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At The Theatre: Music of Handel, Rachmaninov, Chopin, Barber
Polish concert pianist Katarzyna Marzec-Salwinski will give a recital at the Theatre at Washington, Va., on Saturday, Oct. 11 at 8 p.m.She will play music of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries: Suite No. 8 in F Minor by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759); Preludes from Op. 23 by Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943); Ballade in F Minor, Op. 52 by Frederic Chopin (1810-1849); and Sonata for Piano by Samuel Barber (1910-1981).
The concert will be Marzec-Salwinski's fourth at the Theatre in "Little" Washington. Last year, she gave an all-Chopin recital which was received with thunderous applause from the audience and many requests for her speedy return. Her decision to include the Chopin Ballade in the program for the concert on Oct. 11 is warmly welcomed.
In program notes which she has prepared for the concert, Marzec-Salwinski quotes the renowned British pianist John Ogdon as saying of the Fourth Ballade: "[It] is the most exalted, intense and sublimely powerful of all Chopin's compositions . . . It is unbelievable that it lasts only twelve minutes, for it contains the experience of a lifetime." Marzec-Salwinski notes that Rachmaninov had Chopin's Preludes in the back of his mind when composing his own cycle, from which she will play five preludes at the concert. One of those five, the Prelude in D Minor, writes Marzec-Salwinkski, "offers a slightly ironic view of a Baroque dance, seen through a prism of the Russian soul, and in the context of this recital serves as a stylistic bridge from Handel's Suite [with which the concert opens.]"
Turning to the last work included in the program, the piano sonata by Samuel Barber, she quotes Vladimir Horowitz's statement that Barber is "one of the few American composers who knows how to write for the piano." At its first public performance, by Horowitz in 1950, Barber's sonata received instant acclaim in the world of music. Francis Poulenc wrote soon after the premiere, "It pleases me without a reserve . . . In turn, tragical, joyous and songful, it ends up with a fantastically difficult to play fugue." Such will be the finale of the concert at the Theatre by Marzec-Salwinski. This will be the Theatre's sole piano recital of the fall season.
Tickets are $20 for adults and $5 for students 18 and under. For reservations, or to obtain a copy of the Theatre's fall schedule, contact the Theatre by phone at (540) 675-1253 or by email to TheatreVA@aol.com, or by mail to The Theatre, 291 Gay Street, PO Box 322, Washington VA 22747.
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