Ada Arendt, Marcin Bogucki, Paweł Majewski, Kornelia Sobczak The CHOPIN GAMES History of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in 1927–2015 Edited by Paweł Majewski Translated by Tomasz Zymer chopin.indb 3 15.02.2021 09:32:59 Reviewers Waldemar Kuligowski Krzysztof Moraczewski Editor-in-chief Szymon Morawski Proofreading Bożena Lesiuk Cover and title page design Zbigniew Karaszewski Cover photo: Photo No. 8 from a picture story on the 15th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, awarded in the 2006 Grand Press Photo contest, in the category of ‘Events’ (photo by Wojciech Grzędziński) Desktop editing and page makeup ALINEA Co-financed by the National Science Centre as part of research project No. 2016/21/B/ HS2/00684 © Copyright by Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Warsaw 2021 Ada Arendt ORCID 0000-0001-7149-0156 Marcin Bogucki ORCID 0000-0002-5349-1208 Paweł Majewski ORCID 0000-0002-8902-3641 Kornelia Sobczak ORCID 0000-0002-6220-3909 ISBN 978-83-235-4801-0 (printed version) ISBN 978-83-235-4817-1 (e-pub) ISBN 978-83-235-4809-6 (pdf online) ISBN 978-83-235-4825-6 (mobi) Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego (The University of Warsaw Press) 00-838 Warsaw, 69 Prosta St., e-mail: wuw@uw.edu.pl online bookshop: www.wuw.pl First edition, Warsaw 2021 Printed and bound by POZKAL chopin.indb 4 15.02.2021 09:32:59 Table of Contents 5 Table of Contents Introduction Paweł Majewski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 The 1st Competition. The Difficult Beginnings. 23rd–30th January 1927 Paweł Majewski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 The 2nd Competition. Opening Up to the World. 6th–23rd March 1932 Paweł Majewski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 The 3rd Competition. In the Shadow of Imminent War. 21st February–12th March 1937 Paweł Majewski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 The 4th Competition. Chopin Hijacked. 15th September–15th October 1949 Ada Arendt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 The 5th Competition. In Jasna Street. 22nd February–21st March 1955 Ada Arendt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 The 6th Competition. A Chopiniade on a Nocturne. 22nd February–13th March 1960 Ada Arendt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 The 7th Competition. The Gombrowicz Edition. 22nd February–13th March 1965 Ada Arendt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 The 8th Competition. (At Last) an Ordinary Competition. 7th–25th October 1970 Kornelia Sobczak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 chopin.indb 5 15.02.2021 09:32:59 6 Table of Contents The 9th Competition. Con amore. 7th–28th October 1975 Kornelia Sobczak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 The 10th Competition. A Rebel’s Triumph. 2nd–19th October 1980 Kornelia Sobczak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 The 11th Competition. Hardliners and Tanks. The Competition at the Crossroads. 30th September–20th October 1985 Kornelia Sobczak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 The 12th Competition. The Difficult Transition Period. 1st–20th October 1990 Paweł Majewski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 The 13th Competition. Crisis Continues. 1st–22nd October 1995 Paweł Majewski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322 The 14th Competition. Chopin Goes Global. 4th–22nd October 2000 Marcin Bogucki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 The 15th Competition. The Blechacz Craze. 2nd–24th October 2005 Marcin Bogucki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357 The 16th Competition. Between Progress and Ressentiment. 2nd–23rd October 2010 Marcin Bogucki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382 The 17th Competition. Chopin in the Multiculti Era? 1st–23rd October 2015 Marcin Bogucki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416 Conclusion. The Chopin Competition in the Context of Its Times. Paweł Majewski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442 Index of Persons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446 chopin.indb 6 15.02.2021 09:32:59 114 Ada Arendt Ada Arendt The 4th Competition. Chopin Hijacked. 15th September–15th October 1949 The numbering of the ChC editions might suggest that continuity with the prewar editions was preserved. Nevertheless, the 4th Chopin Competition, held twelve years after the 3rd, took place in a new symbolic, social, and political reality; in a different polity and, in a sense, a different city, too, then known as ‘New Warsaw’. On the eve of socialist realism being announced as official doctrine, everything was supposed to be new, including Fryderyk Chopin, who, as musicologist Sławomir Wieczorek put it, did not escape “being painted red”1. Revived in those dark times, in the autumn of 1949, often described as the dusk that preceded the night of Stalinism in Poland2 – S. Wieczorek, Na froncie muzyki. Socrealistyczny dyskurs o muzyce w Polsce w latach 1948–1955 [On the Musical Front. Socialist Realism’s Discourse on Music in Poland, 1948–1955], Wrocław 2014. 2 This is how Karol Estreicher Jr summed up the year 1949 in Polish culture, writing in his diary: “A summary of the year [1949]: The political pressure of Russia has intensified. We remain entirely in the orbit of Russian influence, not just political, but now also cultural. First of all – the press, the cinema, the theatre, the so-called educational institutions. It all began in August this year with a Polish-Soviet week and then month. The press writes and informs about nothing else; everything is ‘fishy’ except for the official dispatches from the Russian embassy. […] Nothing is happening. The prevailing silence is in reality a struggle for survival. We bow as low as we can to the wind that blows from the east so that it would not uproot us. Branches break, the more rotten boughs fall off, but the trunks still stand. […] Economically it is getting harder. […] Censorship rages. […] Night has fallen over the entire Polish life.” K. Estreicher Jr, Dziennik wypadków 1946–1960 [Chronicle of Events, 1946–1960], Vol. 2, Kraków 2002, p. 176. 1949 saw a thoroughgoing centralisation, nationalisation, and politicisation of all spheres of Polish culture. Symbolically this process took place through a series of assemblies during which the state authorities – represented by Włodzimierz Sokorski, the then Minister of Culture – communicated their directives and demands to the artists, as well as making them publicly accountable for their implementation. Such assemblies were held throughout 1949, starting with the 4th General Convention of Polish Writers in Szczecin (20th – 23rd January), followed by the Assembly of Graphic Artists in Nieborów (12th – 13th February), the 1st Nationwide Meeting on the Theatre in Nieborów (8th – 19th April), the Assembly of Architects in Warsaw (20th – 21st June), the Convention of the Association of Polish Artists 1 chopin.indb 114 15.02.2021 09:33:11 The 4th Competition. Chopin Hijacked 115 the 4th Competition was part of a larger ideological project implemented under the label of the Chopin Year 1949. Preparations for the Chopin Year were under way from November 1945, carried out by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, which had been revived directly after the war3. The event was inaugurated on 22nd February and ended with a concert of the 4th ChC winners, held on the exact day of the centenary of the composer’s death. The Chopin Year 1949 was the first cultural initiative of this type after WWII, and the scale of coordination proved truly amazing for a country still plunged in the afterwar chaos4. The nationwide ‘Chopin campaign’, as the anniversary events were labelled in the press, took nearly the whole year and was conducted on two fronts. In its foreign aspect, it served representative purposes, first and foremost – introducing the West to the cultural policy of the newly established Polish state. On the national front, the project served to educate and integrate the society. Outside of Poland the Chopin Year was celebrated with concerts organised by Polish diplomatic posts in many European cities, including Moscow, Vienna, London, Brussels (in this city thanks, among others, to Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz), Paris, and Rome, as well as outside Europe – in Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, Israel, Canada, and the United States, where a grand concert was held under the auspices of the United Nations at Carnegie Hall. Czesław and Designers in Katowice (27th – 29th June), the Conference of Composers [and Music Critics] in Łagów Lubuski (5th – 8th August), and finally – the Assembly of Filmmakers in Wisła (19th – 22nd November). Many institutions dedicated to the control and censorship of culture were established in the same year, including the Trade Union of Culture and Art Workers, the State Institute of Art, the Central Inter-Organisational Repertoire Committee, the Department of Theatres, Operas and Philharmonics, the Central Publishing Committee, and the Central Office of Art Exhibitions. Cf. M. Fik, Kultura polska po Jałcie. Kronika lat 1944–1981 [Polish Culture after Yalta. A Chronicle, 1944–1981], London 1989, pp. 112–129. 3 The Fryderyk Chopin Institute, though still without a seat or sources of funding, resumed its activity on 25th May 1945. Already in July an office was assigned to the Institute (at 15 Zgoda Street, Warsaw), and in November it was entered in the Register of Associations and Unions, with Adam Wieniawski as President of the Board (directly before the start of the 4th ChC Wieniawski handed this post over to the former Minister of Culture and Art and the incumbent Marshal of the Polish Sejm, Władysław Kowalski). Planning work for the Chopin Year 1949 celebrations began in the same month, with the approval of and in cooperation with the Department of Music and the Ministry of Culture and Art. The Statute of the Association and reports on its work in the early postwar years are kept at: Archiwum Akt Nowych [Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw], Ministerstwo Kultury i Sztuki [Ministry of Culture and Art], Wydział Twórczości Muzycznej [Section of Music Life and Work], shelf mark 2/366/0/1.5.4/I 740. 4 On this topic, cf. M. Bruliński, Chopin na barykadach, czyli o socrealistycznych narracjach w 1949 roku [Chopin on the Barricades, or the Socialist­Realist Narrations in 1949], “Kwartalnik Młodych Muzykologów UJ”, No. 36 (1/2018), pp. 75–109. chopin.indb 115 15.02.2021 09:33:11 116 Ada Arendt Miłosz, the then cultural attaché to the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Washington, wrote in a letter to Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz: I have returned from New York, where I attended a splendid event in honour of Chopin; namely, a great concert at Carnegie Hall under the aegis of the United Nations. Big crowds, boxes [decorated] with the flags of 39 nations, all the UN delegations present; speeches, press photographers, etc. […] Jakub Gimpel and Ági Jámbor played […] I believe it must have been the most chic Chopin event in the world. There have also been other Chopin anniversary concerts, [featuring] Rubinstein, Horowitz, and Horszowski. […] Overall, the Chopin anniversary has occasioned quite a lot of activity here5. To Polish pianists, including the Competition candidates, the Chopin Year offered a rare opportunity to travel and perform abroad, in, among others, Finland, Norway, France, and Germany. In Poland, the celebrations included events coordinated by ARTOS6, the Chopin Year Executive Committee with numerous local branches, and, most significantly, an entire series of talks, literary meetings7, and concerts broadcast on Polish Radio, mostly given by members of the Polish ChC team and Chopin interpreters associated with the C. Miłosz, Zaraz po wojnie. Korespondencja z pisarzami [Directly after the War. Correspondence with Writers], Kraków 1998, pp. 207–208. Jan Lechoń thus described another anniversary concert in his diary: “Today is the Chopin Centenary. It is truly a worldwide festivity, proof of which can be seen, among others, in the three Chopin recitals played in New York (Rubinstein, Horowitz, and a pianist unknown to me, by the name of Sheridan), as well as the editorial in ‘New York Times’. Without Chopin not only pianism, but the entire contemporary soul would have been impossible. […] It is only in the last few years that Americans have begun to listen to his music with as much admiration as Europeans, so they have practically only just discovered him here. Rubinstein’s concert at the Metropolitan was the culmination of today’s celebrations, which – more than many so-called national events – is a feast of the most noble Polish-ness. Artur played as we know that Chopin played too, confiding [his feelings] to the audience. It was one of his most excellent concerts.” J. Lechoń, Dziennik [Diary], Vol. 1, Warszawa 1992, pp. 86–87. 6 Established on 7th July 1948, the association known as Państwowa Organizacja Imprez Artystycznych [The State Agency for Artistic Events] “ARTOS” took over the responsibilities of the Central Concert Bureau, which had been closed down. “ARTOS” had the exclusive right to organise public touring performances and shows given by professional artists throughout Poland. This monopoly on the organisation of professional artistic events made it possible for the state to control artistic life and delegate artists to take part in propaganda shows held in workplaces, community centres, and factories. What is more, all the local events not organised by “ARTOS” (referred to in that period as ‘moonlighting tours’) were in fact made illegal. Cf. I. Miernik, Państwowa Organizacja Imprez Artystycznych „ARTOS” 1950–1954. Monografia historyczna [The State Agency for Artistic Events “ARTOS”, 1950–1954. A Historical Monograph], Toruń 2005, p. 24. 7 Such meetings were hosted by, among others, Zygmunt Mycielski, Jerzy Broszkiewicz, and Mieczysław Tomaszewski. 5 chopin.indb 116 15.02.2021 09:33:11 The 4th Competition. Chopin Hijacked 117 Competition. Numerous publishing8 and promotional projects were carried out, including concerts played back from music records as well as exhibitions in local community centres. Chopin’s birthplace in Żelazowa Wola was renovated and opened to visitors. A Chopin exhibition, inaugurated with great pomp at Warsaw’s National Museum, was visited, according to official data, by nearly 200,000 people9. One should not be misled by the prewar ArtDeco chic of the brochures and invitations, described by Maria Dąbrowska as “delicious”10. As presented during the Chopin Year events, the composer was quite a different figure from the prewar, bourgeois “Chopin in slippers”, as Kazimierz Wyka described him in a press article11. The Chopin Year campaign comprised nearly 2,000 concerts for an audience of around a million people12, and approximately another million listening on the radio13. Aware of the importance of the radio to state propaganda, the government placed emphasis on the extension of the radio transmission network so that the audiences in towns and villages would have access to the one and only radio channel which “skilfully and intentionally” promoted the new cultural canon. In this canon, folk music, military songs, and a selection of Chopin’s easier pieces14, coexisted in a conglomerate of an oversimplified, and largely ‘invented’, national tradition. 8 Ignacy Paderewski’s edition of Chopin’s works was inaugurated at that time; its last, 28 volume came out in 1961. Many popularising brochures and texts dedicated to Chopin were printed, including Eugeniusz Żytomirski’s poem Chopin, Janina Skowrońska’s Mały Chopin. Inscenizowane opowieści [Little Chopin. Staged Tales]; Zofia Lissa’s Chopin. Materiały do użytku świetlic [Chopin. Materials for Local Clubs], as well as the anthologies Fryderyk Chopin natchnieniem poetów [Fryderyk Chopin – The Poets’ Inspiration] and Muzycy i krytycy rosyjscy o Chopinie [Russian Musicians and Critics on Chopin]. Numerous Chopin biographies came out, including one by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz; older works by Zdzisław Jachimecki, Karol Stromenger, and Arthur Hedley were also reissued, while Kazimierz Wierzyński’s English-language biography The Life and Death of Chopin was published in New York. 9 W. Rudziński, Po Roku Chopinowskim [Summing Up the Chopin Year], “Odrodzenie” 1950, Nos. 11–12, p. 9. 10 M. Dąbrowska, Dzienniki [Journals], Year 1949, entry for 22nd Feb. 1949, p. 22. 11 K. Wyka, Prawda i wielkość Chopina [Chopin’s Truth and Greatness], “Nowa Kultura” 1952, No. 38, p. 1. 12 Sprawozdanie z Akcji Koncertowej za czas od 21.02 do 31.09.1949 [Report on the Concert Campaign for 21st February – 31st September 1949]. Archiwum Akt Nowych [Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw], Ministerstwo Kultury i Sztuki [Ministry of Culture and Art], Biuro Współpracy Kulturalnej z Zagranicą [Office of Foreign Cultural Cooperation], Rok Chopinowski za granicą i w kraju [The Chopin Year Abroad and in Poland], shelf mark 2/366/0/12/XII 237, item 102. 13 20 lat kultury w Polsce Ludowej. Dane statystyczne [20 Years of Culture in the Polish People’s Republic. Statistical Data], Warszawa 1996, p. 31. 14 Musicologist Zofia Lissa, the main architect of socialist-realist paradigm of Chopin interpretation, created a classification of Chopin’s works for this purpose, dividing them into th chopin.indb 117 15.02.2021 09:33:11 118 Ada Arendt In this light, the immense financial outlay made by the government, as well as the considerable organisational effort put into carrying out the Chopin Year projects in a country which was only just rising from the ruins – can be justified in rational terms. The newly created Fryderyk Chopin Scholarship Fund for musically gifted children from working class families promoted the welfare state’s role as a patron of culture, offering a promise that the money spent on art (conceived in a utilitarian fashion) would pay off and bring spiritual benefits to all the citizens educated by the new Polish state. However, since bricklayers and pianists were now equal, artistic work had to adhere to the same rules as any other kind of labour. From then on, pianists were expected to line up with workers, and press reports from the Polish ChC team’s preparations began to imitate the language of communist youth organisations: At present, before the 4th Competition, the Ministry of Culture and Art has taken the matters in its own hands. Not only did our eleven candidates who won the preliminary round a year ago receive government scholarships, which freed them from all material cares, but also a special Educational Committee was set up, which was put in charge of the pianists’ further education. [...] 18 best concert pianos were brought from all over the Greater Poland province to Łagów and placed there, one in each lodging, so that the candidates and their teachers can work without disturbing one another. […] Every few days the candidates were obliged to rehearse their programme in Łagów Castle in the presence of the assembled teachers, so that the latter could assess and correct the contestants’ performances. For this work to be as complete as possible, a symphony orchestra was brought from Poznań, and each of the candidates has played his or her selected Chopin piano concerto at least three times with the orchestra. Altogether, a crew of 230 people collaborated there in order to ensure that the Polish team’s results in the Competition would be as good as possible. As a result, the Łagów project, based on socialist methods [sic] of collective work and criticism, has provided the pianists with such a strongly and effectively encouraging atmosphere that from the very first day of the Competition it has became clear we have no reason to worry about its results15. The Soviet team’s preparations were held up as a model: Last year’s preliminary contest took place in completely altered conditions. The excellent Soviet experiences in this area were taken into account. As we know, in the prewar editions, and particularly in the 3rd Competition, Soviet pianists took the top prizes. In the Soviet Union, the most gifted pianists selected in the prelimithree groups according to the relative level of difficulty in audience perception. Cf. Z. Lissa, Chopin. Materiały do użytku świetlic, op. cit., Warszawa 1949. 15 J. Waldorff, 18 fortepianów [18 Pianos], “Przekrój” 1949, No. 238, pp. 6–7. The results of these national preliminaries were as follows (from the best to the poorest of the selected candidates): Szymonowicz, Maciszewski, Smendzianka, Bakst, Stefańska, Żmudziński, Hesse-Bukowska, Kerner, Kędra, Ślendzińska, and Drath. chopin.indb 118 15.02.2021 09:33:11 The 4th Competition. Chopin Hijacked 119 naries are taken great care of, provided with further training and the opportunity to play frequent concerts in order to get used to performing on the stage and in front of an audience, as well as rehearsing their programme well. In this period, the pianists receive state scholarships and so they are free of any material cares16. Organised in this way, and preceded by one-and-a-half-year-long preparations coordinated by the State Educational Committee17, the Competition was presented as yet another field of the nationwide ‘socialist labour emulation’, which in the autumn of 1949 manifested itself particularly well in the streets of Warsaw. A New Chopin in ‘New Warsaw’ More than four years after the end of WWII, during which the left-bank districts of Warsaw were 84 per cent destroyed18, the city was not ready to organise an event such as the ChC. The Warsaw Philharmonic building, the prewar Competition venue, had been seriously damaged during the 1939 air raids and could not be used as a concert hall. By the time of the ChC inauguration, such urban concepts as the Mariensztat housing district, the Wybrzeże Gdańskie, the Śląsko-Dąbrowski Bridge, and the Warsaw W-Z Route (the boast of ‘New Warsaw’ with the country’s first escalator, reproduced on postcards) had already been put into use. Nevertheless, the Old Town, Marszałkowska and Nowy Świat streets were still covered in scaffolding and closed for traffic (though the rebuilding process was nearing completion), while the soon-to-be Muranów district in the former Warsaw Ghetto was being cleared of tons of rubble. The freshly plastered walls of the still uninhabited new houses in the city centre looked more like a film set than like living urban space. Even the enthusiastic weekly “Stolica” [“The Capital”] described Warsaw in September 1949 as “a desert of rubble” – which proves that complete reconstruction of the city was a long way ahead. Biuletyn Informacyjny [Information Bulletin] No. 2, Warszawa, 10th Sept. 1949, publ. by Komitet Wykonawczy Roku Chopinowskiego [The Chopin Year Executive Committee], p. [4]. 17 Official reports declared that the Committee had been established “thanks to the lesson learnt from the Soviet experience”. Its members were: Bolesław Woytowicz (chairman), Zbigniew Drzewiecki, Jan Ekier, Jan Hoffman, Stanisław Szpinalski, Henryk Sztompka, and Jerzy Żurawlew, while the teachers of the ChC participants could take part in the Committee’s proceedings. 18 S. Datner, Zburzenie Warszawy [The Destruction of Warsaw], in: J. Gumkowski, K. Leszczyński et al., Straty wojenne Polski w latach 1939–1945 [Poland’s War Losses, 1939– 1945], Poznań–Warszawa 1960, pp. 111–113. 16 chopin.indb 119 15.02.2021 09:33:12 120 Ada Arendt Inhabited largely by newcomers from all over the country, the ‘New Warsaw’ was quickly coming back to life, despite the everyday hardships, marked by improvisation, poor living conditions, and shortage of supplies. As in the other years, September was announced the Month of Rebuilding the Capital (“the month of active work and the whole nation’s increased effort to aid the ruined Warsaw”). Youth labour teams worked in the streets, nourished with free beer and buns distributed directly from the lorries of the Warsaw Foodstuffs Cooperative. The Month of Rebuilding resembled sports games to some extent, with large boards placed on the pavements, listing the results of each team’s work, measured in the number of bricks per person. The best workers were decorated with Warsaw Rebuilder’s Badges – Golden, Silver, and Bronze. As Warsaw was rising from the ruins, music life concentrated in Cracow, where most of the leading teachers and music event organisers now resided. Cracow’s music life was thriving thanks to such institutions as the Philharmonic, the State Higher School of Music (now the Academy), the PWM State Music Publishing House (now PWM Edition), the “Ruch Muzyczny” editorial office, the International Society of Contemporary Music’s Polish Section, as well as the Polish Radio Orchestra and Choir. Musicians and critics living in Cracow at that time included Stefan Kisielewski, Zygmunt Mycielski, Zbigniew Drzewiecki, Jerzy Waldorff, Jerzy Broszkiewicz, Roman Palester, Andrzej Panufnik, and Bohdan Wodiczko. The media discourse that accompanied the 4th ChC sheds a light on the decision to hold the reactivated Chopin Competition in Warsaw rather than Cracow, which could raise the suspicion that it is an attempt to revive prewar, and therefore bourgeois, tradition. In fact, the 4th Competition was to become a culmination of Chopin’s anointment as the patron of socialist cultural policy, and grant him a privileged place in the new symbolic economy. Instead of fighting with the prewar Chopin, the authorities hijacked the figure through a bold shift of accents in the interpretation of his oeuvre and biography. The authors of the late 1940s’ symbolic revolution proposed to the society a sort of perverse compensation for the Nazi ban on performing Chopin19 and for the destruction of his famous monument, designed by In a 1940 order concerning cultural life in the General Governorate we read: “Polish concerts are permitted, but one may not perform marches, folk and national songs, as well as classical music. Programmes played in cafés must likewise receive prior approval.” There were, however, some exceptions from this rule. For instance, from 1942 the two Chopin concertos were officially played at Lardelli’s café at 30 Polna St. (the performers were Andrzej Wąsowski and Jerzy Żurawlew); Józef Śmidowicz also gave Chopin recitals there. Most frequently, however, Chopin was played during the series of concerts “Polish Music in Polish Homes”, held by the underground Association of Musicians in private flats as well as selected schools and hospitals from 1940 onward; Chopin’s music was an obligatory element of each 19 chopin.indb 120 15.02.2021 09:33:12 The 4th Competition. Chopin Hijacked 121 Wacław Szymanowski. What marked Chopin out as a patron of socialist realism was not the ‘folk’ character of his music (which was only properly established in later years) but the association between the composer, national mourning, and the destruction of Warsaw. Taking advantage of Warsaw’s image as the city of Chopin, an affective landscape of the capital was constructed, which connoted the trauma of WWII, with the empty space in which the Chopin monument (dismantled on the pretext of metal junk collection, cut up, melted and made into bullets in May 1940) once stood as its central point. The photo which documented this act of iconoclasm was frequently used in postwar visual culture as a symbol of the damage done to the city and its inhabitants. The communist authorities were aware of the huge potential of this image, and used it keenly despite their dislike for the Art Nouveau style of the monument. Chopin and the places associated with him were very strongly affect-laden, which made it possible to turn him into a kind of totem, or even an idol. Celebrated as an embodiment of the traumatised society, the symbolic Chopin-totem was to become a synecdoche of the nation and a quasi-religious figure, as one who was wronged by the Germans but is reborn in the new reality. This was already evident during the ceremony of the translation of the composer’s heart to Poland in October 1945: “It is true that we stand here amid the ruins; but should Chopin rise from the dead, he could enthusiastically play his polonaise in these ruins,” said Wiktor Grodzicki, deputy president of the Peoples’ Council of Warsaw, while Father Leopold Pietrzyk spoke in his homily: Chopin’s heart is returning to its due place. This fiery heart is coming back to the capital, which it once missed so acutely in foreign lands, and in which it wished to be buried after his death. So it returns, this heart that loves its Poland vehemently, to the place which the nation once set aside for it [in the city] on the Vistula. It is restored today by the nation to the Church of the Holy Cross. This ceremony resembles the finding (Lat. inventio) and translation (Lat. translatio) of the holy relics of saints, which played a major role in Polish culture during ceremonies of conferring authority, such as coronations, installation of bishops, welcoming ceremonies, and inaugurations. The aim of the ‘invention’ of relics was to initiate the cult of a saint by opening his or her recital in this cycle. These concerts featured many pianists who were later associated with the ChC, such as Zbigniew Drzewiecki, Jan Ekier, and Henryk Sztompka. The quotation and information come from A. Frołów, Życie muzyczne w okupowanej Warszawie w latach 1939–1945 [Music Life in Occupied Warsaw, 1939–1945], Warszawa 2004, pp. 18, 93. On this subject, cf. also E. Dziębowska, Muzyka w Warszawie podczas okupacji hitlerowskiej [Music in Warsaw under the Nazi Occupation], in: Warszawa lat wojny i okupacji 1939–1944 [Warsaw during the War and Occupation, 1939–1944], ed. K. Dunin-Wąsowicz, book 2, Warszawa 1972, pp. 31–71. chopin.indb 121 15.02.2021 09:33:12 122 Ada Arendt grave in the presence of the faithful, exhibiting the mortal remains in public, and carrying them round in a procession. Translation, on the other hand, consisted in transporting a saint’s body to another shrine. Such practices symbolically confirmed the dead person’s holiness and legitimised the possession of the relics by a given community, usually by demonstrating that the saint him- or herself had agreed for the relics to be deposited in a new place20. In 1945, Chopin likewise became a relic (from Lat. reliquiae – ‘remains’, ‘remnants’, ‘small body parts’), and the Holy Cross Church in Krakowskie Przedmieście Street, Warsaw, was elevated to the status of a memorial place, where official delegations laid flowers during each successive Chopin Competition. Ever since Chopin has been worshipped as the patron saint of the national community, celebrations which are part of his cult could take such necromantic forms as the ‘Living Rendition’ (Pol. Żywe wydanie) of Fryderyk Chopin’s Complete Works [a festival held in Warsaw – translator’s note] in the Chopin Year of 1949, and the later Chopin anniversaries and the ChC, held every five years, became – from this perspective – spirit-conjuring rituals, in which the pianists play the role of the medium by bringing Chopin back to life. All the same, sacralisation entails the fear of profanation. While Chopin’s music was considered a perfect soundtrack for films which showed the ruined Warsaw (the long series of such movies began in 1945 with Andrzej Panufnik’s Ballada f-moll [Ballade in F Minor] and Ludwik Perski’s 1947 Warszawa [Warsaw]), it was deemed unacceptable for his works to be used as musical background for trivial entertainment and shows. Such abuse of Chopin was to be prevented by the ‘censorship committee’ proposed by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in 1947, which was to prohibit putting the Polish composer’s music to “ignoble use”21. Chopin as an idol erected amid the ruins and inaugurating a new era in the history of the national community was even to be honoured with a quarter in the newly rebuilt city. The ‘Chopin District’ (situated in the area of Tamka and Okólnik Streets), an initiative of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, widely discussed in 1949, was one of the flagship projects of the Warsaw Reconstruction Office (BOS). This, however, was still many years off, and in the meantime, the Competition had to be organised again if the sacred flame of the Chopin cult was supposed to burn on. While urban planners were working on the design of the 20 M. Starnawska, Świętych życie po życiu. Relikwie w kulturze religijnej na ziemiach polskich w średniowieczu [The Saints’ Life after Death. Relics in the Religious Culture of the Polish Territories in the Middle Ages], Warszawa 2008, pp. 258, 270–271, 417 ff. 21 Archiwum Akt Nowych [Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw], Ministerstwo Kultury i Sztuki [Ministry of Culture and Art], Departament Muzyki [Department of Music], A letter from Adam Wieniawski, President of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, to the Ministry of Culture and Art, shelf mark 2/366/0/1.2/I 287, item 78. chopin.indb 122 15.02.2021 09:33:12 The 4th Competition. Chopin Hijacked 123 ‘Chopin District’, it was decided that the 4th ChC would be held in Warsaw Philharmonic’s temporary venue – the “Roma” theatre in Nowogrodzka St., Warsaw’s only surviving concert hall. The superstructure, however, lacked footing. The organisers failed to solve a fundamental problem of the postwar realities: the shortage of pianos. The Chopin Competition in a City without Pianos Foreign guests envy the Polish participants just one thing: the fact that they have their own pianos to practice on. “They can play all day long,” the youthful Hungarian pianist says woefully, “while we are taken back to our lodgings after breakfast and feel embarrassed about ‘banging’ on the piano in someone else’s house”. The lack of pianos to practise on continues to be a problem in the course of this competition. Though many good-willed persons offered their private pianos, not all of them are suitable for virtuosi to practise on. Owing to the scale of destruction, of all Polish cities Warsaw has the greatest shortage of instruments22. While the Polish team23 was stationed in private flats equipped with pianos, where they could rehearse at will, the foreign contestants were living in the “Polonia” Hotel, and could only access instruments at prescheduled times in Warsaw Conservatory, the venue of the Chopin Year Executive Committee at 15 Zgoda St., or in selected private houses. The shortage of pianos affected not only the ChC participants. The plans to make artistic education available on a mass scale, of “opening it up to the peasants and factory workers”, announced in high-flown government declarations, could not be carried out without supplying the working-class with instruments. Such commendable propositions were not reflected in everyday material realities, though. The Kalisz-based piano factory Calisia (the nationalized former manufacture of Arnold Fibiger), together with the merged factories in Brzeg and Legnica (consisting of former A. Schütz & Co, Eduard Seiler, Franz Liehr, Karl Fricke, and Hermann Stammitz factories in prewar Brieg and Liegnitz) were mostly preoccupied with renovating old instruments, reconstructing the technical infrastructure which had been destroyed wr, Pracowite dni młodych chopinistów [The Busy Day of Young Chopin Performers], “Życie Warszawy” 1949, No. 261, p. 3. 23 The Polish team of pianists for the 4th ChC: Tadeusz Żmudziński, Tadeusz Kerner, Waldemar Maciszewski, Halina Czerny-Stefańska, Julitta Ślendzińska (all of them were pupils of Zbigniew Drzewiecki), Zbigniew Szymonowicz (pupil of Stanisław Szpinalski), Regina Smendzianka (pupil of Henryk Sztompka), Władysław Kędra (pupil of Magda Tagliaferro), Barbara Hesse-Bukowska (pupil of Margerita Trombini-Kazuro), Janusz Drath (pupil of Władysława Markiewicz), and Ryszard Bakst (studying with Heinrich Neuhaus in Moscow). 22 chopin.indb 123 15.02.2021 09:33:12 124 Ada Arendt during the war, and building prototypes, including the flagship Polonus grand piano, presented in January 1949 in the Polish Film Chronicle (PKF newsreel), performed upon by Barbara Hesse-Bukowska, then still a candidate for the 4th ChC24. The announcer of the same chronicle informed: “Leaders of local club and school ensembles dream of the Legnica factory producing pianos on a mass scale comparable to coal extraction, or at least to school desk production,” or, to translate this into the language of the sociology of culture: the collective process of emancipation ought to take place also in the field of cultural production. Egalitarianism was one of the supreme values for socialist-realist art. Thanks to the hierarchy of musical genres being abolished, with ‘mass song’, folk music, and Chopin’s output acquiring equal status, each citizen of the new Poland could potentially become both a recipient and a performer. In order, however, to implement this fully, the high class-related costs of entering artistic professions needed to be reduced. From then on, the cultural practice of piano playing was no longer to be related to income and class. For this reason, in a report prepared for the needs of the Ministry of Culture and Art, the then first lady of Polish musicology, Zofia Lissa, estimated the demand for upright and concert pianos in 1949–1950 at 10,000 instruments25. Much was done to satisfy this demand. All the music instrument factories were merged into a united national industry, which, however, had a substantial backlog to catch up with. Even as late as 1953, during the preparations for the next, 5th ChC, Witold Rowicki, the then artistic director of Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, signalled “a catastrophic shortage of pianos”26. However, instruments to play and rehearse were needed at once; there was no time for delay. Since no pianos were available in the open market, people had no choice but to ‘procure’ them in other ways, by travelling to Silesia, Lubusz Land (the former Land Lebus in prewar Germany), and Pomerania, known to insiders as a piano Eldorado. Acquiring instruments formerly belonging to German residents of those regions was a topic of gosProdukujemy fortepiany [We Produce Pianos], Polska Kronika Filmowa, No. 3/49. Archiwum Akt Nowych [Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw], Ministerstwo Kultury i Sztuki [Ministry of Culture and Art], Departament Muzyki [Department of Music], Planowane zapotrzebowanie na instrumenty muzyczne [Planned Demand for Music Instruments], shelf mark 2/366/0/1.2/I 306, items 137–138. 26 Archiwum Akt Nowych [Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw], Ministerstwo Kultury i Sztuki [Ministry of Culture and Art], Departament Imprez Artystycznych i Obchodów [Department of Artistic Events and Celebrations], Międzynarodowy Konkurs Pianistyczny im. Fr. Chopina – Komitet Wykonawczy [International F. Chopin Piano Competition – the Executive Committee], Protocol of the Executive Committee’s inaugural meeting on 17th Oct. 1953, shelf mark 2/366/0/4.2/IV 10, item 3. 24 25 chopin.indb 124 15.02.2021 09:33:12 The 4th Competition. Chopin Hijacked 125 sip, but is also mentioned in Zofia Nałkowska’s Diary27 and in the documents of the Ministry of Culture and Art, which include a list of about a dozen persons who were allotted formerly German pianos from Gdańsk (these included: Bolesław Bierut, President of Poland, as well as Jan Ekier, Zbigniew Drzewiecki, Stefan Kisielewski, Leon Kruczkowski, and Roman Palester28). It was in this context that the “Radio i Świat” [“Radio and the World”] weekly printed a humorous anecdote: In those legendary times, the Polish Radio pianists received new pianos, confiscated from looters in the Recovered Territories [the former German lands incorporated into Poland after WWII – translator’s note]. “How much joy, who could describe it,” as the inspired poet would say. True enough, there was much rejoicing, even more so when one of our colleagues pulled out of his pocket, with an enigmatic expression on his face, two gold rings and a chain, and whispered that he had found them in the leg of his piano. More surprises were to follow. On the next day, another happy piano owner boasted that he, too, had discovered a vein of gold between the boards of the instrument, and produced – as proof of his words – a splendid diamond ring, a jaw studded with gold teeth, and a little bag in which gold dollar coins rang nicely. “Then I must look too,” decided one of the disbelievers, who listened to the news of these discoveries with a flush on his cheeks. We do not know whether his search was successful, but most likely not very much so, since on the next day he asked his friends and colleagues, very agitated, whether they knew of any skilled person who could reassemble a piano taken to small pieces. The bitterness of the unfortunate gold prospector was even greater when he heard two guys telling each other the following story: “In those legendary times, the Polish Radio pianists received new pianos, etc.”29 This particular bit of rumour contained more truth than fantasy. Wrocław’s “Słowo Polskie” daily alarmed the public in a headline: 650 Pianos Smuggled Out of the Recovered Territories30. At the same time, the Ministry of Culture and Art received numerous letters with requests for permission to purchase formerly German instruments: “Genia sets out for Szczecin to look for a piano”; “Calling the Ministry of Culture and Art to ask for a piano”; “Genia has not come back from her piano-seeking expedition. No news from her, so we are worried.” Genia was Nałkowska’s servant. Z. Nałkowska, Dzienniki [Diary], Vol. VI, 1945–1954, part 2 (1949–1952), p. 37. 28 Archiwum Akt Nowych [Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw], Ministerstwo Kultury i Sztuki [Ministry of Culture and Art], Departament Muzyki [Department of Music], Report on the Work of the Special Committee for Former German Music Instruments in Sopot, shelf mark 2/366/0/1.2/I 306, items 116–117. 29 Prima Aprilis w Radiu [April Fools’ Day at the Radio], “Radio i Świat” 1949, No. 12 (188), p. 11. 30 Jur., 650 fortepianów „uciekło” z Ziem Odzyskanych [650 Pianos Smuggled Out of the Recovered Territories], “Słowo Polskie”, 5th March 1948, No. 64, p. 2. 27 chopin.indb 125 15.02.2021 09:33:12 126 Ada Arendt Dear Mr President, my dad spoke so much at the lessons about your good heart and merits that, without telling my parents, I have decided to send you my request in a letter, Dear Mr President. I have a great liking for music, and I asked dad to obtain a piano for me so that I could learn to play like the other children. My dad made efforts at the district office in Żywiec to obtain a piano formerly belonging to the Germans, but his requests have been turned down in every place. My dad teaches children in a state primary school, so he cannot make me such a pleasant gift from his salary. What is more, we were resettled by the Germans and the front line passed through our city, which led to great war damage. I therefore put in my great request to you, Dear Mr President, to kindly let me learn the piano, too, by giving my dad permission to purchase a formerly German, upright or grand piano at the district office in Żywiec or in Lower Silesia, for which I will be immensely grateful to you, Dear Mr President. I remain confident in your good heart, your loving Górnik Teresa, 4th-year pupil at the primary school in Sienna, district of Żywiec31. Others would travel to Wrocław, Szczecin, or Gdańsk in order to purchase an instrument in the black market. By April 1948, 4650 pianos were taken out of Gdańsk alone32. Those instruments were not only taken out of the houses and flats of Germans driven out, evacuated or displaced from the Regained Territories, who, according to regulations, could take with them not more than 20 kg of luggage33, but had also belonged to Jews and former landowners of the now nationalised estates. A huge bureaucratic machine based on the network of provincial offices was to control the management of this abandoned property, and gradually suppress the omnipresent looting34. 31 Enclosed with the letter was a certificate from the piano teacher, another one from the house administrator that the family did not possess an instrument yet, and proof of payment to ZAiKS Authors’ Association’s Music Fund. Archiwum Akt Nowych [Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw], Ministerstwo Kultury i Sztuki [Ministry of Culture and Art], Wydział Twórczości Muzycznej [Department of Music Composition], Allottment of music instruments [applications], shelf mark 2/366/0/1.5.4/I 758, items 112–116. There is a whole file of such letters at the CAMR. 32 Archiwum Akt Nowych [Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw], Ministerstwo Kultury i Sztuki [Ministry of Culture and Art], Departament Muzyki [Department of Music], Gospodarka instrumentami poniemieckimi [Management of Instruments Taken Over from the Germans], shelf mark 2/366/0/1.2/I 305, item 115. 33 B. Nitschke, Wysiedlenie czy wypędzenie? Ludność niemiecka w Polsce w latach 1945– 1949 [Relocated or Driven Out? The German Population in Poland, 1945–1949], Toruń 2004, p. 157. 34 In order to obtain an instrument officially or authorise the possession of one that the new occupants found in the flats they took over from the Germans, one needed a certificate from a piano teacher confirming that piano lessons were being taken, or a confirmation from one of the special boards set up at music schools, plus a letter from the house administrator confirming that one did not own an instrument yet; furthermore, a contribution had to be made to ZAiKS. This gave one the right to buy an instrument, and a place on the waiting list, which, naturally, did not guarantee that the purchase would actually ever be made possible. chopin.indb 126 15.02.2021 09:33:13 The 4th Competition. Chopin Hijacked 127 Attempts were made in 1948–1949 to register and technically evaluate all the abandoned upright and concert pianos found in the Polish territories, including wrecks, whose technical condition and possible value following renovation were assessed by special inspection teams. This nationwide ‘field search campaign for the identification, protection, and registration of instruments’ was coordinated by local posts of the Ministry of Culture and Art, in cooperation with musicians’ trade unions, music schools and conservatories. The ‘campaign’ was taken seriously, partly because it produced income for the state budget, and partly – because the genuine shortage of instruments thwarted the state’s new cultural policy. Another element was the symbolic significance attributed to the piano. As an embodiment of cultural capital and an emblematic accessory of the upper-class lifestyle (found in the homes of landowners, officers, and state officials), from whose dominance the peasants and factory workers were now emancipated, the piano was to be ‘taken over’, marking the symbolic overthrow of the upper classes. Reports on the redistribution of pianos confiscated in the manors and kept in ‘detention’ at the local MO stations [citizens’ militia – the main police force in communist Poland – translator’s note] which the MO chiefs stubbornly refused to hand over to the liquidation offices, make one wonder about the function of such ‘sequestered’ pianos. Rather than providing the pleasure of music-making, they must have intensified the rage and frustration by epitomising the vast difference of cultural potential. What function could a piano serve at an MO station other than that of a flower-pot? The only constructive scenario of revenge and emancipation was to provide a truly egalitarian artistic education and produce cheap music instruments on a mass scale. When a tribune of the people cries out in “Życie Warszawy” daily: “No more Orpheuses in chains!”35 it is his desire to free the Antek-Orpheus figure from the same experience of impotence that befell the ‘guardians’ of abandoned or sequestered instruments. Of special note is also the aggressive, military or guerrilla-type discourse of the official documents which reported on the instrument-redistributing project. During the ‘registration and estimation campaign’ ‘flying squads’ ‘take down’, ‘uncover’ and ‘detect instruments concealed’ by culprits; flats are searched without warning; neighbours get denounced for the sound of the piano coming from behind the wall. Were the pianos which the ChC participants practised on before and during the Competition also ‘recovered’ as part of the ‘abandoned’ property? Most certainly they were. But more This is a reference to Bolesław Prus’s short story Orfeusz w niewoli [Orpheus in Chains], published in the volume Echa muzyczne [Musical Echoes], which tells the story of a classically educated and gifted pianist who, deprived of material support, loses the struggle with the harsh realities of his profession, and finds himself in the gutter. 35 chopin.indb 127 15.02.2021 09:33:13 128 Ada Arendt importantly, the atmosphere of fear and suspicion, characteristic of the late 1940s, can also be detected in the organisation of, and press reports from, the 4th ChC. It was, after all, the only ChC edition when, as a precaution, the jury was prevented from seeing the performers during the auditions. Behind the Screen In the spirit of trust (which, as Vladimir Lenin claimed in his wisdom, must be based on control), but also drawing conclusions from controversies that surrounded the previous ChC editions, it was decided in 1949 that numerous precautions should be taken. Firstly, the jurors36 were separated from the participants and placed in a different hotel (the “Bristol”), from which all of them were brought to the Roma concert hall every day in one and the same coach. Secondly, in the first two stages the contestants did not perform under their own names, but were identified by drawn numbers, while the jury listened to their performances from specially converted, conjoined box in the upper circle, separated from the hall by a wooden screen, and additionally – by a thick curtain lowered for the time of the debates. The resulting space, though lit by theatrical spotlights, was rather cosy. The club-like atmosphere was enhanced by the big oval table around which the jury proceeded. The table was all covered by mocha coffee cups and cakes in crystal saucers (More Cakes! ran the headline in one of the dailies reporting in the Competition), as well as ashtrays, cigarette cases, matchboxes, inkwells, water carafes, and elegant posies of flowers. The ballot cards, which resembled security papers, were placed every day in sealed envelopes and deposited in a specially constructed safe, the key to which was entrusted exclusively to Jerzy Lefeld as the returning officer. At the end of each stage, and in the presence of the returning committee, Lefeld opened the envelopes one by one and read out the scores (ranging from 1 to 25 points), at the same time invalidating those Members of the 4th ChC jury: Godfrid Boon (Sweden), Émile Bosquet (Belgium), Lucette Descaves (France, standing in for Marguerite Long until 1st October), Sem Dresden (The Netherlands), Zbigniew Drzewiecki (Poland, chair of the jury), Jan Ekier (Poland), Blas Dimas Galindo (Mexico), Lélia Gousseau (France, substituting for temporarily absent jurors), Arthur Hedley (UK, deputy chair), Lajos Hernádi (Huganry), Franz Josef Hirt (Switzerland), Jan Hoffman (Poland), Roman Jasiński (Poland), Marcelina Klimontt-Jacyna (Poland, substituting for temporarily absent jurors), Lazare Lévy (France), Marguerite Long (France, from 1st October, deputy chair), Joseph Marx (Austria), František Maxián (Czechoslovakia, deputy chair), Alfred Mendelsohn (Romania), Dimitar Nenov (Bulgaria), Lev Oborin (USSR, deputy chair), Pavel Serebryakov (USSR), Stanisław Szpinalski (Poland), Henryk Sztompka (Poland), Magda Tagliaferro (Brazil, deputy chair), Margerita Trombini-Kazuro (Poland), Bolesław Woytowicz (Poland), Carlo Zecchi (Italy), and Jerzy Żurawlew (Poland). 36 chopin.indb 128 15.02.2021 09:33:13 The 4th Competition. Chopin Hijacked 129 that came from the candidate’s own teachers37. The scores were summed up using three different calculators, and the total was divided by the number of the valid votes. The results were announced in the form of an alphabetical list of names of pianists qualified for the next stage, but without revealing the total scores that they had received thus far. Jerzy Waldorff described the precautionary procedures applied during the 4th ChC as follows: The [drawn] candidate, who had only been notified in the evening, is escorted by Professor Lefeld early in the morning from the “Polonia” hotel (where they live, far away from the Jury!) to the Philharmonic. Once there, kept in a separate room behind a padlocked door, the scared pianist has the right to practise. It is only at the very last moment that Professor Lefeld opens the padlock and leads the candidate out onto the stage, a bit as one would lead a lamb to the slaughter38. At the same time, a speaker’s voice announced to the people gathered in the auditorium the number under which a given candidate was to perform. Despite this, as the commentator of “Rzeczpospolita” daily claimed, the audience not only knew perfectly well who was playing at any given moment, but also had access to the entire timetable of upcoming auditions39. The jury, on the other hand, had the following view on the audience gathered below in the “Roma” hall (as we read in “Kurier Codzienny”): Looking from above, all one saw was one human mass. The lines of individual rows blended with one another. In many places two persons shared the same seat, plus frequently a third one sitting on the armrest. Each centimetre of free space, from the entrance to the stage, was jam-packed with people standing in the heat, motionless, listening to the sounds that flowed to them from the black box on the stage. When someone fainted – and there were such incidents – such a person had to be carried out above people’s heads. Naturally, one needs to deduct from this huge number a certain proportion of snobs. Such snobbery is actually still forgivable. Then one also needs to deduct a certain proportion of musicians, who attentively follow the auditions for ‘professional’ reasons. The others were just ordinary inhabitants of Warsaw, who flocked to the concert hall from their offices, workshops and factories, from school desks and academic lecture rooms. Youth was present particularly numerously. In the entrance hall one could see college hats representing all the universities and departments40. 37 There were few such situations in the 4th ChC. Of the foreign jurors, only Magda Tagliaferro brought her own pupil, Oriano de Almeida, to the Competition. 38 J. Waldorff, E,E,E,E,F,E,C,E… czyli Czwarta walka o Chopina [E,E,E,E,F,E,C,E… or the Fourth Battle for Chopin], “Przekrój” 1949, No. 234, pp. 4–5. 39 M. Borzęcki, Niewidzialne jury konkursu [The Competition’s Invisible Jury], “Rzeczpospolita” 1949, No. 267, p. 3. 40 A. G., Warszawa zachorowała na Chopina [Warsaw Has Caught the Chopin Virus], “Kurier Codzienny” 1949, No. 285, p. 6. chopin.indb 129 15.02.2021 09:33:13 130 Ada Arendt The concert hall was filled to the brim, as it was said: First and foremost, there was no way one could enter “Roma” at all. Moreover, those standing pressed forward above the heads of those sitting, so the sitters stood on the seats to spite the standers. Since there was not a single ladder there, it came to the situation when the standers had nothing to stand on, and the sitters – nothing to sit on. Is it really necessary to turn the concert hall into a concert ‘stable’, where one mostly stands rather than sitting? Does this kind of ‘elevation’ create the right conditions to listen to the winners? – joked the commentator of “Rzeczpospolita”41. Those who did not obtain tickets to “Roma” or were at work when the auditions were held (as was most of the potential audience, and this situation has not changed until today – hence the auditorium was mostly filled with press reporters, musicians, and ‘academic hats’) could listen to live broadcasts and replays, aired at 10.15 a.m., 7.20 p.m. and 11.10 p.m. on Diora’s Bakelite sets, Tesla’s four-valve ‘Talismans’, or on the common cable radio sets, wired into the broadcasting systems. The press commented that all the Polish pianists sounded the same and “very much like their own teachers”, while the Soviet team was assessed as having a much greater ease and freedom of interpretation. The good form of the Soviet Union’s representatives was universally praised, and even described as “closer to one’s heart” and more zakhvatiyushchaya (Russian for ‘captivating’, ‘tugging at one’s heartstrings’). It was postulated that the eastern neighbour’s work organisation should be adopted in Poland. Undoubtedly, the Russians were excellently prepared. 50 candidates were first selected in three-stage all-Soviet preliminaries, the finalists had the opportunity to play the concertos with orchestra already in this internal round, and preparatory camps were provided as well. The truly Olympic style of preparing the Soviet candidates for international music competitions brought impressive results in 1949–1957. In that period they maintained hegemony in piano and violin competitions worldwide, winning 70 per cent of the first prizes and 53 per cent of the second prizes42 awarded in those years. The Russians were in top form, but it did not come without a price. A participant of the next, fifth ChC edition, Dmitry Paperno, in his memoirs written in emigration recalled the enormous psychological pressure put upon the Soviet candidates, the 17-hour workdays, lack of sleep, stress and overworking, which often resulted in illness43. M. Borzęcki, Koncert laureatów konkursowych [A Concert of the Competition Winners], “Rzeczpospolita” 1949, No. 290, p. 3. 42 K. Tomoff, Virtuosi Abroad. Soviet Music and Imperial Competition During the Early Cold War, 1945–1958, Ithaca and London 2015, p. 49. 43 D. Papierno, Notes of a Moscow Pianist, Portland 1998, pp. 79–83. Quoted after: K. Tomoff, op. cit., p. 79. 41 chopin.indb 130 15.02.2021 09:33:13 The 4th Competition. Chopin Hijacked 131 Two strategies of reporting the Polish-Soviet relations in the context of the Competition could be observed among the Polish public opinion. The first depended on blurring the boundaries and presenting both teams as ‘one common front’, therefore encouraging the public to support equally the Poles and the Russians, or even informally to ‘naturalise’ Bella Davidovich, whom many Polish listeners remembered as a representative of Poland (cf. the front page news in “Kurier Codzienny” of 16th October 1949: “The Triumph of Polish Pianism / 8 Polish Winners / B. Davidovich and H. Stefańska-Czerny Won the 1st [sic] Prize in the 4th Chopin Competition”). It was frequently argued that the Russian nation promptly recognised Chopin’s genius, or even – that it possesses a special predisposition for understanding the music of the ‘Slavic genius’44. The other strategy consisted in antagonising the two teams and exploiting national stereotypes, in the form of circulating stories concerning the ostensibly ‘less civilised’ status of the Soviets. An example of such exoticisation of Soviet citizens is an anecdote written down by Maria Dąbrowska, concerning Bella Davidovich: She fell ill while staying here [i.e. in Warsaw], and at St Joseph’s Clinic she shared a room with a Pole, an acquaintance of the Samotyh family, who are friends of mine. The pianist would get visited by other Russians, Competition participants, all splendidly and elegantly dressed. However, Davidovich herself had such poor underwear, such shabby and torn stockings and garters, that the Pole asked her where this difference came from and why she did not have such pretty clothes as the other ones. The sick prize-winner replied, “Well, it’s because they’ve bought those pretty things for themselves here in Warsaw. I was ill so I couldn’t. But as soon as I’m up and about, I’ll also buy myself all this, and will also have such beautiful clothes and underwear.”45 Reconciling the interests of both parties – the pressure of the Soviets, who saw success in international music competitions as their raison d’état, and of the jury, which was dominated by Polish artists – was the responsibility of Włodzimierz Sokorski, Minister of Culture and Art. Archival records prove that Sokorski prevented a diplomatic scandal in his own typically effective manner. Official reports preserved at the Central State Archive of Literature and Art of the USSR in Moscow tell us, as the US historian Kiryl Tomoff has demonstrated, that the results of the 4th ChC were determined by political decisions. A report prepared by an employee of the Soviet embassy in Warsaw and sent to the president of the All-Union Committee on Arts Affairs (Russian: Cf. for instance S. Brzeziński, Geniusz Chopina a muzyka rosyjska [Chopin’s Genius and Russian Music], “Rzeczpospolita” 1949, No. 276, p. 4; G. Polanowski, Chopin w wykonaniu artystów radzieckich [Chopin As Interpreted by Soviet Artists], “Rzeczpospolita” 1949, No. 278, p. 5. 45 M. Dąbrowska, Dzienniki [Journals], Year 1949, entry for 6th Nov. 1949, p. 97. 44 chopin.indb 131 15.02.2021 09:33:13 132 Ada Arendt Vsesoyuzniy komitet po delam iskusstv) in Moscow confirms unequivocally that Sokorski had declared even before the start of the 4th ChC edition that, in consultation with the government of the People’s Republic of Poland, he guaranteed that two first prizes should be awarded jointly to a Polish and a Russian pianist. Sokorski claimed that the aim was to demonstrate the superiority of Polish and Soviet pianists to the participants representing other nations, and both future winners – Halina Czerny-Stefańska and Bella Davidovich – were mentioned by name46. What is not clear is how the victory was guaranteed to the two contestants. Undoubtedly, these two pianists would have taken top prizes in the ChC even without the help of politicians. It is possible, therefore, that even winning some little favour with the Polish and Russian jurors was enough to ensure their Competition success, especially with these two groups of jurors outnumbering the representatives of Western countries by 16:13. Despite political tensions and pressures, the first postwar ChC was accompanied by an entertainment programme, such as numerous recitals by the jury members to two trips (to Żelazowa Wola and to Szafarnia, for the 1st Annual ‘Chopin Village’ Day, featuring a performance by Szpinalski with the Pomeranian Symphony Orchestra and Rezler’s choir), and a Chopin exhibition at Warsaw’s National Museum. The mild criticism of the latter in daily press might be interpreted as a sign of resistance against the ideological use of Chopin’s biography and a protest against replacing the previous, 19th-century interpretations, oscillating between cosmopolitanism and patriotism, by an anti-bourgeois rhetoric47. Though the central motto of the whole event was a quote from Polish President Bolesław Bierut’s speech on “paying homage to Chopin by making his splendid art available to the people, teaching them how to experience its beauty and derive inspiration from his works,” the ideological purpose was mainly represented by the third of the chronologically arranged sections of the exhibition, entitled “Chopin’s Music Reaches the Masses”. At the opening ceremony, the National Museum director Stanisław Lorentz defined the new socialist-realist framework for the interpretation of the event: “This exhibition […] is to present Chopin as an artist and a human being to whom the ideals of social equality and justice are very dear.” The press criticised the exhibition for the “photographic madness”, and for the fact that many of the exhibits were not directly related to Chopin or his music, which resulted from a large part of the Chopin legacy still being dispersed after the war. The Communist Party daily [I.S. Kuznetsov], Spravka o IV­om Mezhdunarodnom konkurse pianistov im. Frederika Shopena i o gastroliakh v Pol’she sovetskikh pianistov, uchastnikov konkursa, The Central State Archive of Literature and Art of the USSR in Moscow, f. [collection] 962, op. [heading]10, ob. [item] 126, ll. 95–100. Quoted after K. Tomoff, op.cit., pp. 58–59. 47 On this subject, cf. J.T. Pekacz, Memory, History and Meaning: Musical Biography and its Discontents, “Journal of Musicological Research” 2004, No. 23, p. 54. 46 chopin.indb 132 15.02.2021 09:33:13 The 4th Competition. Chopin Hijacked 133 “Trybuna Ludu” attempted to refute this criticism by forcibly promoting the idea of a “new type of exhibition” “expressing our nation’s new attitude to the great heritage of our past”, which was supposedly reflected in not limiting oneself exclusively to Chopin-related artefacts, but in representing the reception of his music from the 19th century onward, “including the cult of Chopin in the People’s Republic of Poland”. Till the end of stage II, for as long as the identity of the participants was kept secret, a commendable parity of the sexes was preserved (21 women to 20 men). In stage III the wooden screen was taken off, but the curtain remained drawn for the intervals and jury meetings. It was debated until the very last moment whether the candidates should not remain anonymous in the finals as well. 18 finalists played the concerto with orchestra (8 from Poland, 6 from the USSR, 2 from Brazil, and 1 each from Hungary and Mexico). Though according to the regulations one needed to collect at least 18 points to be admitted to the finals, an exception was made for Oriano de Almeida, who obtained 17.8 points. The sequence of performances was decided by a draw. The final concerts took 6 days, during which the F­Minor Concerto was played 10 times, and the E-Minor – 8 times with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Mieczysław Mierzejewski, Zdzisław Górzyński, Jan Krenz, and Tadeusz Wilczak. The results were announced late at night on Saturday 15th October, following the popular concert featuring Grażyna Bacewicz as a soloist, during which the jury was debating. It took several days, however, for the event slowly to wind down – what with the winners’ concerts and the jurors’ farewell recitals continuing until 24th October, when Lev Oborin gave his last performance before returning to Russia (the revenue from tickets went to rebuilding the Philharmonic Hall). Prime Minister Cyrankiewicz gave a speech during the award ceremony, using this opportunity to emphasise the idea of Chopin’s socialist cult, constructed in opposition to the Nazi ban on Chopin’s music48: 48 It should be added here that Cyrankiewicz’s concept was based on a conscious concealment of facts. During the German occupation, Chopin’s music did appear once again on the bills in the General Governorate, especially after 1942, but mostly in the case of concerts held for the German audiences. In 1943 the Germans organised a much publicised Chopin exhibition, whose opening ceremony featured a performance by Ludmiła Berkwitz (1st ChC participant). They also intensively purchased Chopin-related artefacts and documents, which they were planning to exhibit in a special Chopin Museum in Cracow. The Museum, work on the organisation of which continued until mid-1944, was to house, first and foremost, a collection of Chopiniana bought by the Nazis from the French Chopinologist Édouard Ganche. The driving force behind this project was Gustav Abb, director of the Staatsbibliothek Krakau (the name given to the Jagiellonian Library under the German occupation), who was supported in this enterprise by Hans Frank, the local Propaganda Department, and by Georg Schünemann, who was the head of the music collection at the Prussian State Library (Germ. Preußische Staatsbibliothek) in Berlin. One could therefore venture the thesis that Chopin’s chopin.indb 133 15.02.2021 09:33:13 134 Ada Arendt How profoundly national Chopin’s output was is evident, among others, in the Nazi invaders’ fear of this revolutionary and national music. It was banned! Characteristically, Poles looked in this eminently subtle music for emotions that would give them strength. The strength of the music derived from the same source as the strength of the nation – namely, from the people. It has taken a great revolutionary change before the great founders of national culture could become the property of the whole nation49. The “great performers of national culture” who were now the “property of the Nation”, were generously rewarded. The prize pool increased even during the Competition and the growing amounts were announced in the press, in a tone which resembled the mounting tension during the national lottery draws. Apart from non-cash awards such as a radio set, an unspecified painting valued at 50,000 zlotys, a silver commemorative badge, Chopin publications, as well as functional art (kilims, homespun cloth), 12 cash prizes were funded, represented in the press in the form of a hierarchical list, reminding the readers of the numerous institutions and organs that made up the executive in Poland: The 1st Prize of the President of the Republic of Poland and the Prime Minister (awarded jointly to Bella Davidovich and Halina Czerny-Stefańska) The 2nd Prize of the Ministerial Committee for Culture (Barbara Hesse-Bukowska) The 3rd Prize of the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Waldemar Maciszewski) The 4th Prize of the Minister of Culture and Art (Georgi Muravlov) The 5th Prize of the President of the Central Trade Union Council (Władysław Kędra) The 6th Prize of the Chopin Year Executive Committee (Ryszard Bakst) The 7th Prize of the President of the Capital City of Warsaw (Yevgeny Malinin) The 8th Prize of Polish Radio (Zbigniew Szymonowicz) music was not banned; what was prohibited was for Polish artists to perform it for a Polish audience. The Nazis also attempted a Germanisation of Chopin, stressing his “German education” and his love of music by German composers, as well as trying to demonstrate that his teachers, Żywny and Elsner, were essentially German. Germans had a claim on Chopin as those who were the first to have recognised the composer’s talent. On this subject, cf. R. Suchowiejko, Wystawa chopinowska w 1943 roku w Staatsbibliothek Krakau (Bibliotece Jagiellońskiej) oraz dalsze losy kolekcji Ganche’a [The 1943 Chopin Exhibition at the Staatsbibliothek Krakau (The Jagiellonian Library) and the Later Fate of Ganche’s Collection], in: Zabytki muzyczne w zbiorach Muzeum Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego: katalog, konteksty, album [Music Monuments in Collection of the Jagiellonian University Museum: A Catalogue, Contexts, An Album], ed. R. Suchowiejko, Kraków 2016. 49 Twórczość Chopina wyrosła z ludu i jest siłą w walce o wolność ludów [Chopin’s Music Originates in the People and Is a Force in the Struggle for the Freedom of the Peoples], “Trybuna Ludu”, 18th Oct. 1949, No. 161, p. 1. chopin.indb 134 15.02.2021 09:33:14 The 4th Competition. Chopin Hijacked 135 The 9th Prize of the State Opera and Philharmonic in Warsaw (Tamara Guseva) The 10th Prize of the Polish Composers’ Union (Victor Merzhanov) The 11th Prize of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute (Regina Smendzianka) The 12th Prize of the Trade Union of Culture and Art Workers (Tadeusz Żmudziński)50 We can learn from the ChC internal documentation that the Educational Committee accepted the choice of Davidovich and Czerny-Stefańska, though it valued more highly the performances by Bakst and Kerner (“the only true Chopin pianists in the team”). The Committee members were confounded to hear that the 2nd prize went to Hesse-Bukowska (“a dangerously high position; she requires special care and further work”), and the teachers bemoaned the inadequate level of Smendzianka’s ‘productions’. Though in terms of figures the first postwar ChC came out poorly in comparison with its last prewar edition (the number of represented countries decreased by 44 per cent, and the number of entries was as much as 75 per cent smaller), a success was announced. What is more, it was to be a success “not only of the young pianists, but of the government and the whole society”51. An Overlooked Competition? Despite the intense cult of Chopin present in the Polish society in the late 1940s and early 50s, despite the “Roma” hall being filled to the brim, and though many of the winners went on to become popular pianists – the 4th ChC appears to have been an ‘overlooked’ event, which did not resonate in the society as it could. One reason may have been the massive ‘Chopin propaganda’, which caused the Competition to be experienced passively as something imposed from outside. What certainly did not help was the fact that the ChC became part and parcel of the ‘socialist ritual calendar’52. Stalinism was a culture of the spectacle, participation in which was obligatory, and imposed by the authorities. At the same time, the enterprise was The five honourable mentions went to: Carmen de Vitis Adnet (Brazil), Oriano de Almeida (Brazil), Carlos Rivero (Mexico), Ludmila Sosina (USSR), and Imre Szendrei (Hungary). The award for the best performance of mazurkas was presented to Halina Czerny-Stefańska. 51 Sukcesy zespołu polskiego to zasługa nie tylko młodych pianistów, lecz także rządu i społeczeństwa [The Successes of the Polish Team are Due to the Work Not Only of the Young Pianists, but of the Government and the Society As Well] – ran a headline in “Kurier Codzienny”, 15th Oct. 1949, p. 1. 52 P. Osęka, Rytuały stalinizmu. Oficjalne święta i uroczystości rocznicowe w Polsce 1944–1956 [The Rituals of Stalinism. Official Feasts and Anniversary Celebrations in Poland, 1944–1956], Warszawa 2006, pp. 105–106. 50 chopin.indb 135 15.02.2021 09:33:14 136 Ada Arendt doomed to failure for purely technical reasons. The Stalinist culture of the spectacle depended on mass events, which had to be spectacular and prominently visible. The Chopin Competition was neither well heard nor seen on a mass scale. The proportion of the population that had access to radio broadcasts was still relatively small. The first two stages were held in an atmosphere of confidentiality, while the photos from the finals reproduced in the press were of very poor quality. It was also not without significance that the social sentiment focused on different issues at that time. Public space and official discourse were dominated by fear, hatred and contempt, as confirmed by press articles printed side by side with ChC reports, informing on the same page about new death sentences passed on ‘enemies of the people’ and ‘economic pests’. Warsaw itself concentrated on a very down-to-earth problem, namely, on the ‘sugar and flour fever’ which broke out during the Competition, the shortage of meat, or even apple and potato supplies. The month of Polish-Soviet friendship was about to begin. chopin.indb 136 15.02.2021 09:33:14 The 5th Competition. In Jasna Street 137 Ada Arendt The 5th Competition. In Jasna Street. 22nd February–21st March 1955 Frost Holds Tight The 5th Chopin Competition, which ended on the first day of astronomical spring, was inaugurated during what seemed like the middle of a long and hard winter, when temperatures fell to 16oC below zero, and a record snowfall had hit Warsaw on the previous day. Fur hats and caracul collars were only discarded during the trip to Cracow and Zakopane which followed the Competition. When Włodzimierz Sokorski, Minister of Culture and Art, was delivering his inaugural speech which opened this edition of the ChC, few people in the audience could foresee that the words ‘love’ and ‘beauty’, strangely overrepresented in his statement, might foreshadow the political thaw that was to start in the very same year: For the tenth anniversary of the Liberation of Warsaw, at the will of the Party and the Government, and thanks to the effort of the Polish engineers and workers, the reconstruction of Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall, the beloved venue of the Capital’s inhabitants, has been completed. […] We love our city, which is rising from the ruins; a new city, even more beautiful than it once was; a city of dreams, of struggle, of work, and of a socialist future. We love its streets, houses, and everything that leads us into the future, that has become a symbol of our fight for human peace and happiness. At the same time we love everything that was this city’s beauty, tradition, and national pride; what has been the progress and effort of the working people. These immortal and never forgotten monuments have included Warsaw Philharmonic. For this reason, we have rebuilt it from ruins, even more beautiful than it used to be. The architects of the People’s Republic of Poland have incorporated new values, new work and effort in its form and beauty. The Philharmonic has become a symbol of the unity of the great national tradition and of the glorious socialist future. It has become a symbol of our love for art, and of our persistent work. On behalf of the government of the People’s Republic of Poland, let me give my heartfelt thanks to all the artists, workers, and people rebuilding the Philharmonic, led by Eugeniusz Szparkowski, engineer and chopin.indb 137 15.02.2021 09:33:14 138 Ada Arendt architect – for their enormous effort and work, and for completing this huge task on time [emphasis – A.A.]1, said Sokorski, who, having freshly received directions at a briefing with Jakub Berman, already knew the Party’s current policy guidelines for 1955: “gradually to make cultural policy more liberal”2. The addressees of Sokorski’s official thanks were there among the audience, since the most distinguished construction workers received entrance tickets for the Competition. One of them thus recalled the reconstruction project: Work goes well and smoothly. My heart is bursting with overwhelming joy, since also here, where the immortal music of Chopin and other great composers will resound, I have left a share of my work for Warsaw. Everyone is in a hurry. Specialists are putting the finishing touches to the interior, assembling the organ, putting in the chandeliers and candelabra, polishing the marble surfaces and stuccos, and laying beautiful floors. They are putting in the seats. Musicians are testing the acoustics and claim that they are excellent. Pavers are widening the pavements outside, and stonemasons are laying the granite steps. Road-builders are pouring hot asphalt in the street. As viewed from outside, the Philharmonic is bright and new. New vistas have been opened up by knocking down the ruins of the tenement house opposite. Little time is left. On 21st February 1955 the rebuilt Philharmonic will host the inaugural concert of one of the world’s greatest music events – the 5th International Fryderyk Chopin Competition. The builders have kept their word. As a reward, I got two entrance tickets for the opening ceremony. I took my son along3. Not only the construction workers present in the hall, but also the architect Eugeniusz Szparkowski and a large group of those involved in the organisation of the 5th ChC (including Witold Rowicki, head of the orchestra and 1 Archiwum Akt Nowych [Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw], Ministerstwo Kultury i Sztuki w Warszawie [Ministry of Culture and Art in Warsaw], Zespół Realizacji, V Międzynarodowy Konkurs Pianistyczny im. F. Chopina. Stenogramy przemówień okolicznościowych [Implementation Team, the 5th International F. Chopin Piano Competition. Shorthand Notes of Occasional Speeches] shelf mark 2/366/0/4.2/IV 12, items 1–2. Also reprinted in “Życie Warszawy” 1955, No. 45, p. 1. 2 The events of January 1955, including his conversation with Berman, were described by Sokorski in some detail in his Memoirs. Berman ordered him to “extend the range of formal experiments [in art]” and said that the World Festival of Youth and Students in Warsaw (planned for July that year) should be “open to everything that is new in socialism, including modernist art phenomena; he also approved of the concept of young graphic artists’ exhibition at the Arsenal, as well as the modern character of the ‘Warsaw Autumn’ music festival. He ordered Sokorski “not to surrender to the enemy, but surprise him with the innovative character of socialism.” Berman even permitted the Gdańsk-based student theatre Bim-Bom to be invited to perform in Warsaw. Cf. W. Sokorski, Wspomnienia [Memoirs], Warszawa 1990, pp. 293–294. 3 S. Dobiasz, Zostało nas czterech z ferajny [Four of Us Left of the Gang], Warszawa 1983, pp. 330–331. chopin.indb 138 15.02.2021 09:33:14 The 5th Competition. In Jasna Street 139 Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, chair of the Executive Committee4) could only react to the news of the building being put into use on time with a grim smile. Some of them probably had not believed that the hall would be opened at all. The problems related to rebuilding Warsaw’s Philharmonic Hall had lasted for more than seven years, and until the very last moment before the inauguration it had given all the persons involved a big headache. “We are in the Philharmonic hall,” wrote an “Express Wieczorny” correspondent. “Saws and hammers can still be heard behind the wall, but here, in the side room, where the floors are still covered with construction paper, important decisions are being taken. The pianists are choosing the instrument which they will perform on.”5 According to the original concept, the 5th ChC was to take place – following the prewar custom – five years after the previous edition, that is, in 1954. However, when it became clear that the new seat of Warsaw Philharmonic would not be ready by that time, it was decided that the Competition should be postponed by one year. To conceal this delay, the event was combined with the Polish People’s Republic’s tenth anniversary celebrations and the Festival of Polish Music. The situation was further complicated by problems with demolishing the ruins of the old Philharmonic, the changing aesthetic and functional concept of the new building, as well as the shortage of construction workers and finishing materials, which were ‘sucked out’ from all other projects in literally all available quantities to boost the construction of the Palace of Culture and Science [the ‘Soviet gift’ – translator’s note] that was then in progress virtually next door. Eventually, the design of the new Philharmonic hall proved to be a compromise that satisfied no one, and the hurry gave rise to defects and emergency situations. Several days before the opening, a fire broke out in the hastily dehumidified building and the entrance to the jury’s salon was bricked in by mistake, only to be restored a week before the Competition6. The fundamental problem with the old Philharmonic building consisted in the fact that it had not been bombed out effectively enough during the 4 The Executive Committee of the 5th International Fryderyk Chopin Competition had been established by a Directive of the Minister of Culture and Art of 15th April 1953, No. 67. The original idea behind it was to incorporate virtually all the representatives of culture who collaborated with the then authorities, including non-musicians, such as Jerzy Andrzejewski, Aleksander Ford, Jan Kreczmar, and Jan Marcin Szancer. However, none of them ever turned up at the meetings. Cf. Regulations of the Executive Committee of the 5th International Fryderyk Chopin Competition in Warsaw, Archiwum Akt Nowych [Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw], shelf mark 2/366/0/4.2/IV 10, item 56. 5 W „Miasteczku Chopinowskim” [In the ‘Chopin Town’], “Express Wieczorny” 1955, No. 42, p. 2. 6 S. Wysocki recalls this situation in his already quoted (see Chapter 3) book, Wokół dziesięciu Konkursów Chopinowskich [Around the Ten Chopin Competitions] 1982, p. 63. chopin.indb 139 15.02.2021 09:33:14 140 Ada Arendt war. The roof and the concert hall interiors suffered the greatest damage, but the ground floor and most of the elevations of the hall, built in 1902, were in good enough state to legally house shops and small private companies after WWII. Photographs kept in the Municipal Archive of the Capital City of Warsaw (Pol. Archiwum Urzędu m.st. Warszawy) show that part of the elevations had even been repainted7. Since it was established that the external walls were not in danger of collapsing, the authorities seriously considered using the existing walls. In a city where the scale of devastation was enormous and which had so many urgent, basic needs with regard to housing and other useable floor space, it was hard to justify the demolition of a building which was fit for re-adaptation. What proved decisive was ideology. The eclectic concert hall, designed by Karol Kozłowski, was considered as a symbol of the prewar bourgeois taste, manifesting itself in ‘overstated ornamentation’ on the elevations8. From the formal point of view, the ruins would have become heritage-listed in 1952, but the order designating them for demolition was issued earlier, and justified by “the lack of artistic value”. In the meantime, the architectural concept of the new concert hall (prepared from 1947 onward by Miastoprojekt) underwent constant transformations until, as it often happens, the ‘investor’, i.e. the Ministry of Culture jointly with the Committee for Investment Project Assessment rejected the author’s intentions altogether. In the spring of 1953, despite Szparkowski’s protests, the design was endorsed for implementation following its radical ‘cost-cutting reduction’, undertaken by Piotr Biegański. The effects of this compromise were criticised already toward the end of the construction process: After many complex perturbations, the eventual shape of the building has turned out strange. One can hardly say that the applied solutions are fortunate or quite consistent. The front façade is monumental par excellence, grave-looking and very austere, but it does not betray the purpose of this building in any way […]. The monumentality of this wall makes one ponder whether the false concept of the monumental should not be revised in Warsaw, where nearly all the edifices, regardless of their content, character, and purpose are now ‘monumental’. We not only work but also live in monumental buildings. But life need not be so awfully serious and solemn. When entering the Philharmonic we thus do not know why we should feel as if we were entering a Pantheon9. 7 A. Bojarski, Rozebrać Warszawę. Historie niektórych wyburzeń po roku 1945 [Pulling Down Warsaw. The History of Selected Demolitions after 1945], Warszawa 2015, pp. 148–153. 8 S. Rassalski, Filharmonia Narodowa [Warsaw Philharmonic], “Architektura” 1955, No. 9, p. 265. 9 Ibid. This opinion is symptomatic of the gradual rejection of symbolic functions assigned to opera houses and philharmonic halls under the influence of late Romantic aesthetic ideologies, which saw them as temples of art, and consequently designed their forms and interiors in accordance with this assumption. chopin.indb 140 15.02.2021 09:33:14 The 5th Competition. In Jasna Street 141 The most important (and praised) changes in comparison with the prewar concert hall were: moving the entrance from Jasna to Sienkiewicza Street, which granted better access to the facility; enlarging the stage, which was now four metres wider than before; better sound insulation of the concert hall, attained, among others, thanks to the new hall having no windows overlooking the streets; and putting in more comfortable chairs. What commentators complained about was the low standard of finishing works (for instance, during the performance by Hungarian pianist György Banhalmi glass fell out of the half-moon window in the concert hall; during another audition, a fragment of moulding fell off, most likely because it had been glued to damp plaster), the chaotic plastic arts programme (partially never completed due to wrongly scheduled works), the claustrophobically low ceiling in the cloakroom (resulting from the piano lift being situated above it), the lack of a sloping floor in the concert hall, and, finally, the acoustics. The seats, produced by a former Thonet factory Radomsko, had been tested at the Acoustics Unit of the Warsaw University of Technology, but what decided about the poor acoustics was the fact that the door woodwork was not soundproof. The 650 square metres of jacquard curtains and tapestries produced by the ŁAD Cooperative (designed by Zofia Matuszczyk-Cygańska, Zofia Butrymowicz, and Stefania Milwicz) and used to cover the walls did little to solve this problem10. The impression of chaos was aggravated by mismatched flower patterns, and poorly fitted stonework, not always composed of what the architect had ordered. The White Marianna and Labrador marbles from Piława Górna, marbles from the Kielce region, as well as glasswork supplies – despite the the government’s priority for the construction of Warsaw Philharmonic – were successfully taken over by the Palace of Culture and Science, whose construction proceeded simultaneously with that of the concert hall. Throughout 1954 the ChC’s Executive Committee did its best to speed up the construction work. Up against the wall, fearing that the Competition would have to be postponed again or, even The jury of the 5th ChC consisted of: Guido Agosti (Italy), Stefan Askenase (Belgium), Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (Italy), Émile Bosquet (Belgium), Harold Craxton (UK, deputy chair), Zbigniew Drzewiecki (Poland, chair of the jury), Jacques Février (France), Flora Guerra (Chile), Emil Hájek (Czechoslovakia), Jan Hoffman (Poland), Louis Kentner (UK), Lazare Lévy (France), Witold Lutosławski (Poland), Joseph Marx (Austria), František Maxián (Czechoslovakia), Lev Oborin (USSR, deputy chair), Lubomir Pipkov (Bulgaria), Bruno Seidlhofer (Austria), Hugo Steurer (East Germany), Ma Su-Cun (China), Stanisław Szpinalski (Poland, secretary of the jury), Henryk Sztompka (Poland), Józef Śmidowicz (Poland, substituting for temporarily absent jurors), Magda Tagliaferro (Brazil, deputy chair), Erik Then-Bergh (West Germany), Margerita Trombini-Kazuro (Poland), Imré Ungár (Hungary), Maria Wiłkomirska (Poland, substituting for temporarily absent jurors), Jakov Zak (USSR), Carlo Zecchi (Italy), and Jerzy Żurawlew (Poland). 10 chopin.indb 141 15.02.2021 09:33:14 142 Ada Arendt worse, held in the “Roma” hall, the Committee members discussed various ways of motivating the workers, including the idea of lifting a piano up onto the scaffolding to play “some easy pieces by Chopin” during a mass rally11. The idea was not as extravagant as it might seem. The ‘homeless’ Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra had for years given concerts in various untypical venues: the Mirów Market Hall, the seat of the Central Technical Organisation (NOT), the Passenger Automobile Industry (FSO), the newly built Żerań Heat Power Station, a textile manufacturing factory, as well as community centres, hospitals, and workers’ hostels throughout the Mazovia region. While the prewar Philharmonic building had been characterised by a certain aesthetic excess, the new one – being the result of many economic and ideological compromises – seemed to reflect the aesthetic shortage and lack of control over the building process. The atmosphere of political roughand-tumble, in which the design and the whole project was undergoing its successive modifications, made it impossible to impose a coherent regime with regard to exterior and interior decoration, while the various finishing materials were assembled using, so to speak, bricolage technique: some from the Glassworks in Szklarska Poręba, others from the numerous cooperatives which together made up the CPLiA Central Organisation for Folk and Artistic Industry [union of handicraft cooperatives – translator’s note]. The products of this company (which I will return to) were always an ideal excuse, since no other aesthetic was politically safer and more acceptable in the 1950s than ‘folklore’. It is primarily a shock caused the minimalist monumentality of the new Philharmonic building and by the vague economy of the interior furnishings that explains why press reports unequivocally focused on just one element – the lighting, and in particular, on the bronze, ceramic and crystal sconces and chandeliers, on which the “Stolica” weekly carried a separate picture story12. Other papers commented: The great Philharmonic hall gleams with the crystals on the chandeliers, the white mouldings and sculptures, the shine of the marbles and panelling13. 11 “Citizen Zygmunt Dworakowski [speaks]: ‘The point is, we must target the workers’ consciousness emotionally. […] I have a specific proposal – to hold a mass event at the building site, in cooperation with the Warsaw Philharmonic Investment Management […].’ Citizen Minister Piotrowski [speaks]: ‘May I supplement this idea? Let us bring a piano to the scaffolding, and combine this event with a performance of some easy pieces by Chopin.’” Archiwum Akt Nowych [Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw], shorthand notes from the jury’s plenary sessions, shelf mark 2/366/0/4.2/IV 14, item 119. 12 W. Mossoczy, Kandelabry dla Filharmonii Warszawskiej [Candelabra for Warsaw Philharmonic], “Stolica” 1954, Nos 51/52, pp. 8–9. 13 E. Dziębowska, Pierwszy po 15 latach wielki koncert symfoniczny w odbudowanej Filharmonii... [The First Great Symphonic Concert at the Rebuilt Philharmonic after 15 Years…], “Express Wieczorny” 1955, No. 45, p. 1. chopin.indb 142 15.02.2021 09:33:14 The 5th Competition. In Jasna Street 143 Decorative sconces (put in by Mieczysław Fedorowicz’s fitters’ team from the ‘Brąz Dekoracyjny’ [‘Decorative Bronze’] Cooperative) are already glowing with light on the staircases14. The splendid crystal chandeliers and sconces are already glowing with their full power. Public opinion praised them as an achievement worthy of a separate presentation15. The concert hall of the Philharmonic, which will be called National from now on, looks bright and festive. Today, it will be extraordinarily bright, with film floodlights fill the interior with glaring light, in which all the masterful beauty [of the hall] is even better visible16. Definitely too many glass baubles and trinkets, which makes the interior look like a huge shop with fake jewellery17. The 5th ChC was reported to have been unusually well lit, in contrast to the rest of the city, where energy saving was a binding regulation, and inspectors from the national electric energy supplier controlled both people’s homes and workplaces, looking for cases of excessive (and so illegal) use: A considerable improvement can be observed in electric energy management [since power cuts are less and less common]. The needs are still huge, though. One is still obliged to save energy. […] Energy saving continues to be a necessity, which all inhabitants of Warsaw have to understand. Switching off unnecessary lights, appliances and electric devices is obligatory in peak hours18. The Philharmonic building, though perceived as monumental, nevertheless did not impress the audience, as evident from the mention in “Express Wieczorny” of smokers who would just dump butt-ends wherever they could: In the interval, as we all know, smoking cigarettes is a priority. In the beautiful foyer on the first floor we find a notice: “Smoking allowed downstairs only.” So, many of the listeners go downstairs to light a cigarette – and, a moment later, run around looking for an ashtray. Since the search proves futile, some of the smokers try to stay in the so-called background and throw the ash on the floor. Cigarettes are then put out just as discreetly on the flashlight stands, on the window sills, or simply on the floor19. 14 [N.N.], Za 7 dni otwarcie Filharmonii [The Philharmonic Opens in 7 Days], “Express Wieczorny” 1955, No. 38, p. 1. 15 Kob, Pięć przed dwunastą Filharmonii Warszawskiej [Five to Twelve at Warsaw Philharmonic], “Życie Warszawy” 1955, No. 37, p. 5. 16 A. Wz., We wzniesionej z ruin Filharmonii Narodowej zainaugurowano konkurs im. F. Chopina [The F. Chopin Competition Has Been Inaugurated at Warsaw Philharmonic, Risen from Ruins], “Dziennik Polski” 1955, No. 45, p. 1. 17 A. Łepkowski, Konkurs trwa [The Competition Goes On], “Tygodnik Powszechny” 1955, No. 11, p. 12. 18 sad, Oszczędność prądu obowiązuje! [We Must Save Electricity!], “Trybuna Ludu” 1955, No. 43, p. 5. 19 Lik, Z estrady i zza kulis Konkursu im. Fr. Chopina [From the Stage and Backstage of the F. Chopin Competition], “Express Wieczorny” 1955, No. 47, p. 3. chopin.indb 143 15.02.2021 09:33:14 144 Ada Arendt The smoking habit was extremely common at that time, as confirmed by photographs of the audience taken during the Competition20 and a “Wiener Zeitung” correspondent who observed: “the place is expensive; cigarettes cost more than in Austria, and still half of the Poles are compulsive smokers. They most likely feed on nicotine or else receive free cigarette rations.”21 This journalistic joke was not far from the truth, since members of the jury and the ChC contestants did, in fact, receive 25 Wawel brand cigarettes a day. Altogether 72,000 cigarettes were ordered from the Radom Tobbacco Factory for the 36 days of the Competition. Chopin as a Cure for Impoliteness During the inaugural concert on 21st February, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra under Witold Rowicki played Stanisław Moniuszko’s ‘Fairy Tale’ Fantastical Overture (which had also been performed at the Philharmonic’s opening ceremony in 1902), Karol Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1 Op. 35 (with Wanda Wiłkomirska as soloist) and Witold Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra22. Lutosławski, now back in grace, was a jury member that year, and earlier also a member of the Executive Committee, where he defended young pianists from the designs of Film Polski [state-run film production and distribution company – translator’s note], which wanted to record the auditions. At one of the meetings, Lutosławski who was very sensitive to acoustic stimuli argued that even photographs ought to be taken only at rehearsals since “the noise of all those springs and shutters of a photo camera, and the strong light of the flashes is extremely irritating during music performance that requires maximum concentration”23. The film, directed by Stanisław Możdżeński, was eventually made, but it was shot during rehearsals as material for the Chopin Competition Chronicle, screened daily at cinemas in Warsaw and the capitals of Poland’s provinces. Kept, among others, at the Fryderyk Chopin Institute’s (NIFC) Sound Library, shelf mark 2185–2. 21 J. Marx, “Wiener Zeitung”, 27th March 1955, No. 72, quoted after: Głosy z zagranicy na temat przebiegu i organizacji V Konkursu Chopinowskiego [Foreign Commentators on the Course and Organisation of the 5th Chopin Competition], ed. K. Czekaj, Warszawa 1955, p. 13. 22 A remastered recording of the entire 5th ChC, inclusive of the initial performance of the national anthem (Dąbrowski’s mazurka) and speeches, was released in 2015 by Warner Classics. Cf. Warsaw Philharmonic Archive: The 1st Concert 1955, catalogue no. 0825646144631. 23 Archiwum Akt Nowych [Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw], shelf mark 2/366/0/4.2/IV 10, item 110. 20 chopin.indb 144 15.02.2021 09:33:15 The 5th Competition. In Jasna Street 145 The 5th ChC was a breakthrough as far as promotion, documentation, and dissemination were concerned. Starting with the 1st stage, Zakład Nagrań Dźwiękowych [Sound Recording Company] recorded all the Competition ‘productions’ (as they were referred to at that time) on tapes, always in three copies, one of which was sent to the Fryderyk Chopin Institute archive, the second – to Polish Radio, while the third was used to produce gramophone records, reproduced and sold (at 9.60 zlotys a copy) at a specially arranged stall on the ground flood of the Philharmonic. They were also used for promotional purposes, distributed free as gifts and along with the so-called ‘Record Gazette’, which consisted of four one-sided 78 rpm records pressed by the Gramophone Record Manufacture in issues of 100 to 300 copies24. The participants could also play back their own Competition performances from tapes at a stall in the “Polonia” hotel. Altogether, 4,500 minutes of music were recorded during that edition of the ChC. The wide audience could listen to the Competition on the radio. The inaugural concert, the 3rd stage, and the winners’ concert were broadcast live; stages I and II were partially rebroadcast at 7 p.m. on Channel One and at 10 p.m. on Channel Two25. According to official data, in 1955 there were only 30,000 radio licence holders in the whole of Poland. Expecting a high demand for entrance tickets, the organisers prepared three ‘radio broadcast’ rooms: at the Ministry of Culture and Art at 2 Krakowskie Przedmieście St., the Columned Hall of the Primate’s Palace at 3 Senatorska St., and the International Press and Books Salon (KMPiK) at 15 Nowy Świat St. Single tickets for those retransmission rooms cost 5 zlotys and 150 zlotys for a subscription for 37 auditions. However, most of them were distributed among the working class according to official lists. Tickets for the Philharmonic, though cheap (prices ranged from 10 to 30 zlotys, the equivalent of 6 and 19 zlotys nowadays) were hard to obtain. People complained that too many of them had been distributed among ‘snobs’: Attending the Competition now and then I came across many a cursed figure: The gloomy snobs that linger there through all the stages and auditions. Though they’re playing no Berceuse today 24 Grzegorz Jaszuński, Notatnik konkursowy [Notes on the Competition], “Życie Warszawy” 1955, No. 36, p. 3; J. Kański, Konkurs Chopinowski – już na płytach [The Chopin Competition – Now Available on Records], “Trybuna Ludu” 1955, No. 55, p. 3; Archiwum Akt Nowych [Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw], shelf mark 2/366/0/4.2/IV 10, item 193. 25 According to data from the Central Statistical Office (GUS), based on information collected by the Ministry of Communications, 168 persons out of 1000 had a radio set in the cities and 67 in the country (in 1955). Cf. 20 lat kultury w Polsce. Dane statystyczne [20 Years of Culture in Poland. Statistical Data], Warszawa 1966, p. 31. chopin.indb 145 15.02.2021 09:33:15 146 Ada Arendt the snobs still nod off for most of the morning […] and their faces show that they’re above all this; but then they clap their hands after each movement. During the intervals, they produce aphorisms about the downsides of the [new] Philharmonic: the poor acoustics and the ugly hall, and criticise those who played […] Such snobs are by no means an exception. There are many more of those who got their seats in the concert hall though they did not stand in the queue [for tickets]… Therefore I’m asking the Philharmonic [authorities]: In the future, let only those enter who really care for Chopin, and do not make a farce of serious matters! 26 It is true that tickets for the dress circle were distributed for free among press representatives, the Competition’s front office staff, foreign guests, Orbis [then a state-owned hotel monopoly – translator’s note], and among those who responded to the campaign, coordinated by “Życie Warszawy” daily, of lending private upright and concert pianos to the ChC participants (those instruments were then transported to the pianists’ rooms in the “Polonia” hotel). The state authorities’ box in the upper circle was excluded from this distribution system; it was accessible throughout the Competition to government members and their guests only.27 For regular sale at the box office there were 650 seats in the stalls, but nearly half of them were to be reserved for persons from the music world; a pool of unnumbered standing tickets was also set aside for pupils and students28. The tickets were rationed (two seats per one buyer) and sold only one day in advance. We learn from reports that one had to queue for up to seven hours to purchase tickets at one of the two box offices. The two ticket sellers (both named Janina) working there, harassed by ‘the press and ministry clerks’ – even became the subject of a separate article in “Trybuna Ludu”29. As usual, in response to the rationing and A. Marianowicz, Wierszyk Konkursowy [A Little Competition Poem], “Szpilki” 1955, No. 14, p. 2. [In the Polish original, the final couplet is based on the homophones Chopin and szopę (meaning ‘farce’ or ‘nonsense’ – translator’s note]. 27 The invitations to sit in the box designated for the state authorities, addressed to Bolesław Bierut and Edward Ochab, have been preserved in Archiwum Akt Nowych [Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw], shelf mark 2/366/0/4.2/IV 19, items 43–47. 28 Archiwum Akt Nowych [Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw], shelf mark 2/366/0/4.2/IV 10, items 87, 120. 29 “The Competition is a profound artistic experience for the ‘lucky ones’ who sit in the auditorium. We should also remember, though, about the effort and work of those who make listening to the music possible.” Rk, W małym pokoiku na Jasnej [In a Little Box Office in Jasna Street], “Trybuna Ludu” 1955, No. 60, p. 1. 26 chopin.indb 146 15.02.2021 09:33:15 The 5th Competition. In Jasna Street 147 selective distribution, a black market for tickets did spring up, as described by Władysław Kopaliński in “Życie Warszawy”: I heard the doorbell, opened the front door, and saw a boy aged 8 or 9 standing there with some pieces of paper in his hand. The conversation was short: “Would you like to buy tickets for Chopin?” “How many have you got?” “And how many do you want, sir?” “What’s the price?” “At the official price.” I didn’t make up my mind to buy them. But then I thought: What a good and kind kid he was! You sweat and toil, stand for hours in a queue to get to the Competition [auditions], and here comes a stranger lad who has got hold of the tickets and can spare you some, disinterestedly! Why, then, did I not accept them? Was it the base feeling of suspicion? Could I suspect that it was the Warsaw wheeler-dealers who sent him out with forged or stolen tickets since a small child cannot be held legally responsible? Should my suppositions prove true, even this can instil a kind of optimism in us. After all, if professional con men have taken an interest in Chopin as an ‘object’ and a ‘fast-selling commodity’, of a status similar to a boxing fight or a football match, it can no longer be put in doubt that Chopin has really become the property of the wide masses. Cynics muttered under their breath, that what excited the audience was mainly the question of who would win the top prizes. Still, even if this is true, it is still a sound and noble kind of excitement. But observing the auditorium during the concerts, one could easily prove such innuendos false. How those people listened! Did you ever try, in the audition hours, to stalk in the staircase of any house? A genuine miracle! Behind every door, in every flat, one can hear Chopin, who sings, weeps, revolts, and burns. Who can say what wealth of emotions and dreams, reverie and joy, of beauty – has been experienced by those hundreds and hundreds of thousands of listeners? Conversations trailed off, the everyday hustle and bustle was over. In those hours, the best qualities that normally lie dormant in people woke up in even the less musical persons, and they turned more human30. Tickets were not the only thing that was forged. The so-called szopenki or ‘little Chopins’ were sold – home-made Competition gadgets , which “Trybuna Ludu” thus described, with considerable indignation: Warsaw’s private small retail is selling sell pseudo-medallions made of pseudoceramics with a pseudo-portrait of Chopin. Their (unknown) producers gave them the catchy name of ‘little Chopins’. One must admit that the commercial genius of the inventor of this business concept is considerably greater than the graphic talents of those who make these weird rectangular objects, in which a huge nose figures prominently as the quintessence of the Chopin image. One may expect, however, that despite their ugliness the ‘little Chopins’ will sell well, since we have issued no other such souvenirs apart from the metal Competition badge. What is at stake is not just the ‘little Chopins’ themselves – the problem is of a much 30 W. Kopaliński, Ponęty życzliwości [The Lure of Kindness], “Życie Warszawy” 1955, No. 68, pp. 3–4. chopin.indb 147 15.02.2021 09:33:15 148 Ada Arendt wider nature. We have still not learnt that wherever we do not show artistic and commercial initiative – junk will inexorably worm its way31. In the same period when, as Kopaliński claimed, “a wealth of emotions and dreams, reverie and joy, of beauty” finally became accessible to “hundreds of thousands of listeners”, the hit that reigned supreme on the radio along with Chopin’s music was Warszawa, miasto uśmiechu [Warsaw, the City of Smiles]32. When Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz conjured up the gods of happiness and propitiousness from the stage in the same spirit (“Quod bonum, faustum, felixque sit!”), while the words ‘love’, ‘joy’, and ‘kindness’ cropped up in every speech during the Competition, one could speak indeed of a kind of a quasi-Olympic ceasefire. The fight nevertheless carried on, and on many fronts: in workplaces, in public space, and in blocks of flats. Kopaliński’s anecdote printed in “Życie Warszawy” concerned this very problem. He wrote further: If only we did not need such unusual and atmospheric contexts to bring out to the surface that little drop of warmth which can be found in nearly every ordinary human being! […] Who are those passengers on the public transport, pushing and shoving each other brutally and hurling insults at others; those impolite customers and shop assistants defiantly reluctant to help; flatmates who make life hell for each other, making each other sick or hysterical. Are they not ourselves, the very same people who now listen to Chopin, lost in thought? Because “music soothes the savage breast”, Chopin was seen as a civilising agent and a catalyst of positive emotions, which were still scarce in the traumatised society. Believed to moderate human urges and help to curb aggression, Chopin's music could be used to combat ‘hooliganism’ which, along with bikiniarstwo [youth counterculture distinguished by extravagant clothing – translator’s note] had for more or less two years been recognised as a new public enemy, particularly hotly discussed in the press in the early 195533. The ‘hooligans’, that is, lost and ‘degenerate’ youth of the kind presented in the movie Piątka z ulicy Barskiej [Five Boys from Barska Street] then shown in cinemas, coupled with the jazz-loving bikiniarze and their Z, Szopenki [The Chopin Gadgets], “Trybuna Ludu” 1955, No. 57, p. 4. “Warsaw, the city of smiles / rises like a mighty oak / every day there are green bunches [Pol. wiecha: traditional symbol of house construction being completed – translator’s note] / on new houses […] Time flows merrily in this city / Among people, trams and stars. / A forest of scaffoldings surrounds us / As tall as the old Polish woods.” Words by K. Winkler, music by R. Żyliński, 1953. The song was performed by, among others, Czejanda Choir, Marta Mirska, and Andrzej Bogucki. 33 Debates on this subject were printed in “Nowa Kultura”, “Przegląd Kulturalny”, and “Po Prostu”. The main discussants were Jerzy Broszkiewicz, Salomon Łastik, and Stefan Kozicki. 31 32 chopin.indb 148 15.02.2021 09:33:15 The 5th Competition. In Jasna Street 149 garish clothes, constituted a world opposed to the conformist Chopin audience. These two worlds – the ‘stiff ’ consumers of official culture and ‘savages meeting in dens’ were frequently opposed to each other, among others by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, in a diary entry from the time of the 5th ChC34. Curiously, the group that proved most influential in its comments about the Chopin Competition were not the VIPs sitting in the government box, but the youth represented by the STS Student Satirical Theatre. Here Comes the Youth35 One of the most electrifying events during the 5th ChC was the visit from Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, whose stay in Poland received extensive press coverage on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The visit was also commented upon in interesting diary entries, which are worth quoting here in full: The Chopin Competition is over. At the event, a very warm welcome was given to Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, which is said to have caused a hangover among the authorities – precisely because the welcome was too good. The Soviet ambassador turned his back on her when she was leaving a reception at the Council of Ministers. The Queen was unfortunate enough to come here at the same time as the Soviet parliamentary deputation, whose stay went unnoticed in comparison with her visit. On Monday Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz held breakfast with her participation in Stawisko. Guests included, apart from the Queen’s entourage, also Professor [Kazimierz] Michałowski of the National Museum, J[an] Parandowski, Maria Dąbrowska, [Eugeniusz] Eibisch, [Witold] Lutosławski, and myself. The old lady made the impression of a smart person, willing to come to an agreement with the Soviet Bloc, opposing the remilitarisation of West Germany, trying to win us over very much, and suspiciously delighted with everything she saw here. She questioned me for a long time as to why Panufnik had left Poland. I explained it to her as clearly and logically as I could. She told me about the problems which she had to overcome in Belgium in order to come to Poland. It is a pity I cannot tell her now what problems many people will have once she has left36, 34 “The most painful and now most widely discussed topic is the youth. I am not pessimistic in this respect. Naturally, we have all those hooligans, and this is a very serious social problem. […] It is obviously a sign of the society generally becoming barbarian, which is a distinct trend. Hooliganism is yet another symptom of the decline of culture. But this is not what I wished to write about. My topic is all those young people who seem to contradict the pessimistic conclusions, and of whom there are very many, contrary to appearances. […] The Chopin Competition and Harasiewicz; where does such a phenomenon come from? Cultured, a charming personality, and speaks French!” J. Iwaszkiewicz, Dzienniki 1911–1955 [Diaries 1911–1955], eds A. and R. Papieski, Warszawa 2010, p. 470. 35 The title of the first STS programme was To idzie młodość, which means “Here Comes the Youth”. 36 Z. Mycielski, Dziennik 1950–1959 [Diary 1950–1959], Warszawa 1999, pp. 52–53. chopin.indb 149 15.02.2021 09:33:15 150 Ada Arendt wrote Zygmunt Mycielski, while Iwaszkiewicz himself thus recalled the “three weeks spent with the Queen”: What strange three weeks, as from an Andersen fairy-tale. And how lucky I am to have had such three weeks in my life, though they exhausted me completely. I have been resting for three days, sleeping for ten hours in the night and two during the day. Today is the first day of spring […] Three full weeks of wonderful music, or at least what seemed like wonderful music to me. It has simply been a time of intoxication with Chopin’s genius, viewed from ever new angles, and shining with ever new colours of the rainbow. And those brilliant boys: [Adam] Harasiewicz, Fu Tsung, Tamás Vásáry – what youthful charm, what intoxication with youth. In this context, a visit from a charming old and lonely lady, qui par hazard est une reine. How strange; nearly a year ago I described her in such detail, in the belief that meeting her was a unique episode in my life. But here I spent nearly two weeks with her on a daily basis, including two days under one roof in Cracow, engaging in simple everyday conversations. She was also in Stawisko. The breakfast was splendid, but let the others write about that. We had here everything at once: flowers, receptions, formal dresses, previews… What a paradox, in our sad and dull reality. The only pleasant bit was that, together with Hanna, I was able to represent our good old Polish culture. […] Immaculately clean, Stawisko looked delightful. We changed nothing, and only used our own china and silver. So it was very normal. Oh, what tomfoolery! In the face of the spring night, the act on Germany receiving more arms supplies, the horror in the shadow of which we live, one cannot help indulging in some little snobbish pleasures; […] This weird fairy-tale is now over, and all this has vanished37. Soon after the end of this ‘fairy-tale’, another premiere by the increasingly popular STS theatre was held in the “Energetyk” cinema hall. The Student Satirical Theatre itself was – unlike the jazz bands, for instance – not a part of the underground youth culture. It operated legally, the stage scripts were subject to censorship, and Sokorski himself, the Minister of Culture and Art, sometimes sat in the audience. The finale, however, in which a political satire (then still rare) was sung to the melody of the Marian hymn Salve Regina, was a surprise to everyone present: It’s a great time for monarchists in Poland on this day since the Queen from Belgium has come to raise our Polish spirits. Therefore the Polish Zulus flock to meet the white queen in front of the Philharmonic, to kiss her little hand or at least wrap their arms around her knees in obeisance. Thousands of people came to greet her with scapulars on their breasts; 37 chopin.indb 150 J. Iwaszkiewicz, op. cit., p. 473. 15.02.2021 09:33:15 The 5th Competition. In Jasna Street 151 the honorary Hussar units… But one guy was the first to please her, and for assisting her day in, day out, for carrying the crown behind her this progressive artist was awarded with a baron’s title. So our feudalists did breathe freely and confidently again, and even the first-class Marxists joined the Queen at the church. One minister administered the holy water as the custom was and another great statesman sang Sub Tuum praesidium. But the staunchest reactionaries said: “This case is too dubious; you won’t take us in with this joke: this Queen is your Party’s supporter.” All the Union of Polish Youth dream of it night and day that the Queen will ‘choose freedom’ and… ask for asylum [in Poland]. Many have already considered monarchy; “Off with democracy – let it perish.” While Szczerbiec [Polish kings’ coronation sword – translator’s note] is still in Canada, most fools are in London38. The audience were delighted. This is how Jarosław Abramow-Newerly recalled the atmosphere of that evening: We already had a good reputation, and more and more guests were coming. Apart from dignitaries from the official list, new ones were flocking in, not to mention our friends and regular fans […]. We also had a sizeable group of snobs, who came to premieres at the STS to come in contact with numerous celebrities. What was worst, there were not enough seats for the celebs, and so we hastily brought some additional ones, but we ran out of these as well. People stood along the wall or sat on the floor. […] There is nothing like a tram-like crush in the hall! […] The audience was warming up, applauded every number, and as we approached the end, the enthusiasm grew. I was confident that the finale would be a success, but I could hardly predict what would happen during the Salve Regina. I had never taken A. Jarecki, Salve regina, in: Trudno nie pisać satyry. Teksty kabaretowe teatru satyryków STS 1954–1972. Antologia [One Can’t Help Writing Satires. Cabaret Scripts from the STS Satirical Theatre, 1954–1972. An Anthology] selected by R. Pracz, Warszawa 2004, pp. 23–24. The last stanza was added under the pressure of a censor’s intervention, as confirmed by Jarosław Abramow-Newerly in his book Lwy STS­u [The Lions of STS], Warszawa 2005, pp. 154–155. 38 chopin.indb 151 15.02.2021 09:33:15 152 Ada Arendt part in such group ecstasy. Naturally, after the words “but one guy was the first to please her” there was a roar of laughter, and everyone looked at Iwaszkiewicz, who grinned, his massive jaw open, and nodded his bald head with approval. […] The following day, the ZLP [Polish Writers’ Union], SPATiF [the Society of Polish Theatre and Film Artists], and the Journalists’ Club were all abuzz with rumours, and at the STS people were talking only about Jarecki’s ballad. The phone rang at the box office all the time, and every caller was a celebrity who also wished to come and see what they heard was a ‘keen’ satirical programme39. The song resonated widely. Iwaszkiewicz had to excuse himself at the final meeting of the Executive Committee that summed up the 5th ChC40, and explain the ‘baron’s title’, while the joke concerning the Queen “asking for asylum” was commented on by Maria Dąbrowska in her diary: The Queen of Belgium (widow of the great Albert) is 79 years old. One could hardly imagine a more royal example of a tireless, indefatigable, enduring, and youthful-minded person at such an age. She made our exhausted and stressed gentlemen feel dead on their feet, while she was never tired of sightseeing and watching. She was expected to stay a few days after the competition, but she stayed for about three weeks, until some people wondered whether she would not “ask for asylum”. On the day when I ate dinner with her at the Iwaszkiewiczes’, she had spent the morning watching “Mazowsze” [song and dance ensemble] at Karolina, and following nearly three hours in Stawisko, she was to attend a spectacle of Romeo and Juliet that very evening. On the day of her return to Brussels, she still managed to visit some blocks of flats and kindergartens in our district, very close to Tulcia’s school [Tulcia – the daughter of Anna Kowalska, Dąbrowska’s life partner]. Tulcia told us that the Queen “walked as if she was floating in the air”. I find it hilarious that I ate my first dinner with a queen in a socialist state. And how much piquancy in the fact that a rich wife and a lordly estate only proved useful to Iwaszkiewicz when 39 J. Abramow-Newerly, op. cit., pp. 155–156. “Citizen Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz [speaks]: ‘The second threat that I wish to elaborate on is the sport-like character of our Competition. It is not a welcome phenomenon, and it must unfortunately be said that our Philharmonic hall quite frequently resembled the Mirów Market. What I mean is also how the Competition gives rise to despicable and disgusting rumour, to anonymous letters that aim to slander the jury members as well as the candidates. All this is very unpleasant, but can also be seen as evidence of underhand scheming. As concerns the rumours and anonymous letters, our press seems partly to blame – not those who wrote about things, but those who did not write, or forbid to write about some topics. It is quite normal. If the public finds no food for talk in the press, this creates the right climate for people falling prey of the public opinion. Should the press have informed that during her stay in Cracow the queen made gifts of watches to the staff at Wawel Castle, it would, I hope, spare us rumour of the kind that [Lidia] Grychtołówna got a diamond necklace, Harasiewicz – a car, and Iwaszkiewicz – the title of a viscount at her court. When the press was silent about such a trifle as that Queen Elisabeth presented her photograph to Iwaszkiewicz, rumour turned this into the title of viscount. And some people asked me whether this was true.’” Archiwum Akt Nowych [Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw], shelf mark 2/366/0/4.2/IV vol. 10, item 172. 40 chopin.indb 152 15.02.2021 09:33:16 The 5th Competition. In Jasna Street 153 socialism came, because he had a place to host the Queen. He knows her from the times when he worked for the Polish diplomatic mission in Belgium. […] The dinner was excellent, served by some of Jarosław’s ‘boys’; Elisabeth was full of charm, and the conversation went so well and smoothly that it surely was the most pleasant social circle I have had the chance to join in the last decade, I suppose – though devoid of any major significance and depth. I sat at the table next to a musicologist who accompanied the Queen and spoke in an engaging manner about Negro music in Africa. He turned out to be my schoolmate, since he studied at the University of Brussels at the same time when I took up natural science there. I can remember Elisabeth when she was young and ascended to the throne with [King] Albert. Warsaw had lots of fun and told plenty of merry anecdotes during this visit, which pleased the communists but scandalised the reactionaries. Strange41. The Competition itself, despite the pool of tickets set aside for university and school students, was by no means a youth event. Youth magazines focused on ‘hooliganism’ and on preparations for the World Festival of Youth and Students to be held in July. Reports on the ChC were perfunctory. At the last meeting preceding the Competition opening, the ‘youthfulness’ of the Polish team was criticised as its most serious drawback. The audience – visually rather monolithic – comprised only few young faces. Perhaps also the dance evening at the “Polonia” hotel, held for the contestants, featured a standard dance repertoire like the one played by Jan Cajmer’s orchestra: “a tango, another tango, a foxtrot, a waltz, another waltz, a polka, a kujawiak, another kujawiak, an oberek”42. Even the bottle game, where dancing pairs danced with a bottle until it was passed on to the neighbours, and when the orchestra suddenly stopped playing, the pair left with the bottle dropped out of the game43, was hardly a ‘youth’ type of entertainment; it was rather an element of folk wedding receptions. M. Dąbrowska, Dzienniki 1914–1965 [Journals 1914–1965], vol. IX, 1953–1955, Warszawa 2009, p. 156. 42 The original Polish text uses the verb cajmeryzować, popular in the late 1940s and early 1950s, coined after the name of Jan Cajmer’s Polish Radio Dance Orchestra, which was the symbol of officially approved low-quality 1940s and 50s music. The repertoires of popular orchestras from that time was thus recalled by pianist Tadeusz Prejzner, pupil of Stanisław Drzewiecki: “Our orchestra played instrumental music mainly for dance: at weekends, in the carnival, and at various student balls. […] They gave me the programme that I was to perform: a tango, another tango, a foxtrot, a waltz, another waltz, a polka, a kujawiak, another kujawiak, an oberek. When we played the kujawiak, all the young people on the dance floor began to whistle and boo. We would lose our heads, stop playing, and did not know what to do next.” Cf. M. Gaszyński, Fruwa twoja marynara. Lata czterdzieste i pięćdziesiąte – jazz, dancing, rock and roll [Your Jacket’s Flying Up. The 1940s and 50s: Jazz, Dance Music, Rock’n’roll], Warszawa 2006, p. 35. 43 Now, Foto Express z wieczorku tanecznego dla młodych pianistów w „Polonii” [A Picture Story, from the Dance Party for Young Pianists at the “Polonia”], “Express Wieczorny” 1955, No. 61, p. 3. 41 chopin.indb 153 15.02.2021 09:33:16 154 Ada Arendt Foreign Delights Ten years after the end of the war, the Competition still struggled with numerous material difficulties. The problem of the shortage of pianos, which had given the organisers a headache in 1949, was now solved as the Ministry of Foreign Trade granted the ChC foreign currency to buy instruments: one Blüthner, two Bösendorfers, one Pleyel, and two Steinways. Besides, there was an organised action of transporting pianos from cultural institutions in other Polish cities to Warsaw44, and since the State Higher School of Music was on winter break, the school’s pianos were put at the disposal of the ChC. Finally, 70 pianos were hired from the people of Warsaw. The Polish team, which had been practising intensively from 1953 onward, originally consisted of eleven young pianists, selected in three-stage internal preliminaries, who received monthly scholarships of 600 to 1100 zlotys each. Traditionally, a preparatory summer camp was held, this time in Gdynia Orłowo, where the candidates, accommodated at the Secondary School of Fine Arts, were practising (and, as Lidia Grychtołówna recalled, also sunbathing on the beach) for one-and-a-half months, supervised by an Educational Committee45. The camp was a kind of ‘pianist factory’, since its participants included Juliusz Borzym (preparing for the contest in Bolzano) as well as Ryszard Bakst and Regina Smendzianka (training for the Geneva International Music Competition) and (on the basis of an agreement with the People’s Republic of China) – also Fou Ts’ong (who then resided in Poland; and during the 5th ChC he was jokingly called “the best pianist of the Polish team”). The ‘factory’ paid attention not only to the quality of performance, but also the ability to manage stage fright. The Polish representatives were thought of as a team: “Our poorest candidate should play well enough to deserve the 5th prize,” commented Stanisław Szpinalski during the Educational Committee’s sessions46. ‘Industrial’ metaphors were also used by the press: “[T]he piano is no longer a Pegasus, but a precise and sensitive machine for music modelling,” wrote a “Tygodnik Powszechny” reviewer47. Eventu“Citizen Szpinalski [speaks]: ‘Do we have any possibility to find and obtain instruments in Poland?’ Citizen Jasieński: ‘Yes. Independently from importing instruments from abroad, we are looking for instruments in the country. Among others, two pianos have been brought from Olsztyn, but one of the Pleyels has been exchanged for another, which stood at the Dramatyczny Theatre.’” Archiwum Akt Nowych [Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw], shelf mark 2/366/0/4.2/IV 20, item 19. 45 The Committee consisted of: Zbigniew Drzewiecki, Stanisław Szpinalski, Bolesław Woytowicz, Jan Hoffman, and Maria Wiłkomirska. 46 Archiwum Akt Nowych [Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw], shelf mark 2/366/0/4.2/IV 10, item 26. 47 A. Łepkowski, “Tygodnik Powszechny” 1955, No. 819, p. 1. 44 chopin.indb 154 15.02.2021 09:33:16 The 5th Competition. In Jasna Street 155 ally, the following Polish pianists entered the 1955 Competition: Andrzej Czajkowski [later known abroad as André Tchaikovsky – translator’s note], Danuta Dworakowska, Lidia Grychtołówna, Adam Harasiewicz, Tadeusz Kerner, Edwin Kowalik, Miłosz Magin, and Włodzimierz Obidowicz. Support for pianists was not limited to scholarships, concert organisation, and camps. As befits the Polish ‘national team’, they were also clothed: Women in dresses made of taffeta, tulle, and silk; men in suits, tailcoats, and shirts. Besides, the less well-off participants received clothing benefits to buy casual clothes and sportswear as well. The entire Warsaw Philharmonic personnel also received new clothes. In the letters sent to the Minister of Culture and Art, the demand for such a great amount of clothing was justified with the claim that the pianists would have contact with guests from abroad. And as it turned out, foreign artists and visitors set the bar very high. The colourful garments of Malinee Peris from Ceylon were widely commented upon, as were the Queen’s furs and silks, while the Frenchman Bernard Ringeissen won an informal popularity contest, not because he danced the oberek very well, but because he “brilliantly wore a fabulously colourful scarf (or even two scarves)”48. In 1955 Poland was a country where the women’s magazine “Kobieta i Życie” argued that “the desire to wear elegant clothes is not a bourgeois relic, as many might think. […] Ten years after the war, our citizens, working hard to rebuild the country, have the right to dress decently.”49 The student weekly “Po Prostu” discussed at length the case of a student who put on a bow tie for an academic party, while a “Nowa Kultura” reporter joined the debate about bikiniarze saying that before the war he had seen with his own eyes a communist dressed in checked socks. In such an atmosphere, new and trendy clothes suited to the occasion were temporarily restored to official favour. For the duration of the 5th ChC, the fight against foreign elements in clothing was suspended, even though only three years earlier the Paris “Kultura” [Polish-émigré literary-political magazine – translator’s note] reported: One can see fewer and fewer well-dressed people in the streets of Warsaw. Those who still have some decent clothes, or get them in a parcel from abroad, are afraid to put them on lest they should attract attention. The only really well-dressed people in today’s Warsaw, and the only ones who feel at ease in the street, are the personnel of Western diplomatic posts50. 48 [N.N.], W „Miasteczku Chopinowskim” [In the ‘Chopin District’], “Express Wieczorny” 1955, No. 42, p. 2. 49 Aleksandra Z., „Babskie fatałaszki” to sprawa tylko pozornie błaha [‘Women’s Furbelows’ Are Only Apparently a Trivial Issue], “Kobieta i Życie”, 1st March 1956, p. 11. Quoted after: B. Brzostek, Za progiem. Codzienność w przestrzeni publicznej Warszawy lat 1955–1970 [In Town. Everyday Life in Warsaw’s Public Space, 1955–1970], Warszawa 2007, p. 269. 50 Berlińczyk, Kronika krajowa [Home Chronicle], “Kultura” 1952, No. 12, p. 119. chopin.indb 155 15.02.2021 09:33:16 156 Ada Arendt The Chopin Competition, however, made people in Warsaw (in late February and early March of 1955) particularly aware of clothing, its colours and fabrics. This was, however, merely a prelude to the extravaganza of colour and ‘international quirkiness’ which would break out in July during the World Festival of Youth and Students. The hub of fashion was not at the Philharmonic, but in the “Polonia” hotel, the former seat of Warsaw’s embassies. Ka-ja, a female journalist for “Kobieta i Życie” [“Woman and Life”], reported in the vogue column: I met Agnieszka in front of the “Polonia” hotel. She was parading the most recent designs, and her head was wrapped in a black shawl which fluttered in the wind. As I came up to her, I heard her hum something gloomily to herself. “What are you doing here and what are you singing?” “What do you mean what I’m doing? Experiencing. Experiencing through my song. Because I am always apropos.” “Apropos of what?” “Of Chopin.”51 Later in the article they talk about the dress of Florence Margue-Wong, representing Luxembourg, which – as Agnieszka wrongly interpreted – was made of opus, and about the mazurkas which, though repeated at the auditions ad nauseam, nevertheless “earned Chopin an international contest”. “‘International!’ When she uttered this word, Agnieszka’s eyes misted with textile and international delight,” ends ka-ja, a bit derisively, but also clearly herself under the impression of that ‘misty international aura’. However, much was done during the 5th ChC for foreign guests to see a quite different kind of mist – mist ‘made by CPLiA’. To begin with, they received 1500 zlotys of ‘pocket money’ each, as well as coupons for the laundry and the hairdresser, to be used in the “Polonia” hotel’s newly renovated hairdressing salon and barber’s shop, where the best stylists in town were sent to work. At the hotel’s dining room a huge world map was placed, with ribbons linking Warsaw to the home countries of the Competition’s international guests. Four kinds of cuisines were served: Central European, Scandinavian, Polish-Russian, and dietetic. The waiters, who spoke foreign languages, served pikeperch in aspic, pullets in butter and pommes-frittes, and for dessert – Peach Melba and Cadarca of Szekszárd. A new club opened on the second floor of the hotel, which – though not heated well enough (during those frosty days the hotel received rations of unsorted fuel) attracted the guests with its folkloric furnishings, including graphic art, tapestries, wicker handicrafts, folk mats on the walls, and embroidered ribbons. The Compeka-ja, Suknia z opusu [A Gown from the Opus], “Kobieta i Życie” 1955, No. 8, p. 9. On the ‘refined’ and ‘world-class’ atmosphere at the “Polonia” hotel, cf. also A. Wolska, Hotel Ambasadorów [The Hotel of Ambassadors], “Kobieta i Życie” 1955, No. 8, p. 4. 51 chopin.indb 156 15.02.2021 09:33:16 The 5th Competition. In Jasna Street 157 tition guests could only export from of Poland 50 per cent of the cash and awards they received. Therefore, as in the Philharmonic, also here there was a CPLiA shop and a CAF (Central Photographic Agency) stall next to it. When the guests were leaving, 125 parcels were distributed as farewell gifts, comprising CPLiA products, sheet music, books, and the 1st stage auditions on music records. The wide-ranging entertainment programme included visits to the headquarters of the Central Committee of the communist party, the Central Park of Culture, the Agrykola and Royal Łazienki Parks, the Belweder, Warsaw’s districts of Mokotów and Muranów, Dzerzhinsky and Stalin Squares, MDM (the new Marszałkowska Housing District), the Palace of Culture and Science, the Zachęta Gallery, the National Museum, Żelazowa Wola (Chopin’s birthplace), the newly opened Fryderyk Chopin Museum, Karolin, and Wilanów. In the evenings, the guests would go to the theatre, the opera, or the cinema to see such films as Powrót na Stare Miasto [Return to the Old Town], Młodość Chopina [Youth of Chopin], and Piątka z ulicy Barskiej [Five Boys from Barska Street]. The press followed the foreign guests’ every step, while headlines printed in bold on the front pages of Polish papers informed: “From Warsaw, Ridva [correct spelling: Ritva] Arjava called Helsinki, and the mother of Tania Achot[-Haroutounian] – Teheran, to tell their families and friends how they fared at the auditions.”52 The Jury’s Verdict The Iranian artist Achot from Teheran and the Finnish Arjava from Helsinki were, along with Eduardo Alvardo of Ecuador, the first contestants to perform in the 1st stage auditions (on Tuesday 22nd February) and found themselves among the 39 pianists who made it into stage two. Though according to the ChC regulations only participants who scored more than 16 points could get into that stage, the jury decided by a vote to admit Tania Achot and Tamás Vásáry as well who both received 15.95 points. The 2nd stage took six days, 6 to 7 auditions per day, starting at 9.30 a.m. and 4 p.m. It was Vladimir Ashkenazy who scored the largest number of points after stage one, followed by Adam Harasiewicz as runner-up and Dmitry Sakharov coming third (these scores were made public only after the Competition was over). Ashkenazy remained the leader after stage two, while Bernard Ringeissen came in second and Harasiewicz fell to third place. Thanks to a brilliant performance of the E-Minor Concerto Harasiewicz got the highest marks in the finals, with Fou Zam, Ridva Arjava do Helsinek, a matka Tani Achot do Teheranu telefonowały wczoraj z Warszawy, by powiedzieć swoim najbliższym, jak udał się występ [From Warsaw, Ridva Arjava Called Helsinki, and the Mother of Tania Achot – Teheran, to Tell Their Families and Friends How They Fared at the Auditions], “Express Wieczorny” 1955, No. 46, p. 1. 52 chopin.indb 157 15.02.2021 09:33:16 158 Ada Arendt Ts'ong and Naum Shtarkman occupying the next two places. After the points from all the three stages had been summed up, it turned out that Harasiewicz came 1.23 points ahead of Ashkenazy, while the truly spectacular interpretation of the F­Minor Concerto won Fou Ts’ong the 3rd prize53. The results provoked mixed feelings. The audience demanded the 1st prize for their favourite, Bernard Ringeissen, who epitomised the prewar charm and whose playing evoked the spirit of the old French piano school. “The Warsaw audience, which has always had its own opinion, also this time feels extremely bitter about the jury’s verdict, since they believe that the first prize should have gone to Ringeissen. When he failed to earn it and, in a sad mood, was getting into a car with his mother, the enthusiastic crowd in front of the Philharmonic began to throw them up into the air, along with the car!” Jerzy Waldorff recalled54. Few people knew, though, that the 1st prize was also the subject of a heated discussion among the jury. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli proposed that two joint first prizes should be awarded. It was to Ashkenazy that the Italian juror had given the highest marks in each of the stages55. However, Benedetti Michelangeli’s proposal was rejected, since the jury believed the 1.23 points between the Russian and the Polish pianist’s scores was too great a difference for a joint prize56. The voting protocols kept 53 Here is a complete list of all the 5th ChC prizes and awards: 1st prize: Adam Harasiewicz (Poland), 2nd prize: Vladimir Ashkenazy (USSR), 3rd prize: Fou Ts’ong (China), 4th prize: Bernard Ringeissen (France), 5th prize: Naum Shtarkman (USSR), 6th prize: Dmitry Paperno (USSR), 7th prize: Lidia Grychtołówna (Poland), 8th prize: Andrzej Czajkowski (Poland), 9th prize: Dmitry Sakharov (USSR), 10th prize: Kiyoko Tanaka (Japan); Polish Radio Award for the best performance of mazurkas: Fou Ts’ong (China); honourable mentions: Emi Béhar (Bulgaria), Monique Duphil (France), Péter Frankl (Hungary), Stanislav Knor (Czechoslovakia), Edwin Kowalik (Poland), Nina Lelchuk (USSR), Miłosz Magin (Poland), Annerose Schmidt (GDR), Irina Sialova (USSR), and Tamás Vásáry (Hungary). 54 J. Waldorff, Wielka gra, op. cit., p. 104. 55 Scores given by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli: Stage I – Ashkenazy 22 points, Banhalmi 21, Frankl 20 (he also gave the highest marks to Frankl for his mazurkas – 23 points); stage II – the same pianists in the same order; the finals: Ashkenazy 24, Grychtołówna 22, Paperno and Shtarkman – 20 points each. Interestingly, of the Polish jurors also Witold Lutosławski recognised Ashkenazy’s talent; in stage I he gave him 25 points (the highest mark) to Sakharov, but 24 to Harasiewicz and Ashkenazy; in stage II – his highest score (22) went to both Harasiewicz and Ashkenazy, while Lidia Grychtołówna earned 21 points from him, plus his highest marks for the mazurkas (23). In stage III Lutosławski gave 24 points to Harasiewicz and Ringeissen, followed by Shtarkman and Grychtołówna with 22 points. 56 Archiwum Akt Nowych [Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw], shelf mark 2/366/0/4.2/IV 11, item 159. There is no evidence that Michelangeli resigned from the jury after the rejection of his proposal, as a few English-language sources would have it. Cf. S. Isacoff, When the World Stopped to Listen. Van Cliburn’s Cold War Triumph, and its Aftermath, New York 2017, p. 67; M. Mitchell, Virtuosi: A Defense and a (Sometimes Erotic) Celebration of Great Pianists, Indiana 2000, p. 147. chopin.indb 158 15.02.2021 09:33:16 The 5th Competition. In Jasna Street 159 at the Fryderyk Chopin Institute’s (NIFC) archive prove that the Polish jurors (except for Jerzy Żurawlew) gave Ashkenazy distinctly lower marks in the 3rd stage that the other jury members. On the other hand, the then 18-year-old Ashkenazy’s appearance in the finals was his poorest performance during the 5th ChC. However, what many persons remembered the 5th ChC for was, first and foremost, the cycle of symphonic concerts and jurors’ recitals which ran parallel to the Competition auditions and continued even after the ChC was over. Apart from Warsaw, these events were held in such cities as Poznań, Cracow, Stalinogród (the then name of Katowice), Gliwice, Lublin, Szczecin, Łódź, Toruń, Bydgoszcz, and Wrocław. Named as the most memorable were the two performances by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, on 27th February (Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A Minor Op. 54 with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra under Witold Rowicki) and a solo recital on 13th March. The latter was thus described by an eyewitness, Józef Kański: The then 35-year-old Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli gave two concerts which proved a genuine sensation, as they carried the delighted audience into, so to speak, quite a different dimension of music and pianism. […] He began with Bach’s Chaconne, arranged by Busoni, in which the three entries of the main theme were like the vault ceilings of three naves of a monumental cathedral. Professor Piotr Rytel, an eminent piano expert whose experience in this field goes back as far as World War I, said – when asked about his opinion later – that already after the first chords of the Chaconne he realised what a unique pianistic phenomenon we are witnessing. Then came Beethoven’s Sonata in C Major Op. 2 No. 3, delighting the ear with its Olympic balance and peace (the technical perfection need not even be asserted here…), which provided a vivid contrast to the romantic elation and virtuosic panache of Schumann’s Carnival Scenes from Vienna. As a kind of interlude, we heard Debussy’s dark and austere Hommage à Rameau, after which the artist completely carried the audience away with his downright ‘transcendental’ interpretation of Brahms’s Variations on a Theme of Paganini, using a few rather simple devices to bind the two fundamentally independent ‘books’ of these Variations into one structurally and emotionally cohesive whole. Numerous encores followed, provoked by the mad enthusiasm of the audience: three phenomenally performed sonatas by Scarlatti, Chopin’s early Waltz in E­Flat Major, and Federico Mompou’s Song and Dance… A musical experience like no other […] Though at this highest level of pianistic initiation one normally does not talk of technique, Michelangeli’s (naturally broadly conceived) technique also attracts attention as something exceptional. Let me just mention such elements as the incredible evenness of attack (comparable perhaps only to such masters of the past as Hofmann and Backhaus), the rich and subtle dynamic gradations, as well as the perfect legato, attained also in complex and demanding sequences of large chords (such as, for instance, the sixths in the opening variations from Brahms’s cycle) 57. 57 J. Kański, Wspomnienie w pierwszą rocznicę śmierci Arturo Benedetti Michelangelego [A Memory on the First Anniversary of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli’s death], “Studio: chopin.indb 159 15.02.2021 09:33:17 160 Ada Arendt In an extensive overview of the 5th ChC printed on 27th March 1955 in “Nowa Kultura”, Wanda Leopold thus wrote about the jurors’ recitals: It would be impossible to discuss them all, since each is a separate topic, and I was unable to attend them all due to the arcana of the Great [ticket] Distribution. From among very good and excellent performances, I choose just this one unforgettable event, for which professional critics have failed to find suitable praise; namely, the recital by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. It is not my intention to characterise or directly describe this performance, because my pen also proves too feeble for this subject. No, I just wish to sing the praises of this great artist once again. His art, like that of Paganini, who was once suspected to have enlisted the devil’s help, seems to exceed human capabilities. […] Words fail me. Even a hundred commentators would not suffice to explain away this one perfection58. Following a long litany of rapturous praises, however, Leopold’s text takes an interesting turn: I do not know whether it was beneficial for the Competition that this recital was held while the auditions were still in progress, and not after their completion. I was sitting right next to the Competition participants and so I saw how Volodya Ashkenazy clenched his teeth and fists, and how Naum Shtarkman sat for long periods with his mouth open in mute admiration. The others reacted in similar ways. In every sensitive young pianist, this recital must have generated many anxieties and dilemmas of their own. […] One needs time to cool down and think everything over before sitting down at the piano again; but some of the participants had to perform in front of the jury already on the very next day. This may possibly have been one of the reasons for Paperno’s sudden breakdown and for Ashkenazy’s performance being much poorer than expected. I guess it was hard for everyone […] to descend back into the real world. Could Michelangeli’s greatness have proved fatal to Ashkenazy? As we know, it did not. The ‘great loser’ needed only a year more to win the Queen Elisabeth Competition (Koningin Elisabethwedstrijd), and seven – to earn the (joint) 1st prize in the International Tchaikovsky Competition. Michelangeli’s 1955 recital has frequently been reissued on records. Magazyn Płytowy i Radiowy” 1996, No. 6, pp. 14–16. On the topic of Michelangeli’s two concerts, see also Kański’s review in “Trybuna Ludu” 1955, No. 75, p. 6, and Jerzy Broszkiewicz’s texts in “Przegląd Kulturalny” 1955, No 10, p. 4 and No. 13, p. 6; J. Waldorff ’s recollections in: idem, Wielka gra, op. cit., pp. 106–107; L. Kozubek in: eadem, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli jakim go znałam [Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli As I Knew Him], Katowice 1999, pp. 5–7, and a postcard sent by Jerzy Turowicz to Zbigniew Herbert: Zbigniew Herbert – Jerzy Turowicz. Korespondencja [Zbigniew Herbert – Jerzy Turowicz. Correspondence], ed. T. Fijałkowski, Kraków 2005, pp. 75–77. 58 W. Leopold, Wśród zagadek konkursu [On the Puzzles of the Competition], “Nowa Kultura”, 27th March 1955, No. 13, pp. 1, 7. chopin.indb 160 15.02.2021 09:33:17 The 5th Competition. In Jasna Street 161 On the day when the verdict was announced, Polish Radio recorded (on a magnetic tape) Ashkenazy’s response to a question concerning Warsaw. He recited some polite phrases which he had prepared in advance, but was very nervous and confused the names of what he had been shown in Warsaw: “stariy svet?” [“the Old World?”] he stumbled over the word and swallowed hard, “Niet, stariy gorod” [“no, the Old Town”], he corrected himself, but in a whisper. The reporter of Na warszawskiej fali [On The Warsaw Waves] mercifully stopped the tape recorder. A moment later we hear Fou Ts’ong (referred to by the pet name of ‘our Chinese’) declaring in dignified English that he would now like to give as few concerts as possible, or even none at all, because he feels he is not good enough yet and must continue to learn. The happy and self-confident Harasiewicz informs with youthful gusto that he cannot wait to give concerts, and wishes to play Franck, Ravel, and Mozart. On the day when the next, 6th ChC edition started, the newspapers trumpeted his departure for concerts in New York. chopin.indb 161 15.02.2021 09:33:17 162 Ada Arendt Ada Arendt The 6th Competition. A Chopiniade on a Nocturne. 22nd February–13th March 1960 The Trickster Rubinstein Held as part of another riotously celebrated Chopin Year and preceded by a congress of Chopinologists1, the 6th ChC turned out to be a veritable ‘Chopin rally’, compared by Zygmunt Mycielski, not without irony, to “a cake one can no longer see for the amount of raisins that have been added”2. The press and the audience, however, focused on just one ‘raisin’ – Artur Rubinstein, the honorary chair of the jury and a living archive of the belle époque. “Do not try to get in to the Chopin Competition, for Rubinstein will not notice you anyway,” advised the satirical magazine “Szpilki” in a horo1 The 1st International Musicological Congress, devoted to the works of Frederic Chopin, held between 16th and 21st February 1960 in Warsaw. “The Congress of Chopinologists was surely a very fine event. Representatives of 21 countries delivered – God have mercy on us – a hundred and six papers. Some of these were valuable and important contributions. But did it help us gain any closer insight into the essence of the phenomenon of Chopin? It is possible that some have reached a point from which that mountain of music seems to have a brighter and more clear contour, as Babia Góra [a mountain in Poland] has when viewed from Rabka on a sunny day. But I would not be so sure,” wrote Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz in his characteristic style, reporting on the congress for “Nowa Kultura” weekly (20th March 1960, No. 12, p. 5). The Chopin Year celebrations included: performances of Chopin’s complete works in Poland and abroad by Polish pianists (incl. Halina Czerny-Stefańska, Lidia Grychtołówna, Ryszard Bakst, Adam Harasiewicz, Władysław Kędra, Barbarę Hesse-Bukowską, and Regina Smendzianka); an International Musicological Competition for Research Projects Dedicated to Fryderyk Chopin’s Oeuvre; an International Competition for a Chopin Poster; the 15th Chopin Festival in Duszniki-Zdrój; the National Edition of the Works of Fryderyk Chopin (ed. by Jan Ekier); a thematic catalogue of Chopin’s works, as well as exhibitions, new music records, and popular publications. 2 Z. Mycielski, Otwarcie Kongresu Muzykologów [Opening the Congress of Musicologists], “Przegląd Kulturalny”, 25th February 1960, No. 9, p. 7. chopin.indb 162 15.02.2021 09:33:17 The 6th Competition. A Chopiniade on a Nocturne 163 scope for February 19603. Apart from regular guests of international renown, such as Guido Agosti, Harold Craxton, Arthur Hedley, and Nadia Boulanger, the jury included eminent pianists of Polish origin or otherwise associated with Poland: Stefan Askenase, Mieczysław Horszowski, Witold Małcużyński, as well as the renowned teacher Harry Neuhaus4, who was a cousin of Karol Szymanowski. Nevertheless, the attention of the press concentrated almost exclusively on Rubinstein. This pianist demonstrated his self-promotion skills by generously distributing grand gestures and declarations that happened to be in line with the communist press propaganda (“I have given concerts in all the countries of the world except for the Tibet and Germany; the former lies too high for me, the latter – too low”). He loved to shine in front of the cameras, and had ample opportunities to do so. During his second stay in Poland since the end of WWII (following his visit in June 1958), he was greeted no less ceremoniously than the first time. Polish Radio and the PKF Polish Film Chronicle sent reporters to the airport to greet and photograph him as soon as he had left the plane. Those who did not manage to interview the pianist would give an account of the very act of chasing him down the Philharmonic corridors: “Hunting for Maestro Rubinstein and reporting to our audience where he went, what he did and said – is a separate chapter. This wonderful man sparkles with wit and humour on every occasion and in every capacity, generously sharing the wealth of his fervent heart and magnificent mind,”5 reported a Polish Radio correspondent. The press counted the doughnuts consumed by the Maestro and informed that he liked Zbigniew Cybulski’s role in [the cult movie] Popiół i diament [Ashes and Diamonds]. The delighted Zygmunt Mycielski described Rubinstein as “a great fairy-tale king in whose country all is well, everything fits and nobody breaks ranks”. “How, then, does such a king rule?” asked Mycielski, promptly answering his own question: [N.N.], “Szpilki”, 28th February 1960, No. 9, p. 4. There were more horoscopes related to the ChC: “Do not smuggle pianos into Poland upon return from a stay abroad; this means trouble”; “Do not refer to Małcużyński per ‘Witek’ [hypocoristic form of his first name – translator’s note]; no one is going to believe you anyway”; “No need to sit at the Philharmonic if you are suffering from whooping cough” (13th March 1960, No. 11, p. 6). 4 The full make-up of the 6th ChC jury: Zbigniew Drzewiecki – chair of the jury; four deputy chairpersons: Nadia Boulanger, Arthur Hedley, Dmitry Kabalevsky, and Henryk Sztompka; Bolesław Woytowicz – secretary of the jury; Guido Agosti, Stefan Askenase, Sven Brandel, Sequeira Costa, Harold Craxton, Halina Czerny-Stefańska, Jan Ekier, Armand de Gontaut Biron, Emil Hajek, Lajos Hernádi, Jan Hoffman, Mieczysław Horszowski, Witold Małcużyński, Timo Mikkilä, Florica Musicescu, Harry Neuhaus, František Rauch, Reimar Riefling, Heinz Schröter, Bruno Seidlhofer, Pavel Serebryakov, Andrey Stoyanov, Ding Shande, Magda Tagliaferro, Margerita Trombini-Kazuro, Amadeus Webersinke, Beveridge Webster, Jakov Zak, Jerzy Żurawlew, as well as Artur Rubinstein as the honorary non-voting chairman. 5 Z. Jeżewska, Konkurs Chopinowski w oczach radiowego reportera [The Chopin Competition in the Eyes of a Radio Reporter], “Radio i Telewizja”, 13th March 1960, No. 11, p. 23. 3 chopin.indb 163 15.02.2021 09:33:17 164 Ada Arendt Some say it is about his spiritual power; others, that he is a hard worker; still others, that he is a lucky guy. The more sensitive among his subjects gather in a corner and weave all the possible noun forms into their comments: of emotion, with emotion, in emotion… and that his art flows and continues, as has long been known, revived from one root, like trees, like all that has the faculty of being reborn – from a root planted very long ago, while in front of our very eyes the same scenes are repeated, over and over again, focusing on a few human specimens that work like ferment: [champagne] bottles pop, the masses bow6. Wielki między największymi [The Great among the Greatest], Największy pianista czasów współczesnych [The Greatest Pianist of Our Times], O Rubinsteinie – serdecznie [Warmly on Rubinstein] – screamed the headlines. But the more ‘warmly’ he was written about, the more evident a certain ambivalence of opinions was becoming, related to either the difficult Polish-Jewish relations or to ‘parochial’ reactions to the pianist’s manifest cosmopolitanism (“What I resent at the moment is his balanced perfection and unreserved worldliness. […] I am too poor myself for such a wealth in art and life,” wrote Iwaszkiewicz in his Diaries, responding to Rubinstein’s snobbery with what he referred to as “the grudges of a poor relative”.7) Especially in the context of the latter reactions, of much interest is Andrzej Kolasiński’s report on the opening of the 6th ChC for Polish Radio Channel Two: “This is not going to be an ordinary report,” begins Kolasiński emphatically, and goes on to call Rubinstein “an artist of universal civilisation”, soon adding that “his passport is not just his genuine music, but the culture of a genuine civilisation”8. What is striking is the repetition of the word ‘civilisation’, first with the qualifier ‘universal’, and then ‘genuine’, without doubt premeditated in a radio feature prepared in advance. In the Polish People’s Republic, the Chopin Competition was viewed as a kind of holiday, a spell of time when Polish culture gained temporary access to the mainstream of Western culture from which it was normally separated – that very cultural formation whose mores and identity were based on the idea of civilité. From this perspective, Rubinstein was perceived as an emissary of that ‘universal and genuine civilisation’, understood as the opposite of life on the other, Soviet-bloc side of the Iron Curtain. As a holder of a US passport9, he also appeared as a trickster who could freely travel between both sides of the Iron Curtain10, and felt perfectly at home on either of them. Z. Mycielski, Rubinstein, “Przegląd Kulturalny” 1960, No. 10, p. 8. J. Iwaszkiewicz, Dzienniki 1956–1963 [Diaries 1956–1963], Warszawa 2010, p. 365. 8 A. Kolasiński, Sprawozdanie z VI Konkursu Chopinowskiego [Report on the 6th Chopin Competition], Archiwum Polskiego Radia [Polish Radio Archive], shelf mark 14321 [6]. 9 H. Sachs, Rubinstein. A Life, New York 1995, p. 265. 10 A week after the opening of the 6th ChC, Rubinstein gave a number of concerts in Scandinavia, from which he returned on 8th May for the Competition finals. 6 7 chopin.indb 164 15.02.2021 09:33:17 The 6th Competition. A Chopiniade on a Nocturne 165 On Sunday 21st February, the pianist played an enthusiastically received recital11, and on the very next day, at the inauguration of the 6th ChC, he performed two concertos with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra: in B­Flat Major by Johannes Brahms, and in F Minor by Chopin12. In the interval he received flowers from the Polish government and was invited with his wife Nela Rubinstein to the government box at the Philharmonic, where he was seated next to the ruling Polish United Workers’ Party’s 1st Secretary Władysław Gomułka, President of Poland Aleksander Zawadzki, and Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz. The deference with which the authorities treated Rubinstein was most likely related to his popularity in the Polish society, but may also have played the role of a ‘fig leaf ’ to conceal the dark social moods of which the communist party leaders had been perfectly aware from 1956 or earlier13, though they were only going to manifest themselves with full force in 1968. Interestingly, the press photographers present in the concert hall were forbidden to photograph Gomułka together with Rubinstein14. It is not quite clear why, contrary to earlier announcements, the first part of the inaugural concert was not broadcast live on Polish television. On Sunday evening the TV viewers could only see part two, a performance of Karol Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater, to which Rubinstein listened already sitting in the government box. The official reason for not broadcasting the pianist’s concert was “clauses in his contracts which preclude such a possibility”15. A brief interview with Rubinstein and his wife was broadcast instead. As a result of this false start on Polish TV, the Chopin Competition was confined for another five years to the domains of the radio and the press16. The programme comprised: Scherzo in B Minor Op. 20, Fantaisie in F Minor Op. 49, Ballade in G Minor Op. 23, Barcarolle in F­Sharp Major Op. 60, Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante in E­Flat Major Op. 22, and as encores: Berceuse in D­Flat Major, Mazurka in A­Flat Major, and Polonaise in A­Flat Major. 12 Three LPs comprising a recording of this concert, along with the encore and rehearsal sessions, were released in 1976 by Polskie Nagrania Muza (catalogue no. SX 1862–64). 13 On this subject cf. P. Machcewicz, Polski rok 1956 [The Polish 1956], Warszawa 1993, the chapter entitled: “Antysemityzm” [“Antisemitism”]. 14 T. Rolke, Moja namiętność. Mistrz fotografii w rozmowie z Małgorzatą Purzyńską [My Passion. A Master of Photography Interviewed by Małgorzata Purzyńska], Warszawa 2016, p. 121. 15 S., Jeszcze dwa dni! Na półmetku konkursowych finałów [It’s Two Days More! Halfway Through the Competition Finals] , “Życie Warszawy”, 10th March 1960, No. 60 (5107), p. 1. 16 On this subject, cf. L. Erhardt’s article Gaśnie zapał muzycznych Don Kichotów [The Enthusiasm of Musical Don Quixotes is Wearing Off], “Ekran”, 28th February 1960, No. 9 (151), p. 15. 11 chopin.indb 165 15.02.2021 09:33:18 166 Ada Arendt Long Live Audiophiles! ‘Sonatinas’ and ‘Nocturnes’ reigned supreme in 1960. These two models of Polish radio sets both had four white keys to switch between long-wave, medium-wave and short-wave signals, used by children to pretend they were playing the piano. Because of the faulty mains supply, however, even a ‘Sonatina’ or a ‘Nocturne’ did not guarantee good sound quality. Whenever a neighbour turned on a washing machine or a vacuum cleaner, voltage dropped in the entire building, and as a consequence – the radio would pick up interference. “‘We are broadcasting the Chopin Competition – a performance by Halina Czerny-Stefańska, who will play Sonata No. 1 in C Mi…’ – but here, alas, a quite different concert starts… a concert of crackles and noises,” wrote the weekly “Radio i Telewizja” in February17. In order to guarantee high quality of pickup, the Department for Combatting Radio-Electrical Interference at the Central Board of Radio and Television Broadcasting launched an ‘anti-interference campaign’, sending special lab transporters, Volkswagen T2’s (popularly known as ‘cucumbers’) into the streets of Warsaw, equipped with a 10-metre-long aerial to measure the level of radio wave interference. Meanwhile, radio-electrical interference teams were combing housing estates in search of household appliances that generated such interference. The audience of Polish Radio series Na warszawskiej fali [On The Warsaw Waves] and Z kraju i ze świata [From Poland and From Abroad] could not only listen to selections from the ChC auditions, broadcast daily on Polish Radio Channels One and Two, but also experience the atmosphere of the Philharmonic’s concert hall and hear their favourite contestants talk on the air. The Competition’s box-office success was still directly dependent on the circulation of music press titles (“Ruch Muzyczny”’s circulation increased from 500 to 750 copies for the duration of the 6th edition). Nevertheless, the publishing process was already proving too slow and cumbersome in comparison with the pace of the new media world, which was better suited to the task of ChC reporting, as Jerzy Waldorff observed in his feature entitled Sprawozdanie żółwia [A Turtle’s Report]18. One response to the growing inadequacy of the printed word was the development of a new, artistically ambitious form of press report, namely, that of a picture story, championed by the weeklies “Stolica” and “Świat”, as well as the monthly “Polska”. Thanks to their outstanding photojournalists: Tadeusz Rolke, Eustachy KosGdy sąsiad włącza pralkę… [When a Neighbour Turns On the Washing Machine], “Radio i Telewizja”, 21st February 1960, No. 8, p. 1. The same issue of the magazine also included F. Skwierawski’s article entitled Wróg dobrego odbioru [The Enemy of Good reception], pp. 5 and 24. 18 J. Waldorff, Sprawozdanie żółwia [A Turtle’s Report], “Świat”, 6th March 1960, No. 10, pp. 6–7. 17 chopin.indb 166 15.02.2021 09:33:18 The 6th Competition. A Chopiniade on a Nocturne 167 sakowski, Konstanty Jarochowski, and Marek Holcman – the Competition had never looked better in the photos. On the 28th February “Stolica” cover, a dynamic close up of the Competition audience appeared. One might think that the ChC audience was elevated in this way to the status of an active ‘actor’, on equal terms with the participants and the jury19. However, the tradition of criticising the audience’s behaviour, dress, or even motivation for attending the Competition, continued also during the 6th ChC. “They are playing the same numbers over and over again,” says Alicja (satire on the ‘bad audience’ usually chose women as the object of ridicule, presenting them as coltish, dressed up to impress, and poorly educated). Alicja also did not fail to criticise Chopin. “His nose is too long. Gifted, all the same. Just imagine, he wrote The Countess [Moniuszko’s opera – translator’s note] though he was deaf. […] Fell in love with French writer Georges Sagan and for her he escaped to the West.” Not only was the ‘spectator’ Alice ignorant about music, but she also pretended to be a close acquaintance of Lutosławski and Iwaszkiewicz, whom she familiarly called ‘Witek’ and ‘Jarek’. What was most likely viewed as her greatest sin, she fetishised Western culture: “They say in the West one is no longer allowed to compose melodies, only the kind of creak-creaking as of a tram passing by. But here in Poland we always follow the previous season’s fashion.”20 The editors of “Ruch Muzyczny” criticised the audience as well: “We will not discover America, I guess, if we say that three fourths of the [Competition] audience had never been seen at the Philharmonic before by the regular concert goers […]. My theorising passion makes me divide this audience into various categories.”21 “Życie Warszawy” appealed for greater discipline in the auditorium. The most interesting comment in this debate comes from Ludwik Erhardt, who published an intriguing commendation for the then still budding audiophilia, calling the audiophiles avant la lettre “the true heroes of the Competition”, and at the same time describing his embarrassment at watching people jam-packed into the Philharmonic hall: I was watching them with admiration and shame, since to me, seated comfortably in an armchair, the unbroken stream of sound that was incessantly flowing from the stage no longer gave any kind of satisfaction. It is only my duty as a journalist that keeps me in the hall, and when I take time off this job once in a while, I feel like a schoolboy playing truant. […] I feel ashamed to be fed up with Chopin 19 This is how Zdzisław Sierpiński described the Competition audience in his article Aktorzy Wielkiego Konkursu [Actors of the Great Competition], “Stolica”, 6th March 1960, No. 10, p. 17. 20 S. Grodzieńska, Konkursowy Chopin [The Competition Chopin], “Express Wieczorny” 1960, No. 60, p. 3. 21 K. Rawicz, Konkursowa publiczność [The Competition Audience], “Ruch Muzyczny”, 1st – 15th April 1960, Nos. 5–6, p. 13. chopin.indb 167 15.02.2021 09:33:18 168 Ada Arendt despite sitting in an armchair, while the crowd jammed along the walls still craves his music. […] As I am watching this crowd of Competition enthusiasts, worshippers of Chopin and music lovers, a doubt arises in me – what has really attracted them to this hall? This doubt was born a few days ago when I peeked into the Philharmonic’s Chamber Music Hall, where a marvellous sound speaker system has been installed in cooperation with the Zakład Nagrań Dźwiękowych [Sound Recording Company] […]. All one has to do is close one’s eyes, and here come the footfalls of the pianist who approaches the piano mid-stage. We can hear how he sits down, settles himself comfortably on the piano stool, and eventually hits the keyboard. It is then that one of the technological marvels of our time is revealed: The loudspeakers in the Chamber Music Hall sound more splendid and produce a more beautiful sound than the pianists playing in the main Concert Hall! Nevertheless, in the Chamber Music Hall, which can easily seat several hundred people, there were only a few dozen listeners – focused, enchanted, dedicated to the music […] They do not swarm packed like sardines to see the pianists; they do not stare at Rubinstein and Małcużyński sitting on the jury and drinking soda water as any ordinary person would. These few dozen people are here to listen to music. They have given up other attractions, for the sake of [artistic] experience22. This, then, was the real triumph of the acousmatic approach, first introduced during the 4th ChC in 1949, but motivated at that time rather by the obsession of secrecy and the fear characteristic of the Stalinist era. It was only sixteen years later at the Chamber Music Hall, as well as in Erhardt’s feature article, that this approach revealed its proper significance, contained in his explicit claim that the separation of sound from its source produces a ‘purer’ sound and helps focus attention on the music. The main source of interference during the Competition is not the audiosphere of the concert hall, with the inevitable outbursts of coughing circulating in the audience (the same sounds could be heard in the Chamber Music Hall, too), but, as Erhardt argues, it is the visual sphere, and most of all – other people, that distract the listener. In order to hear music properly, claims Erhardt, it will suffice to “close one’s eyes”, which, however, can only be done in a place such as the mostly empty Chamber Music Hall. The Competition audience is thus divided in his opinion into spectators and listeners, two groups ontologically so different that they need separate halls. The proportions of size between the two concert halls, and the degree to which they were filled by the audience, indicated which group really deserved the status of connoisseurs. The question of whether the spectators were ‘watching correctly’, known from the pioneering years of the cinema23, is reinterpreted here as the division into those who ‘watch wrongly’ and those who ‘listen well’. L. Erhardt, Bohaterowie konkursu [The Competition Heroes], “Express Wieczorny”, 7 March 1960, No. 57, p. 3. 23 On the Polish debates concerning (mostly cinematic) audiences in the context of social class and habits, cf. M. Szcześniak, Widownia [The Audience], in: Kultura wizualna w Polsce 22 th chopin.indb 168 15.02.2021 09:33:19 The 6th Competition. A Chopiniade on a Nocturne 169 Tons of Études24 The media language that characterised the 6th ChC, centred around gossip and the topic of disciplining the audience, seems to have been the first such a profoundly depoliticised discourse concerning the Chopin Competition since WWII. This observation is confirmed by the fact that for the first time there were no political speeches during the inauguration. Already the press releases prepared before the ChC announced that “the official ceremony will be reduced to the minimum”, a message that journalists eagerly picked up25. The 6th edition was opened by Zbigniew Drzewiecki, who only spoke briefly and emphasised the “universal human” dimension of Chopin’s music26. The first chance publicly to criticise the event was a result of the politicians ‘coming down a peg or two’. On the day of the opening of the Competition Jerzy Waldorff wrote in “Express Wieczorny”: The older I get, the more clearly I can see how unbearable the event called the Chopin Competition is to those who take music seriously. For more than a dozen days one listens to the same pieces so many times that – despite [their] extraordinary beauty – they begin to pall on us as a Strasbourg pâté would on a gourmet, had he been forced to eat exclusively this one dish for two weeks on end27. Ludwik Erhardt joined this criticism three days later with a feature entitled, significantly, Igrzyska Chopinowskie rozpoczęte [The Chopin Olympics Have Started]: “[…] I am cross with Chopin for making our pianists, our musicologists, and our audience blind to the world of other music.”28 Jerzy Broszkiewicz called the ChC “a gruelling task” for the audience29, and soon afterwards Mycielski concluded: Rather than producing ‘normal musicians’, accompanists, teachers, also performers who can play Mozart and Bach, Schubert and Beethoven, Debussy, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky – we produce would-be Chopin Competition winners. I consider this phenomenon dangerous in a country which boasts many pianistic talents. […] [Visual Culture in Poland], Vol. 2 Spojrzenia [Approaches], eds I. Kurz, P. Kwiatkowska, M. Szcześniak, Ł. Zaremba, Warszawa 2018, pp. 156–177. 24 Etiudy na pudy [Tons of Études] was the title of J. Prutkowski’s feature in “Szpilki”, th 13 March 1960, No. 11, p. 7. 25 “Express Wieczorny”, 21st – 22nd February 1960, No. 45, p. 7. 26 The 6th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition 22nd Feb. – 13th March 1960, Protocols, Jury Members, Regulations, 1958–1960, Vol. 5, pp. 25–26, Archive of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute (NIFC). 27 J. Waldorff, Wariacje na temat Chopina [Variations on the Theme of Chopin], “Świat”, st 21 Feb. 1960, No. 8, pp. 6–7. 28 L. Erhardt, Igrzyska Chopinowskie rozpoczęte [The Chopin Olympics Have Started], “Express Wieczorny”, 24th Feb. 1960, No. 47, p. 3. 29 J. Broszkiewicz, “Przegląd Kulturalny”, 10th March 1960, No. 11, p. 2. chopin.indb 169 15.02.2021 09:33:19 170 Ada Arendt As the phenomenon of Chopin’s music hogs all the limelight, proportions get distorted both in artistic and technical terms, despite all the universal qualities of Chopin’s études, mazurkas, and his great narrative forms. All this takes place at the expense of contemporary music. […] One can demonstrate everything in Chopin: pianistic and artistic values based on incredible technical and musical wealth. One can hardly fail to notice, however, the void that we produce by turning Chopin into an immense pyramid which blocks our horizon, concealing other music from our view30. Especially strongly marked in the critical texts were the analogies to sport events, enhanced by the Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley (USA) which took place in the same period. “The Winter Olympics are over, the Chopin Olympics have started,” wrote Józef Prutkowski in “Szpilki” magazine’s sports column31, while Jerzy Broszkiewicz informed that more countries had sent their representatives to the ChC than to the Olympics32, but possibly the piano should be played in Poland at all times, for the sake of higher values, not just “for sport”33. The ‘depoliticised’ Competition seemed to be losing its sense, and turning into a Chopin Jump34, Tons of Études35, Chopin Olympics, or a Chopiniade36. What was criticised was not only the agonistic nature of the event, but also manifestations of what had been described as ‘Chopin propaganda’ during the previous editions, including the competition for a Chopin poster37, ridiculed by students of Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts Z. Mycielski, W czasie konkursu chopinowskiego [During the Chopin Competition], “Przegląd Kulturalny” 1960, No. 11, p. 7. 31 J. Prutkowski, Etiudy na pudy, op. cit., p. 7. 32 J. Broszkiewicz, Pierwszy rozdział [Chapter One], “Przegląd Kulturalny”, 3rd March 1960, No. 10, p. 4. 33 Jerzy Horyński’s occasional poem entitled 22nd February 1960, reprinted in “Świat” th (6 March 1960, No. 10, p. 7), makes a similar point. Here is an excerpt from this poem: “The Chopin storm rages over Warsaw again, opens fresh wounds, and wakes up museums, for this music has never been like a rose worn on a quiet evening by a smiling people. It has always been a church, a weapon, and an emblem, brought hope to the terrified, and a warning to the murderers. It has led flocks of pianos into attack for the glory of the oppressed, and the shame of the world.” 34 Faul, Skok o Chopinie [Chopin Jump], “Świat”, 13th March 1960, No. 11, p. 18. 35 J. Prutkowski, Etiudy na pudy, op. cit., p. 7. 36 L. Erhardt, Igrzyska Chopinowskie rozpoczęte, op. cit., p. 3. 37 The poster competition was won by Manfred Kruska’s (West Germany) minimalistic, black-and-white design in the style of the Swiss poster school. 40 out of the 396 entries were selected for a touring exhibition of Chopin posters, and shown in the Warsaw Philharmonic foyer during the 6th ChC. The selected posters were reproduced in the quarterly “Przegląd Artystyczny” 1959, No. 1, and the magazine “Projekt” 1959, No. 2. 30 chopin.indb 170 15.02.2021 09:33:19 The 6th Competition. A Chopiniade on a Nocturne 171 who submitted a number of provocative designs including one in the form of an obituary which said: “Das Polnische Plakat has died suddenly of Chopin Competition in January 1959, as ‘Życie Warszawy’ informs not without pleasure.” Another such joke was reported in “Ruch Muzyczny”: […] upon a seashell emerging from a sea busy with steamships, stands Chopin in the pose of Botticelli’s Venus, with the Miraculous Icon of Our Lady of Jasna Góra hovering in the air to his right, and [Polish king] Bolesław I the Brave – to his left. A bank overgrown with willow trees in the background. At Chopin’s feet – a piano, carelessly tossed there with the artist’s hand. Above his head – a halo, bearing the inscription: “The Schopen Year” 38. Such graphics openly mocked the ‘Chopin propaganda’, which in the previous period force-fed Chopin to ‘the people of the villages and towns’, showing no regard for those people’s interests, capabilities, and attitude to the patriotic culture imposed on them top-down by the authorities. The visual form used by the art students, drawing on the awkward style of amateur artists, betrays resentments and antagonisms related to social class and cultural participation. This issue returned in 1960 in familiar forms, most notably – in the theme of Janko the Musician [a gifted peasant child from a short story by Sienkiewicz – translator’s note], who now appeared in cartoons39 and in Jan Lenica’s intriguing short film New Janko the Musician, which translates folkloristic motifs into the language of modernity represented by flying vehicles and mechanical farm animals. In this animated film miniature Janko the Musician, who has been transferred from a village hut to a bourgeois house, dreams of playing a Chopin concerto in a huge concert hall. To make his dream come true, he steals a piano by night and puts it in the field. As the instrument does not sound well at the first attempt, Janko opens the lid to repair it and, by force of habit, pats it as one would pat a favourite mare. It turns out that the sound is poor because the piano is cluttered. The protagonist pulls out from the inside: a live hen, a huge radish, an egg, an Art Nouveau statuette, a used inner tube, a whittled piece of wood, the head of a roast pig on a silver tray, a bootee, a cabbage head, a toothed gear transmission, and, in the end, a bundle of straw. Having taken out all these syncretic contents, he can eventually sit down at the keyboard and play a Chopin medley, for which act Janko is attacked by a furious peasant brandishing a fork. The scene ends with a miraculous intervention of a Muse, resembling those from Alfons Mucha’s paintings, who turns the mechanical cow into a Pegasus, on which Janko soars up into the skies. Had it not been for the avant-garde form of this movie and the original, ‘jarring’ sound of the soundtrack composed 38 39 chopin.indb 171 “Ruch Muzyczny”, 1st – 15th March 1960, No. 3, p. 7. Cf. the drawing printed in “Nowa Kultura”, 28th Feb. 1960, No. 9, p. 10. 15.02.2021 09:33:19 172 Ada Arendt by Włodzimierz Kotoński, the film might be interpreted as a call to purify Chopin of the many undesirable meanings that have accumulated around his music over the years. But fusing everything with everything else, Lenica's surreal sense of humour does not permit such a unidimensional interpretation, while touching upon the issues of class correlation of piano practice, the social role of this instrument and Chopin's relation with folklore. “Is the Competition exclusively the domain of the intelligentsia? What is the real range of this event’s popularity? Can it equal the Peace Race [the Eastern bloc’s main bicycle race – translator’s note] in popularity? Is interest in the Competition limited to the circles of the intelligentsia?” asked the large-format Catholic weekly “Tygodnik Powszechny” on its front page40. In search for the answers to these questions, the Youth Section of Warsaw’s Club of Catholic Intelligentsia held interviews with 200 Warsaw tramway company employees, asking them whether the Chopin Competition is of any interest to them, to which 68 per cent of those questioned answered: “I am not interested at all.” Most of the respondents were men aged 25 to 40, and more than half of them had only completed primary school. Only one of them, “a ticket collector with higher education, son of a professional musician”, attended the ChC auditions at the Philharmonic. The others excused themselves, saying they had no time or that they did not understand Chopin’s music (“too hard”, “too difficult”, “not suitable for dance or anything”, “boring and irritating”, “does not appeal to me”, “just plonking away”, “no pleasure at all”, “I turn off the radio when I tune into this by chance”, “I wonder how people can like to listen to this”, “I prefer something nice”). Some also had other doubts: “Can everyone enter the Philharmonic?” The questionnaire also proved that the stigma of a bourgeois composer had not yet been washed off Chopin (“I think Chopin composed for aristocrats and KIK, Chopin w tramwaju [Chopin on the Tram], “Tygodnik Powszechny” No. 11, 13th March 1960, p. 1. “Przegląd Kulturalny” of 24th March 1960, No. 13, p. 7, printed Zygmunt Mycielski’s response to this survey: “I am not worried at all that some people have no need for Chopin’s mazurkas, have never heard of them, or find them boring and prefer other kinds of music. There are many other things that those persons have never listened to. The civilising impact of the so-called culture does not consist in making everyone familiar with Chopin’s mazurkas, but in making them do what they like and what they can do well, rather than judging others in accordance with their own whim. Cultural backwardness lies in the matters of everyday life, not in how knowledgeable a person is in literature, arts or music. The demand that we should all be very much alike, delight in the same pool of works considered as the artistic canon of the time – may perhaps be well-meant, but is probably very unrealistic. The supply of entertainment and of ‘cultural experience’ referred to as ‘popularisation of culture among the masses’ will prove to be the wrong diet for as long as the so-called ‘cultural needs’ are not harmoniously interrelated to the conditions of life and work. […] And, after all, it is really true that Chopin did not write his mazurkas to be played back over the loudspeakers in [Warsaw’s] Zwycięstwa Square.” 40 chopin.indb 172 15.02.2021 09:33:19 The 6th Competition. A Chopiniade on a Nocturne 173 only they could understand his music, so today not everyone can understand it”; “it’s good for aristocrats, for experts in the field”), though attitudes were gradually changing in each successive generation. The respondents admitted that their children followed the Competition eagerly, attended the auditions or listened to them on the radio. Report on the questionnaire ends with the description of a familiar figure: […] a middle-aged ticket collector; he completed primary school (i.e. 7 years of school). He declares much interest in the Competition. Has never been to the Philharmonic. Tries to listen systematically to the auditions […] Reads the reports, and visited his brother specially to see Rubinstein on TV. He says he might go to the Philharmonic, but his company does not help the staff to get hold of the tickets. He prefers classical to popular and folk music. Asked why he is interested in music, he says: “I have taken a liking to it since my childhood, but my parents had no money to let me learn music.” The King Speaks The third postwar ChC made it clear that certain topics and ways of talking about this event “cannot help recurring” in the social discourse. Apart from the figure of Janko the Musician, the traditional humorous themes were also present: the informal poll for the Miss and Mister of the Chopin Competition (this title went to Olegna Fuschi and Jose Flavio Varani)41, tales of the mishaps of the ‘oppressed’ Competition service, as well as exchange of comments about the favourites that were expected to win, linked this time into one continuous cycle by the figure of the Philharmonic’s ‘oracle-usher’, Stefan Wieczorkiewicz, who five years earlier “had been the first to predict the prize for Harasiewicz, and this year [he prophesies] the success of Kazimierz Morski”. Another recurring theme was that of sweet treats, additionally highlighted by the fact that Fat Thursday fell on one of the audition days: Four Warsaw confectioners – Blikle, Wróbel, Gajewski, and Pomianowski – competed to supply sweets for the jury to be consumed during the intervals in the auditions. Blikle’s doughnuts and layer cakes enjoyed particular popularity, breaking all records of refined taste. But the true champion was… Artur Rubinstein, who could eat 7–11 doughnuts at one go. He expressed his delight in them in a brief television interview, where he said that yet another award should be funded at this Competition – one for Mr Blikle42. “Express Wieczorny”, 1st March 2018, No. 52, p. 3. Z. Mycielski, Migawki konkursowe [Brief Competition Reports], “Ruch Muzyczny” 1960, Nos. 5–6, pp. 5–8. 41 42 chopin.indb 173 15.02.2021 09:33:19 174 Ada Arendt The other recurrent topics were the ‘feminine one’ (on the occasion of International Women’s Day, representatives of the Gardeners’ Union gave bouquets of flowers to the women jurors and to the male jurors’ wives) and the Polish émigré community theme, prominent in the later years and the more strongly marked, the less colourful and promising the Polish ChC team proved to be. The 6th edition of the Competition did not bring Poland much success, though it launched the careers of two pianists who gained esteem as teachers in later years: Jerzy Godziszewski and Józef Stompel43. Candidates of Polish descent were eagerly mentioned by the press: Adela Ilevicky of Chile (daughter of a long-time Warsaw Philharmonic violinist), Emi (Emmy) Béhar of Bulgaria (whose mother was Polish), Jose Kahan of Mexico (who had a Polish father), Zipora Chapira-Szulc of Israel (who had left Poland as a 5-month-old baby), Anne Koscielny of the USA (who entered the Competition with her husband John Perry; both were pupils of Władysław Kędra), and Zbigniew Henryk Morozowicz of Brazil. Besides, the Society for Contacts with Émigrés ‘Polonia’ held a reception at the “Grand Hotel” to honour those Polish members of the jury who lived in emigration. Nor was one of the major leitmotifs of the ChC absent from the 6th edition; namely, that of the conflict between the vox populi and vox jury, which in 1960 took a rather surprising turn. Jerzy Waldorff recalled: For as long as the Warsaw audience feared that the jury’s verdict might harm their favourite, Maurizio Pollini, they were getting ready to stage an uprising at the Philharmonic. But when Pollini won the 1st prize, he was immediately forgotten and the people rushed to the defence of another aggrieved pianist – Michel Block. […] Should the young Italian have decided to measure his success by the audience’s applause, he would have had to conclude that he had suffered a resounding defeat to the Mexican [pianist], during whose performances the crowd went mad without moderation44. Nevertheless, Zdzisław Sierpiński described (on the front page of “Życie Warszawy”) a similar ovation given to Pollini after his performance: When we heard Pollini, it was music of great calibre, full of vigour and virtuosity, but pulsating with a warm and profound musical experience at the same time. The Polish team for the 6th ChC consisted of: Józef Stompel (from Katowice’s Higher School of Music, pupil of Prof. Ada Elektorowicz); Teresa Rutkowska-Lisowska (from Cracow’s State Higher School of Music, pupil of Zbigniew Drzewiecki); Kazimierz Morski (from State Music School in Katowice, pupil of Bolesław Woytowicz); Jerzy Łukowicz (from Cracow, pupil of Ludwik Stefański, Halina Czerny-Stefańska’s husband); Jerzy Godziszewski (from Warsaw’s State Higher School of Music, pupil of Maria Wiłkomirska); Maciej Łukaszczyk (from Warsaw’s State Higher School of Music, pupil of Jan Ekier). 44 J. Waldorff, Obrachunki chopinowskie [Settling Accounts with Chopin], “Świat” 1960, No. 13, p. 14. 43 chopin.indb 174 15.02.2021 09:33:19 The 6th Competition. A Chopiniade on a Nocturne 175 The ovation which the young Italian artist received from the audience was very long and fully deserved. Pollini was made to come back for many a curtain call45. Who, then, was that mysterious Mexican redhead who supposedly gained more popularity than Pollini? Block’s biography is an intriguing one. Born in Belgium, in a French family, brought up in Mexico, he studied at New York’s Juilliard School of Music. Most importantly, he had the courage to play Chopin in his own way: “in a rough, nervous, Prokofiev-like style”46. Despite his “electrifying originality”, and though he scored just four points less than the winner in total47, he only came tenth, which provoked Artur Rubinstein to present him with a special award48. For this reason, as well as because of Block’s striking physical resemblance to young Rubinstein, he was rumoured to be the latter’s illegitimate son49. The topic was eagerly exploited in press cartoons, where Block was portrayed as Rubinstein’s mini-double. Though the Mexican’s talent was praised as “indisputable”, his Chopin interpretations were considered controversial, “at times going beyond the broadest and freest definition of Chopin style,” as Józef Kański put in in “Trybuna Ludu”50. Maurizio Pollini was a different kettle of fish altogether. Described as a “wise” pianist51, “more of a classic-constructivist” 52, “a virtuoso, draZ. Sierpiński, Wspaniały koncert Polliniego [Pollini’s Splendid Concert], “Życie Warszawy”, 11th March 1960, No. 61, p. 1. 46 J. Broszkiewicz, Pollini i inni [Pollini and the Others], “Przegląd Kulturalny” 1960, No. 12, p. 7. 47 The final scores of the first ten prize-winners were as follows: 22.21; 21.99; 20.37; 19.95; 19.65; 19.52; 19.21; 18.73; 18.16; 18.15 points. 48 “[…] Artur Rubinstein, honorary chair of the jury, takes the floor and thanks the Presidium and the jury members for the honour of presiding over such a respectable body. While he takes his hat off to the jurors’ verdict, which is the fruit of their diligent work examining the gifted pianists’ performances, as the oldest of those present he takes the liberty of observing that there is one young talent among the candidates that has particularly attracted him by its qualities. For this reason, he takes the liberty of funding a personal Artur Rubinstein Award, amounting to 20,000 zlotys, for Michel Block, as a form of encouragement further to develop his talent.” Reactions to Rubinstein’s statement were unfortunately not minuted. The minutes of the plenary session of the Jury of the 6th International Fryderyk Chopin Competition, held on 12th March 1960. Announcement of the Competition results, p. 4, Archive of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute (NIFC), The Fryderyk Chopin Society, 6th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, Minutes of the jury’s meetings, jurors, 1958–1960, item 21. 49 [N.N.], Migawki konkursowe [Brief Competition Reports], “Ruch Muzyczny”, 1st – th 15 April 1960, Nos. 5–6, p. 7. 50 J. Kański, Pokonkursowe refleksje [Thoughts after the Competition], “Trybuna Ludu” 1960, No. 76, p. 8. 51 A.Ł., Pollini, “Tygodnik Powszechny”, 3rd April 1960, No. 14, p. 6. 52 J. Kański, Pokonkursowe refleksje, op. cit., p. 8. 45 chopin.indb 175 15.02.2021 09:33:20 176 Ada Arendt matic and intellectual at the same time”, “exhibiting balance in both his thinking and his playing”, he “performed Chopin in a classicising fashion”53. His interpretations may not have been to everybody’s liking (he “seemed boring” to Iwaszkiewicz54), but he undoubtedly was, despite his young age, already an accomplished pianist. He filled in his ChC entry on the eve of his 18th birthday, 4th January 1960. Following his arrival in Warsaw, he practised on a Bechstein piano at a private house in Mokotowska Street, and in his interview for “Życie Warszawy” complained that four hours of practice a day was too little for him55. Following his audition, during the performance by the Finnish pianist Reija Silvonen, he went for a short walk to Powstańców Warszawy Square, and circled the Central Department Store three times. This was on the second but last day of the finals56. The jury’s verdict, announced at 4.45 pm by Bolesław Woytowicz: The 1st prize went to Pollini; the 2nd – to Irina Zaritskaya, nicknamed “miss smile” by the press; the 3rd – to the ChC veteran Tania Achot-Haroutounian57. Pollini learnt about his victory from a Polish Radio reporter while he was drinking coffee at a cafeteria. He immediately called his mother. He was the youngest 1st-prize winner in the Competition history. “Pollini is ‘unprecedented’ since he was the first to prove, through J. Strażelski, Impresje polemiczne. Po wielkim konkursie [Polemical Impressions. After the Great Competition], “Kierunki” 1960, No. 13, p. 1. 54 “Pollini seemed boring to me. Everything is excellently done there, both in technical and musical terms; he possesses the ability to be monumental and to convey the subtle shades in the piano miniatures. Well, but he bores me. […] I was naturally very fond of Block; he is fascinating.” J. Iwaszkiewicz, Listy o muzyce – ‘Po konkursie’ [Letters on Music – After the Competition], “Nowa Kultura” 1960, No. 14, p. 3. 55 akz, Zjazd Chopinistów do Warszawy [An Assembly of Chopin Interpreters in Warsaw], “Życie Warszawy”, 20th February 1960, No. 44, p. 1. 56 12 pianists were admitted to play in the finals: Michel Block, Mexico (Concerto in F Minor), Valery Kastelsky, USSR (Concerto in E Minor), Jerzy Godziszewski, Poland (F Minor), Tania Achot-Haroutounian, Iran (F Minor), Li Min-Chang [Li Ming-Qiang], China (E Minor), Zinaida Ignatyeva, USSR (F Minor), Hitoshi Kobayashi, Japan (F Minor), Maurizio Pollini, Italy (E Minor), Alexander Slobodyanik, USSR (E Minor), Józef Stompel, Poland (F Minor), and Irina Zaritskaya, USSR (E Minor). The conductors were: Witold Rowicki, Zdzisław Górzyński, and Jerzy Katlewicz. 57 The 1st prize amounted to 40,000 zlotys, the 2nd – 30,000 zlotys, the 3rd – 25,000 zlotys. The 4th one, of 20,000 zlotys, was awarded to Li Ming-Qiang; the 5th, 15,000 zlotys – to Zinaida Ignatyeva; the 6th, 10,000 zlotys – to Valery Kastelsky. The Fryderyk Chopin Society’s award for the best performance of a polonaise (10,000 zlotys) and the Polish Radio Award for the best performance of mazurkas (10,000 zlotys) were both presented to Irina Zaritskaya. The six honourable mentions worth 5,000 zlotys each went to Michel Block, Jerzy Godziszewski, Hitoshi Kobayashi, Reija Silvonen, Alexander Slobodyanik, and Józef Stompel. Jerzy Godziszewski received the Fryderyk Chopin Scholarship Fund’s Award of 10,000 zlotys for the youngest Polish candidate, as well as a six-day stay in France funded by Air France. 53 chopin.indb 176 15.02.2021 09:33:20 The 6th Competition. A Chopiniade on a Nocturne 177 his entire performance at the Competition, that in his playing there is no room for accidents and that his music-making constitutes an organic whole,” wrote Jerzy Broszkiewicz58. During the winners’ concert Pollini repeated just one piece from his ChC programme, the Prelude in D Minor, while during his performances following the Competition he went on to play Beethoven, Debussy, and Stravinsky. “Pollini is an extraordinary phenomenon. There has been none like him in the entire history of the ‘Chopin tournaments’. If we compare, we could safely say that the young Italian won all of them, wholesale.”59 The Italian press was right to announce that Warsaw would be visited by ‘il prodigio Pollini’. 58 59 chopin.indb 177 J. Broszkiewicz, Pollini i inni, op. cit., p. 7. A.Ł., Pollini, op. cit., p. 6. 15.02.2021 09:33:20 178 Ada Arendt Ada Arendt The 7th Competition. The Gombrowicz Edition. 22nd February–13th March 1965 During those years in Poland, I felt as if I were in something that wants to be, but cannot, that wants to express itself, but is unable to… What a curse! […] Yet the human material was good and certainly no worse than any other European material. They looked like capable creatures, stuck doing shoddy work, inhibited by something impersonal, superior, interhuman, and collective emanating from the milieu. Witold Gombrowicz, Diary 1 The Flu Since in the front page headlines of daily papers reports on Chopin Competition auditions were printed side by side with information on new cases of flu, closed schools and doctors’ special standby duty, the symptoms of influenza could easily be confused with those of Warsaw’s cyclic ‘Chopin fever’. “The Competition’s doctor on call appeals to all the participants, jurors, and guests not to underestimate the Polish weather. The physician has observed that many of the contestants do not wear any headgear, and the ladies insist on wearing light court shoes and silk stockings. Such recklessness may lead to a cold and the need to stay in bed,” announced the ChC Press Office in a special communiqué2. The 7th edition’s day one, Monday 22nd February 1965, also marked the peak of a flu epidemic that ever since the New Year had spread from Leningrad onto nearly the entire Eastern Bloc, from Tashkent to Warsaw3. On that very day, when the auditions were inaugurated, 1 W. Gombrowicz, Diary, transl. by Lillian Vallee, New Haven and London 2012, Vol. 1, p. 204. 2 7th International F. Chopin Piano Competition, Press Office, press communiqué No. 6, p. 2. Archive of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute (NIFC), shelf mark Pr. 4097/6. 3 V.M. Zdanov et al., The 1965 A2 Influenza Epidemic in the USSR and the Natural History of Asian Influenza, “Bulletin of the World Health Organization” 1966, No. 6 , pp. 877–884. chopin.indb 178 15.02.2021 09:33:20 The 7th Competition. The Gombrowicz Edition 179 in alphabetical order, by Acosta, Afriat, Aladzhemova, and Alp, 16,000 new cases of flu were listed in Warsaw. Already from the very first days of the 7th ChC, three of the Polish jurors (Jan Ekier, Bolesław Woytowicz, and Zbigniew Drzewiecki) were excluded by illness from the jury’s sessions. It was therefore decided that one point in the Competition regulations should be changed, namely the one which said that absenting oneself from even one audition made a juror lose his vote till the end of the given stage. “Cough drops can be purchased at the [Philharmonic’s] buffet in the foyer. Correspondents accredited to the Competition’s Press Office are requested to appeal to the audience to get these drops before attending the auditions,” another communiqué informed4. The change of regulations made necessary by the state of emergency resulting from the flu – was by no means the only one. Other alterations were also introduced in comparison with the previous edition; first and foremost – a four-stage structure, and (for the first time) a five-year contract that obliged all participants to record works from the ChC programme on gramophone records for Polskie Nagrania [state record label]. It was also the first edition in which the young foreign participants had to pay for the cost of travel to Poland out of their own pocket. There were, however, also permanent points that had already become a tradition, such as the Sunday opening concert, doughnut supplies from Blikle [renowned confectioner’s shop]5, and the “Bristol” hotel as the place of the jury’s accommodation. This time the Competition participants were lodged in the newly opened “Dom Chłopa” [hotel] in Powstańców Warszawy Square, nicknamed ‘the House under the Camels’ due to its corrugated roof, and during the ChC – also ‘the House of Craze’ [a pun on the Polish ‘mieć hopla’ – ‘be crazy about something’ – which sounds similar to ‘chłopa’, translator’s note]. In the 1st stage of the Competition, this ‘House of Craze’ played host to 76 young pianists from 29 countries, including, for the first time, Jamaica, Peru, South Korea, and Cyprus. Also for the first time in the ChC history, the most numerous team represented the United States, which sent as many as 8 pianists (the second largest teams came from Bulgaria and France – seven participants each). Warsaw’s inhabitants were again requested to make their flats and pianos available to the contestants for four hours every day. The “Kulisy” magazine described the logistics of the ChC preparations: Addresses of private concert and upright piano owners were acquired through press announcements. First, one had to visit all the flats and choose the most 7th International F. Chopin Piano Competition, Press Office, press communiqué No. 4, p. [1]. Archive of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute (NIFC), shelf mark Pr. 4097/4. 5 Cf. Hamilton’s [J.Z. Słojewski’s] feature entitled Chopin i pączki [Chopin and Doughnuts], “Kultura”, 11th April 1965, No. 15, p. 12. 4 chopin.indb 179 15.02.2021 09:33:20 180 Ada Arendt suitable ones, that is, those in close and convenient locations, and equipped with the best instruments. More than 40 upright and grand pianos were examined, renovated, and specially tuned for the purpose. Another servicing and tuning will come after the Competition. Each Competition participant will receive a map of Warsaw, and the place where ‘his’ or ‘her’ practice instrument is situated will be marked on this map. In the first days, the participants will be taken there by guides, and later – they will likely find their way by themselves. A special 15-strong team of polyglot students will act as interpreters and guides. […] Most of them are music-lovers who have ‘sold their services’ for peanuts, but will get standing tickets to the Philharmonic in return6. Despite (only symbolic) renovation and the thorough tuning of those private pianos, the conditions in which the pianists were practising varied. Some, as Lois Pachucki and Smetona, found themselves rehearsing on historical instruments7. In comparison with the 1960 ChC, the jury was slightly reduced, and divided into three ‘parity’ groups: seven representatives each from the Eastern Bloc, the capitalist countries, and Poland8. As during the previous editions, the Competition was accompanied by exhibitions. Three were shown at Warsaw Philharmonic, presented on trendy plywood stands, forming a kind of deconstructed honeycomb9. These were dedicated to: ‘The History of the Chopin Competition’, ‘Chopin’s Music on Records Throughout the World’, and ‘PWM Edition’s Chopin-Related Publications’. Another exhibition was held at the Fryderyk Chopin Society in Okólnik Street (‘The National Edition of Chopin’s Works’). The change that was of the greatest significance for the participants was adding a third stage which preceded the finals with the orchestra. The obligatory programme in that third stage comprised Nocturne in E­Flat Major Op. 55 No. 2, and one of the sonatas to choose from, extending the entire programme to be performed during all the competition stages to nearly three and a half hours10. Another major change, this time – one important for the audience, was the broadcast of the ChC on TV. Woy, Hasło – Chopin [Password – Chopin], “Kulisy”, 14th February 1965, No. 7, p. 3. T. Kaczyński, Dwa kimona, chilijski jazz i Ludwisia [Two Kimonos, Chilean Jazz, and Louise], “Sztandar Młodych”, 1st March 1965, No. 50, p. 3. 8 The complete line-up of the 1965 jury: Zbigniew Drzewiecki, Jan Hoffman, Jan Ekier, Yakov Flier, Arthur Hedley, Pal Kadosa, Eugene List, Ivo Maček, Nikita Magaloff, Timo Mikkilä, Vlado Perlemutter, František Rauch, Renzo Silvestri, Veselin Stoyanov, Magda Tagliaferro, Sigismund Toduta, Margerita Trombini-Kazuro, Amadeus Webersinke, Maria Wiłkomirska, Bolesław Woytowicz, and Jerzy Żurawlew. 9 A photo of the exhibition can be found at the Photographic Archive of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute (NIFC), shelf mark 1209–3. 10 Respective stage lengths in the 7th ChC: Stage I – c. 36’55”, II – c. 44’05”, III – c. 30’, the finals – c. 30’. 6 7 chopin.indb 180 15.02.2021 09:33:20 The 7th Competition. The Gombrowicz Edition 181 GUS (Central Statistical Office) Yearbook for 1965 tells us that there were about two million TV-licence holders in Poland in that year, five times more than during the previous ChC edition. The solemn inauguration (a concert of Polish music broadcast live on TV at 8.45 p.m. on 21st February) and the subsequent Competition stages can best be viewed and listened to FROM THE SCREEN OF YOUR OWN TELEVISION SET, a ‘Szafir’ [‘Sapphire’ make] or an ‘Aladyn’ [‘Alladin’]. The auditions broadcasts from the 7th International Chopin Competition can best be listened to and viewed on the screen of your own television set, a ‘Szafir’ or an ‘Aladyn’, which can be purchased in all the ZURiT and radiotechnical shops in INSTALMENTS! Loans can be taken out from O. R. S. (18 monthly instalments, initial payment: 10% of the price). The, still not so numerous, TV viewers could follow the ChC auditions twice a week in a half-hour-long programme titled Chopin 1965 – Special TV News, hosted by Witold Rudziński and Zdzisław Sierpiński, as well as brief news reports in Dziennik Telewizyjny [the evening TV News]. The press complained that this was not enough, and that instead of the Competition the Polish TV focused on broadcasts from the Ice Hockey World Championships, held at the same time in Turku11. The ChC coverage was scanty because recording concerts live outside the TV studio was then still a technically difficult, pioneering task. It was debated whether television is a proper place for music at all. Is Music a TV Thing? asked the “Kultura” weekly in a headline printed in its monthly supplement “TeleKultura”, dedicated to that new medium, defined in the same publication as “a newspaper speaking with image and the word”12. The editors of “TeleKultura” could in fact be highly critical of television, as they demanded “a better technical level of TV broadcasts, making them attractive for everyone, proper to this medium (the ‘televising quality’), of high artistic, cognitive and educational standard, quick and versatile […] as well as free from any official elements and clichés.”13 It is hard to assess today to what extent the Chopin 1965 – Special TV News met those postulates since the materials are only brief archived fragments. Nevertheless, a street survey carried out by the “Ekran” [“The Screen”] weekly during the Competition brought some critical though balanced opinions: “I am profoundly interested in the Chopin Competition,” 11 M. Bielicki, Obywatele, tupmy głośno! [Citizens, Let Us Stamp Our Feet Loudly!], “Zwierciadło”, 21st March 1965, No. 12, p. 13. Cf. also: Z. Veth, VII Konkurs Chopinowski w TV [The 7th Chopin Competition on TV], “Ekran”, 21st March 1965, No. 12, p. 14. 12 S., Czy muzyka jest telewizyjna? [Is Music a TV Thing?]; Hamilton, Telewizja jako gazeta [Television As a Newspaper], “TeleKultura” 1965, No. 3, p. 1. 13 W., TV się nie podoba [The TV Is Not Liked], “TeleKultura” 1965, No. 2, p. 2; supplement to “Kultura”, 4th April 1965, No. 14. chopin.indb 181 15.02.2021 09:33:20 182 Ada Arendt said Stanisław Zawadzki, a University of Warsaw student, “and I try to attend all the auditions, but am not always able to do so. In such cases, I satisfy my curiosity by watching the candidates on the TV screen. The coverage is probably sufficient, but apart from the performances themselves, though they are naturally the most important, I’d like to watch more behind-thescenes reports on the Competition. Those latter are scanty and overly stereotyped.”14 While the radio and television only broadcast the auditions, the actual debate on both the popular and the expert levels went on, as before, in the press, which was still going strong, and was printed in colour more and more frequently15, though admittedly the press journalists were a bit overawed by the fast pace imposed on the media by the television: “Life rolls on much faster than the printing machines on which ‘Świat’ is printed; so before this issue has reached our honourable Readers, the 7th Chopin Competition will already be history.”16 Teenyboppers and Young Shavers “You know what, Mr Królik? This international junior music contest for the Chopin prize that they are holding in Warsaw now, I say, it should be put off.” “For what reason, if I may ask?” “Why, it’s obvious, because of the flu.” “But is this really such a big obstacle? Are the contestants falling ill by the dozen?” “That’s not the point. It’s about the coughing in the concert hall. Even in ordinary times, when there’s no epidemic, this’d be a big issue. Mind you, the music at those concerts is downright exquisite, but just a tiny bit monotonous. Take, for instance, the funeral march. When you hear it for the first time, it’s awfully nice, but already at the fourth listening, say, it’s no longer so much fun. Shorter pieces work better, ‘cos with the longer ones our audience just gets into impossible coughing fits. One person starts, and everyone follows with the coughing like sheep. Just a few years gone, I went to that championship with my wife, and one such coughing leader was sitting next to us. And any time there was a bit of silence, he would start suffocating at once, and the entire hall would follow him. This made me cross at last, and I said: “What, have you come here to get into a whooping cough? You’re losing your nerve, man. Everyone here is suffering in silence. All of us would prefer hits like ‘Keep It Up Bogdan’ or ‘The Long Lines of Cars Are Just Not for Us’. So since you’ve made up your mind to come to this venue, just try to behave, man.” Sonda. W tym tygodniu podobało się nam [A Survey. What We Liked This Week], “Ekran. Tygodnik Filmowo-Telewizyjny”, 14th March 1965, No. 11, p. 14. 15 Colour picture stories covering the ChC events were printed in “Stolica”, “Przekrój”, “Przyjaciółka”, “Świat”, and “Polska”. 16 J. Waldorff, 80 kilometrów Chopina [Chopin’s 80 Kilometres], “Świat”, 14th March 1965, No. 11, p. 7. 14 chopin.indb 182 15.02.2021 09:33:20 The 7th Competition. The Gombrowicz Edition 183 So you can imagine what must be going on there now, when, as the press reports, 115 thousand people in Warsaw have come down with flu, not counting the foreigners.” “Well, true enough, especially since the jurors are also ill, as they’re saying.” “That’s right. Three have already dropped out, and a fourth one is said to be keeping his kerchief round his nose all the time.” “And we likewise need to take into account that a runny nose blocks the ears all right. So such a juror then has no choice but to judge for the pianist’s pretty face. And this way, the prettier the chick, the greater chances she stands in this musical lottery,”17 wrote Stefan Wiechecki in his regular column (Mr Valery Liver Takes the Floor) for “Express Wieczorny”. “It is commonly known that Warsaw adores its young musical shavers and teenyboppers and won’t never let no one do them no harm,” claimed Mr Valery [who spoke the traditional Warsaw lingo – translator’s note]; “would that the flu was over, or else our juniors are gonna drop out after the preliminaries.” Wiech’s perfect ear for colloquial speech brought out in these comments an interesting type of attitude toward the ChC participants. Those ‘teenyboppers’ and ‘young shavers’ reflect the condescending way in which commentators spoke of the contestants. In the case of women pianists, this patronising manner was tinged with sexist overtones: “Maria Korecka, a genuine blonde, aged 22, native of Cracow”; “Ewa Wolak, ravenblack hair, sapphire-blue eyes (!), aged 21…”18 Such was the way in which the editors of “Przekrój” presented the Polish pianists. The participants were referred to per ‘boy’ and ‘girl’, even though, in accordance with the Competition regulations, they were not younger than 17 and not older than 30 (and had thus been born between 1935 and 1948); sometimes a woman pianist was described as “sadly already married”19. “In countries specialising in mass culture, the press writes such things about film stars, but respectable music critics never resort to such cheap devices,” commented the journalist and music sociologist Paweł Beylin20. The fact of treating young female pianists like (sex) objects can be interpreted as a result of the tabloidization of Competition reports in an attempt to turn the ChC into a popular event – or at least this is how Beylin interpreted this phenomenon in his feature article in “Polityka”: Wiech, Juniorki im. Chopina [Girls’ Junior Chopin Championships], “Express Wieczorny”, 28th Feb.– 1st March 1965, No. 50, p. 6. Wiech’s texts were written as a literary imitation of the Warsaw dialect characteristic of the uneducated urban population – translator’s note. 18 Meloman B, Poloneza As­Dur czas zacząć [The A­Flat Major Polonaise Shall Now Be Played], “Przekrój”, 14th Feb. 1965, No. 1036, p. 5. 19 S., Na estradzie i za kulisami [On the Stage and Backstage], “Życie Warszawy”, 5th March 1965, No. 55, p. 4. 20 P. Beylin, Grają go i cyzelują [They Play and Polish Chopin], “Polityka”, 27th March 1965, No. 13, p. 1. 17 chopin.indb 183 15.02.2021 09:33:21 184 Ada Arendt “Once in five years, something like a Peace Race on pianos [The Peace Race was the Eastern bloc’s main bicycle race – translator’s note] is held in Warsaw, while the press, the radio and television do their best to turn the widest possible masses into fans.” As the audience’s attention shifted from the music to the sport-like and social aspects of the ChC, it became, as Beylin observes, “a Competition also for piano performance” [emphasis by AA]. Accurate as this diagnosis undoubtedly was, it does not preclude another insight; since a high ranking in the contest was tantamount to being admitted to the pianists’ guild, the Competition is, after all, a rite of passage, which allows the initiates to attain social maturity. “In Poland, the serious launch of a young pianist’s career has long been identified with participation and success in the Chopin Competition,” claimed (in an interview for “Zwierciadło”) Zbigniew Drzewiecki, five of whose pupils took part in the 7th ChC21. In his classic monograph dedicated to rites of passage, the French ethnologist Arnold van Gennep distinguished three stages in such rituals: symbolic death, a transition period when one is temporarily excluded from the community, and the moment of being readmitted to the group after the successful completion of the rite, which frequently takes the form of a hard trial that the young adept has to undergo22. The Competition is frequently considered and described as “a very demanding adventure”, as a headline in “Zwierciadło” would have it. If the ChC is an initiation rite, then the moment of symbolic death came with the decision to take part in the contest (“being bitten by the Chopin bug”), whereas the (exceptionally long) liminal phase comprised several years of preparations, and only ended at the close of the Competition. The young pianists were indeed excluded from normal life for at least a year before the event, during which they received scholarships that allowed them to focus as strongly as possible on the Chopin repertoire, while a special educational committee evaluated their progress. This exclusion could most distinctly be observed during the Competition, when the candidates lived, ate meals, and spent their free time together, separated from their families, jurors, and journalists. This very strict supervision extended over the ‘girls and boys’ who frequently already had their own families – resembled “the grotesque comedy of the ossified school system that infantilised young people even in their adulthood”23, as described by Gombrowicz in Ferdydurke. 21 Z. Drzewiecki, Profesor Zbigniew Drzewiecki, rozm. przepr. Z. Pazdej [An Interview with Professor Zbigniew Drzewiecki, Conducted by Z. Pazdej], “Zwierciadło”, 14th Feb. 1965, No. 7, pp. 1–2. 22 A. van Gennep, The Rites of Passage, transl. by Monika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffee, London 1960. 23 J.J. Lipski, Ferdydurke, czyli wojna skuteczna wydana mitom [Ferdydurke, or a Successful War on Myths], in: Gombrowicz i krytycy [Gombrowicz and the Critics], ed. Z. Łapiński, Kraków 1984, p. 102. chopin.indb 184 15.02.2021 09:33:21 The 7th Competition. The Gombrowicz Edition 185 A highly subversive and ruthless initiation rite it was, indeed, since only few of the participants stood any chance of successfully completing the ritual24. Zbigniew Drzewiecki thus commented on this problem: […] hard and, in a sense, also unfair is the situation of those Chopin Competition candidates who have not been included in the [Polish] team despite reaching the last stage of the preliminaries. For several years their work had focused exclusively on the Competition. They could not seize any other chances during that period, and gave up participation in other contests. What now?25 The pianists who entered the Competition (‘the hard trial’) can thus be viewed as male and female novices or candidates for initiation, or, as Wiech put it, young shavers and teenyboppers who, having entered the pianistic novitiate, have become the objects of a peculiar voyeurism on the part of ‘adults’, in the form of publicly reported trips, ice-breaking parties, and dance evenings, as well as endless comments on their looks, dress, love affairs, and ways of combatting stage fright. But this was not all. The adventure was not equally formidable to all the contestants. The Polish candidates competed not only to be dubbed mature pianists, but also mature Polish pianists, which implied attaining perfection in the Chopin repertoire, and the ability to channel Chopin himself, expected from a Polish ‘Chopinist’. There were additional requirements to be fulfilled in order to be admitted to this status, which, perhaps most significantly, was complicated by the difficult relation between pianists and the Polish music-lovers: A problem of no small importance, which results from those discussed above, is the specific relation between the Polish music-lovers and pianists. The longtime tradition and status of the Chopin Competition in Poland have given rise to a number of ‘requirements’ that nearly all the Polish pianists strive to meet, frequently from the very start of their musical activity. It is a rather common view (also sometimes in music schools) that a young music apprentice only becomes a pianist when he or she performs Chopin’s music. This creates an unwholesome, counter-educational, and anti-artistic atmosphere, which contributes to a stagnation in the interests, development, and demands placed on themselves by both the teacher and the pupil. […] The cult of a pianist-Chopinist must by no means be identified with the cult of Chopin’s oeuvre26, wrote composer Zbigniew Bargielski, while Jerzy Waldorff concluded that “music festivals and competitions are popping up perhaps not like mush24 A solution to the ChC deadlock that can be seen as truly in the vein of Gombrowicz was proposed in 1980 by Ivo Pogorelić, who, to use Gombrowicz’s own terms – “violated” Chopin. 25 Z. Drzewiecki, op. cit. 26 Z. Bargielski, Komentarz do konkursu [A Commentary on the Competition], “Ilustrowany Magazyn Studencki” [“Illustrated Student Magazine”], 28th Feb. 1965, No. 9, p. 5. chopin.indb 185 15.02.2021 09:33:21 186 Ada Arendt rooms, but like bacteria in a flu-ridden nose”27. The Polish ChC participants were thus doubly ‘entangled’ – firstly, in the Chopin repertoire, and secondly, by living in a country which, as a political principle, made travelling abroad difficult, while their foreign colleagues were taking advantage of numerous master classes and other competitions which they could attend: As we can see from the programme, at least half of the candidates performing in our competition are winners or at least participants of numerous other contests. […] They come to our competition and either win prizes or not; then they move on and play some other music in another place. In this context, one cannot help being worried by the very narrow repertoire specialisation of our own candidates in this and the previous editions. We have become the country of the Chopin Competition, and this is beginning to determine, in a threatening manner, all our teaching activity, all the dreams and the piano practice28, commented Stefan Wysocki in “Kultura”, comparing the ‘airborne’ and mobile foreign pianists with the ‘grounded’ Polish ones. Add to this the high spiritual demands imposed on the Polish pianists (‘Chopinists’), the ‘liminal phase’ of three to five years when they are preparing for the ChC – and all this begins to look very much like Konrad imprisoned in his cell [in Mickiewicz’s Forefathers’ Eve Part III – translator’s note], with Chopin assuming the role of “the chief inquisitor of Poles’ collective torture”.29 This tendency was also observed by English musicologist and long-time ChC juror, Arthur Hedley, who wrote in an article printed in “Ruch Muzyczny”: “In a sense, the Chopin Competition is highly harmful to Polish pianists since it forces them to play nothing but Chopin for 5 years. It does not concern the foreign participants, but for the Poles, the Competition has become a prison and a form of slavery.”30 True enough, the Polish ChC candidates are genuinely ‘bound in marriage’ to Chopin, and, as music critic-musicologist Janusz Ekiert admitted, the criteria and rules that shape this ‘marital bond’ are as restrictive as they are vague. Janusz Ekiert wrote: “Tomorrow starts a great J. Waldorff, Otwarcia, powitania [The Opening and Greetings], “Świat”, 28th Feb. 1965, No. 9, p. 5. 28 S. Wysocki, Konkurs Chopinowski [The Chopin Competition], “Kultura”, 21st March 1965, No. 12, p. 5. 29 S. Chwin, Romantyczna przestrzeń wyobraźni [The Space of Romantic Imagination], Bydgoszcz 1989, p. 168. 30 A. Hedley, O regulaminie Konkursu, rozszerzeniu programu, trudnościach punktacji, interpretacji, tradycji chopinowskiej i młodych pianistach polskich, rozm. przepr. T. Kaczyński [On the Competition Regulations, Programme Extension, Problems of Assessment and Interpretation, the Chopin Tradition, and the Young Polish Pianists, an Interview Conducted by T. Kaczyński], “Ruch Muzyczny”, 1st – 15th May 1965, No. 9, p. 19. 27 chopin.indb 186 15.02.2021 09:33:21 The 7th Competition. The Gombrowicz Edition 187 test of faithfulness to Chopin. It is the more difficult since in the piano world the criteria of infidelity are much less clear than they are in marriage.”31 In theory, the pianists, pushed back into boyhood/girlhood and ‘infantilised’ by means of Chopin, were to be assessed (on a scale from 1 to 21 points) by ‘adults’ in order to become ‘adult’ themselves. However, sooner than becoming ‘adult’ as pianists, they would undergo ‘ossification’ under the pressure of public opinion and of ‘mature’ pianistic conventions. Paweł Beylin summed up the atmosphere around the Competition: “All this proves that the sense of moderation and proportion has been lost altogether.” He commented: It has by no means been proved that this kind of game is the best way of propagating music culture in our country. Observation of the event may well leave us with the impression that, despite all the claims concerning the greatness and uniqueness of Chopin’s music, he has been overshadowed by the patronage of the united spirits of Maestro Towiański [Polish messianic religious leader] and Maestro Kusociński [famous Polish athlete – translator’s notes]. These names, however, are hardly part of the history of music. We therefore have the legitimate right to ask: What substitute experience have the public mystery rites that accompany the Competition been supposed to provide?32 Though Beylin’s image of the ChC was extremely clear, he seems to have underestimated the importance of those mysteries. A mystery cult is never a substitute, but it may sometimes become a synecdoche. The Chopin Competition as “a Qualitative Concentration of the Polish Form” The Competition is thus a collective torture to which we treat ourselves and our ‘young shavers and teenyboppers’ every five years; a torture which we have turned into Poland’s flagship export product. I therefore venture the thesis that the ChC is a kind of cyclic, qualitative concentration of ‘Polish form’, conceived by Witold Gombrowicz as a relational way of constructing national identity and of basing one’s own self-esteem exclusively on how we are perceived by ‘the world’. That form is also a tendency to present ourselves on the outside as a perfect (though frequently defeated) community, full of vital powers, monolithic in terms of outlook, and phallocentrically J. Ekiert, Jutro konkurs [The Competition Starts Tomorrow], “Stolica”, 21st Feb. 1965, No. 8, p. 3. 32 P. Beylin, op. cit. 31 chopin.indb 187 15.02.2021 09:33:21 188 Ada Arendt attractive33. Gombrowicz described the Polish form as a “a deformed final product of evolutions outlined by the Polish Romanticism”, which leaves us with no other alternative but the opposition between ‘idyll’ and ‘death’. Chopin himself (who was literally ‘taken out’ of that Romanticism), in socialist Poland was placed as if astride between these two options – the folksy (not to say rustic) one, sometimes confused with Janko the Musician (see Chapter VI on Jan Lenica’s cartoon film), and the bloody and bloodthirsty Chopin that demands sacrifices and is himself a victim (first and foremost, of Nazi atrocities, as represented by the frequently reproduced images of the destruction of the Chopin monument). From the time when Mickiewicz wrote Master Thaddeus till the moment when a CPLiA stall was installed at Warsaw Philharmonic, little changed in this respect, and folk elements remain “yet another way of manifesting Poland’s greatness”34. (In this context the flower-patterned linen fabrics on the walls of the rebuilt Warsaw Philharmonic also begin to make sense.) The Chopin Competition is a self-stylised act performed for the needs of the ‘world’, and a way to cement the community through three weeks of national masochism. This is in line with the way ‘foreign culture’ manifests itself during the ChC. Foreign pianists are represented in accordance with racial and national stereotypes35, while foreign jurors and press correspondents have to follow the official narration of the ChC Press Office (or else expose themselves to fierce criticism). This rule was broken by the then “New York Times” correspondent in Warsaw, David Halberstam, who described the controversies accumulating around the 7th ChC assessment criteria, and divulged the information concerning the practice of giving lower scores to Soviet pianists36. Toward the end of the same year, this journalist (a Pulitzer Prize winner) was ordered to leave Poland within 48 hours due to his ostensible ‘anti-Polish activity’. The Gombrowiczesque tensions that accompany the Competition are also resolved Gombrowicz-style, in the form of a duel or, as Jerzy Waldorff put it, “the 7th battle of the keyboards”37. The parties in this duel or battle are the national piano schools. Victory will go to that school which can come as close as possible to the ideal of a ‘pure Chopin performance’. Like GomW. Gombrowicz, Diary, transl. by Lillian Vallee, New Haven and London 2012, Vol. 1, pp. 19, 207, 242 et al.; I also draw on S. Chwin’s analysis contained in his Romantyczna przestrzeń wyobraźni, op. cit. 34 S. Chwin, op. cit., p. 166. 35 J. Żebrowski’s cartoon entitled Egzotyczny Chopin [An Exotic Chopin], in: “Poglądy”, 15th – 30th April 1965, No. 8, p. 19. 36 D. Halberstam, Poles said to foil Soviet piano hope, “The New York Times”, 20th March 1965. 37 J. Waldorff, Siódma bitwa na klawiszach [The Seventh Battle of the Keyboards], “Filipinka”, 31st Jan. 1965, No. 3, pp. 6–7. 33 chopin.indb 188 15.02.2021 09:33:21 The 7th Competition. The Gombrowicz Edition 189 browicz’s tennis match without balls, or like a duel fought with unloaded guns, also the thus conceived Chopin Competition is only a make-believe duel, and its contenders are entities whose existence is doubtful to say the least. “There is no such thing as the so-called Polish piano school,” wrote Jan Weber in “Ruch Muzyczny”38. “Our jurors are claimed to assess the candidates, in both the preliminaries and the Competition proper, based on aesthetic and technical principles of the Polish piano school, which… does not exist,” similarly observed Jerzy Waldorff39. “[…] it seems that our teachers are also unable to explain to their pupils what that Chopin actually is like, or what he is supposed to be like,” further commented Weber40. It therefore appears that attaining artistic maturity thanks to or by means of the ChC is virtually impossible. As it turns out, however, there is a remedy for the impotence of the Polish Form. This remedy is – distancing oneself from Poland and Polish-ness. The potency is preserved in those Polish pianists who have been led out of themselves, out of Poland41. These representatives of the Polish diaspora abroad proved to be the true stars of the 7th ChC edition, and attracted the attention of the press not less than the 1st-prize winner, Martha Argerich. “They have proved themselves to represent the most essentially Polish type of pianism,”42 wrote Jerzy Waldorff about the audience’s three favourites: Ewa Maria Żuk (representing Venezuela) the Canadian Marek Jabłoński, and Lois Carole Pachucki (Ludwika Pachucka) from the USA, thus suggesting (unintentionally perhaps?) that Polish-ness is a mystical and a biological quality. Martha the ‘Sarmatian’ The 7th ChC might be nicknamed ‘a competition of favourites’, since it brought together many distinctive personalities which attracted the attention of both the press and the audience, even if this popularity was not always reflected in the jury’s final scores. Those ‘favourites’ included the US pianists Rebecca Penneys and Edward Auer (both pupils of the famous Rosina Lhévinne of the Juilliard School of Music), the Brazilian Arthur Moreira Lima (the only participant to have chosen the F Minor Concerto 38 J. Weber, Gdzie jesteś Chopin? [Where Are You, Chopin?], “Ruch Muzyczny”, 1st – 15th Jan. 1965, No. 1, p. 11. 39 J. Waldorff, Zmiana sędziów [The Exchange of Jurors], “Świat” 1965, No. 12, p. 11. 40 J. Weber, Gdzie jesteś Chopin?, op. cit. 41 “I, like Moses, am leading the Poles out of slavery of that form. I am leading the Pole out of himself.” W. Gombrowicz, Diary, transl. by Lillian Vallee, New Haven and London 2012, Vol. 1, p. 44. 42 J. Waldorff, 80 kilometrów Chopina, op. cit., p. 7. chopin.indb 189 15.02.2021 09:33:21 190 Ada Arendt in the finals), as well as the Argentinian Martha Argerich, who had previously already won prizes in the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano and the International Music Competition in Geneva43. “A girl of intriguing beauty, with long black loose hair and huge eyes”44 – this is how she was described at the beginning of the Competition. After the successive stages, however, commentators’ attention no longer focused on her “deep blue hair”, but on her “electric”, “fantastically innervated” fingers “made of steel”.45 She was compared to the greatest of the greats, such as Horowitz: Many excellent and world-famous pianists have taken up the difficult Étude in C Major Op. 10 No. 1 since Horowitz recorded this piece; but none of them has succeeded in such a brilliant manner as Martha Argerich. This phenomenal Argentinian with fingers made of steel is the first one to have brought an entire palette of moods out of the ordinary though lightning-fast passages in the right hand. Previously, expressive qualities have only been exploited in the deep-bronze-sounding octaves in the left hand, against the background of a fast figuration in the right one. Argerich’s tempo and articulation in this Étude are likewise unrivalled. And such an [interpretation of the] Prelude in D Minor as she has demonstrated has not been heard here since Maurizio Pollini’s (the previous Competition winner’s) performance of this piece five years ago. Unfortunately, in her euphoria the Argentinian let herself be carried away by her temperament in the Polonaise in A­Flat Major, where she made a few mistakes46. Argerich’s temperament and imagination were widely commented: Sceptics claim that the jury gave her points not only for her merits, but also for the lack of vices. These sceptics (who speak for themselves) thus demonstrate their musical blindness. The truth is, it is hard to decide which of this pianist’s virtues we should admire the most: her instinct, her imagination, technique, or the consistency with which she builds the musical line. She possesses an overwhelming temperament; her phrase is extraordinarily supple and quasi-vocal in character, with a natural tendency to build up to a culmination. Her sound conceals a great strength, though it may sometimes be as light as the brush of a butterfly’s wings, and as soft as down, while her sound colour resembles a sunray in that it is bright Argerich’s ChC programme was as follows: in stage I: 6 preludes, 2 études, Nocturne in F Major Op. 15 No. 1, Polonaise in A Flat Major Op. 53; in stage II: 2 études, the Barcarolle, 3 mazurkas, Waltz in A­Flat Major Op. 34 No. 1, Scherzo in C-Sharp Minor Op. 39; in stage III: Sonata in B Minor Op. 58, Nocturne in E­Flat Major Op. 55 No. 2; in the finals: Concerto in E Minor; during the winners’ concert: Mazurkas in A Minor and A­Flat Major Op. 59 Nos 1 and 2, Scherzo in C-Sharp Minor Op. 39. 44 L. Kydryński, Finał Chopinowskiego Konkursu [The Finals of the Chopin Competition], “Dziennik Polski”, 16th March 1965, No. 63, p. 3. 45 Z. Jeżewska, Jaka jest Martha… [What Martha Is Like], “Radio i Świat”, 29th March 1965, No. 13, p. 3. 46 J. Ekiert, Konkurs gwiazd [A Competition of Stars], “Stolica”, 7th March 1965, No. 10, p. 3. 43 chopin.indb 190 15.02.2021 09:33:22 The 7th Competition. The Gombrowicz Edition 191 and hot at the same time. Add the rubato to all this (a technique that in Poland is threatened with extinction) – and the sketch for a portrait of a phenomenal pianist is nearly complete47. And, on top of all this, her virtuosity: Of the three [interpretations of the] Concertos that we heard on Saturday, each was different. The Argentinian played with incredible temperament and passion. It was only in the first several dozen bars that stage fright affected the purity of her playing in a few places or made her accelerate nervously. But later, till the very end, it was a display of magnificent virtuosity, of very beautiful and dewy though not very powerful sound. […] In the final Rondo the young pianist seems finally to have shed all her anxiety. Her sound became stronger, and she showed off her spectacular technique, ending with a brilliant chord. A moment later, after the last orchestral notes have sounded, a thunderous applause broke out and a huge ovation. Argerich was called back to the stage many times to thank the audience and the orchestra for their applause48. Most intriguing, however, is the epithet used by the correspondent of “Życie Warszawy” for her mazurkas, which he described as performed “beautifully, with a Sarmatian49 panache and tempo”50. Apart from the 1st prize and the Polish Radio award for the best performance of mazurkas, Argerich took back to Geneva, where she then resided, also numerous other prizes, including two crystal cups: one for the performance of Waltz in A­Flat Major Op. 34 No. 1, funded by the Fryderyk Chopin Society (Společnost Fryderyka Chopina) in Mariánské Lázně, and another, a crystal vase, endowed by C.E.I. “Minex” [state export-import company]. Besides, an oil painting which showed the Wąski Dunaj Street in Warsaw’s Old Town, funded by the Culture Department of Warsaw’s Board of the People’s Council [local level of government in communist Poland – translator’s note]; an invitation to the Festival in Montreux in August of the same year; as well as a patinated plaster cast of the Chopin bust (by sculptor Leon Machowski), which stood on the stage during the Competition. In her interviews, Argerich regretted that Edward Auer, whose playing she valued highly (“personally I consider him the best pianist in this contest”, she commented 47 J. Weber, Laureaci i indywidualności [Winners and Individuals], “Ruch Muzyczny”, 1st – 15th May 1965, No. 9, p. 10. 48 SIERP [Z. Sierpiński], Finał wielkiego konkursu [The Finals of a Great Competition], “Życie Warszawy”, 15th March 1965, No. 63, p. 1. 49 ‘Sarmatian’ refers here to the (supposed) characteristics of the noble class in the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth – translator’s note. 50 Sierp, II etap Konkursu rozpoczęty [Stage II of the Competition Has Begun], “Życie Warszawy”, 6th March 1965, No. 56, p. 6. chopin.indb 191 15.02.2021 09:33:22 192 Ada Arendt for “Ruch Muzyczny”51) only came fifth after the finals. Auer was recognised by both reviewers and the audience as an artist who had much to offer, but was perhaps too intellectual for the Chopin Competition: He is one of those modern pianists who combine sophisticated aesthetic sensitivity with a parallel and well-developed intellectual element. His playing is only seemingly dry and objective at times. Once we begin to listen more attentively, we can see how much emotion and emotional commitment it reflects. This is a kind of emotion that derives both from his understanding of the music’s expressive qualities and from the joy of controlling the course and development of the work he performs, on all its levels. Auer the intellectual endows his piano sound with an objective shape, makes it clear, lucid, and a bit cold. Auer the dreamer and the Romantic makes this sound take on colour and renders it strong; his perfect legato enhances the sound’s duration and intensity. In this way, he attains a specific continuum of sound […]52. There were two ‘great losers’ in the 7th edition of the ChC; apart from Auer, the other one was Rebecca Penneys, whose performances were thus described: It has been a contest of very different and exuberant musical imaginations, the most prominent of which has been the amazingly powerful and imposing individuality of Rebecca Penneys. Her playing filled the room with a narcotic atmosphere. her genius is already equal to that of Richter, and can only be compared to him. Many a jury member, including Professor Drzewiecki and the eminent Soviet pianist Jakov Flier, was deeply moved by her performance, and concluded that in the face of such a phenomenon the lifeless standard criteria can no longer be applied. Her playing did not, however, fit in with the strict criteria of the other jury members, and this deprived her of the chance to be admitted to stage III53. Auer did not win any of the ten special awards and Penneys only earned the Special Critics’ Prize54, but they both received an enthusiastic ovation from the audience. 51 T. Kaczyński, Z. Sierpiński, Konkurs oczami uczestników [The Competition in the Eyes of Its Participants], “Ruch Muzyczny”, 1st – 15th May 1965, No. 9, p. 23. 52 J. Weber, Laureaci i indywidualiści [Winners and Individualists], op. cit., p. 11. 53 J. Ekiert, Chopin i 21 apostołów [Chopin and the 21 Apostles], “Zwierciadło”, 21st March 1965, No. 12, pp. 8–9. 54 The Anna Godlewska Award for the best Polish pianist (regardless of the country of residence), amounting to USD 300 and funded by Godlewska’s son, as well as the Fryderyk Chopin Society’s (TIFC) Award for the best performance of a polonaise went to Marta Sosińska. The other special award winners were: Moreira Lima (the Maria Kowarska-Szwalbe Award of 7,000 zlotys for the best performance of a sonata, endowed by her brother); Martha Argerich (Award of the École de musique Vincent-d’Indy [music college] in Montreal for the 1st prize winner in the form of a week’s trip to Montreal with a concert in the school’s new concert hall; the Polish Radio Special Award for the best performance of mazurkas); Hiroko chopin.indb 192 15.02.2021 09:33:22 The 7th Competition. The Gombrowicz Edition 193 Once the ChC was over, the prizes had been presented55, and emotions subsided, there came a relief: Once such a Chopin Competition is over, one feels like Hermenegilda Kociubińska [poet protagonist of K.I. Gałczyński’s dramatic miniatures – translator’s comment] continuously hit on the head with a walking cane for three weeks, when the beating suddenly stops. A momentary relief, bewilderment, followed by a sense of void. One would dash somewhere, say something, but we already know that there is nowhere to run and no reason to speak. So it is a bit of a pity that it is over, and we are overcome by a shallow fear at the heart once we become aware of this much too fast descent into the valley of death56. The relief must have resulted, first and foremost, from how repetitive the ChC repertoire was. The Étude in G­Flat Major Op. 10 No. 5 was heard 21 times in the 1st stage; the Polonaise in A­Flat Major Op. 53 – 26 times; Preludes Nos 13–18 – 31 times. In stage II Waltz in A­Flat Major Op. 42 was repeated 17 times, the mazurkas from op. 50 – 11 times, the Scherzo in C-Sharp Minor Op. 39 – just as many times. In stage III the Sonata in B Minor Op. 58 recurred as many as 11 times, and in the finals everyone except for Moreira Lima played the Concerto in E Minor. The post-Competition void was filled with report-writing. The recurrent themes were similar to those from the previous years. One was the need to make the successive stages more difficult. It was postulated that Das Wohltemperierte Klavier be introduced in the national preliminaries; adding pieces by Karol Szymanowski to the ChC programme was also discussed, as well as making the performance of both Chopin concertos obligatory in the finals. Another topic was the insufficient transparency of jurors’ assessment. To remedy this problem, broadcasting the jury’s meetings live on the radio was considered, as well as placing the jurors at separate tables in the Philharmonic so that they would not be able to consult the scores with one another. The mental condition of the participants was likewise an object of care; it was suggested that jurors should not be allowed to give concerts before the auditions were finished, that scores should be kept secret, and pressure ought to be exerted on journalists not to pass premature judgments. International issues included the proposal to send Polish pianists Nakamura (Award of the Fryderyk Chopin Scholarship Fund for the youngest finalist); as well as special SPAM (Association for Polish Music Artists) critics’ award, presented to Ikuko Endo (Japan), Rebecca Penneys (USA), and Georgiy Sirota (USSR) . 55 1st prize – Martha Argerich, 2nd – Arthur Moreira Lima, 3rd – Marta Sosińska, th 4 – Hiroko Nakamura, 5th – Edward Auer; honourable mentions: Marek Jabłoński, Tamara Koloss, Lois Carole Pachucki, Viktoria Postnikova, Blanca Uribe, Ewa Maria Żuk. 56 J. Waldorff, Konkursowe echa… cha… cha… cha… [Competition Echoes… Cho… Ha…Ha], “Świat”, 28th March 1965, No. 13, p. 13. chopin.indb 193 15.02.2021 09:33:22 194 Ada Arendt to study in the USSR and let them participate to a larger extent in foreign piano competitions. Among the postulated instruments of pressure, it was recommended that scholarships for the ChC be reduced and that Polish artists serving on foreign juries should be obliged to report on their regulations and on the jury’s work57. These, then, were the topics discussed by ‘adults’ at their meetings. Meanwhile, Martha Argerich ruled supreme on magazine covers – lost in thought, in her polka-dotted dress and with her face hidden behind her hair; with a handkerchief or a cigarette in her hand. Not entangled in the dispute between ‘fatherland’ and ‘sonland’ [concepts from Gombrowicz’s Trans-Atlantic – translator’s note], suffering from a cold and from stage fright, she gave a performance that “crushed everything in her way”, as “Tygodnik Powszechny” would have it58; or, if you like, “like a true Sarmatian”. Sprawozdanie z VI Międzynarodowego Konkursu im. Fryderyka Chopina wraz z wnio­ skami rzutującymi na przygotowania do VII Konkursu im. Fryderyka Chopina [Report on the 6th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, along with Conclusions Relevant for Preparing the 7th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition], cat. A, 4/1, item 2; Z problemów VII­go Międzynarodowego Konkursu Pianistycznego im. Fr. Chopina [On the Problems of the International F. Chopin Piano Competition], report prepared by the Ministry of Culture and Art, February 1966, Archive of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute (NIFC); Fryderyk Chopin Society (TIFC), VII M.K. im. Fr. Chopina [7th F. Chopin Int. Comp.], 4/9, cat. A, Col. 9, items 72–82. 58 T. Kaczyński, VII Konkurs Chopinowski [The 7th Chopin Competition], “Tygodnik Powszechny”, 4th April 1965, No. 14, p. 4. 57 chopin.indb 194 15.02.2021 09:33:22