and Antoni Wit and Krzysztof Penderecki and Jacek Kasprzyk and the
great musicians of this country. And myself being a third generation
Polish-American I feel an inextricable link to the musical continuity of
this country."
Now in its ninth year, the Easter Beethoven Festival enjoys a growing international reputation.
"Beethoven said the great phrase from Schiller "Alle Menschen werden Bruder" - "All mankind will be brothers". And there's probably no other festival in Poland that allows artists, patrons and public to come together as brothers and sisters to share in the great experience of Beethoven and the music that we make. The Beethoven Festival is not only for the public of Warsaw and of Poland but, I think, that the Beethoven Festival is a festival for the world. Just as Beethoven's great theme and the words of Schiller is a theme for the European Union and essentially a theme for mankind."
