Cross-Over
My journey around Asia and Europe lasts already 20 years. I meet people, new instruments, and other concepts of beauty, rhythms, and colours. Diversity still fascinates me as well as provokes to ask myself “who am I?” After all these years of experiences I know, that in present times an artist must develop exceptional sensitivity which allows him to perceive and understand the aspects of music based on different principles, than these. It is hard but possible. During my journeys to India, Korea, Japan, China or the Middle East I felt, as if I’ve been climbing a high mountain from which more and more clearly I saw the elements I’ve never noticed before of my own tradition. For many Asian cultures music, not only sacred, is a way of communication between the physical and the spiritual world. Improvisation, music for meditation, forgotten playing techniques, exotic instruments. I felt like a traveller discovering new lands. The more meetings I had, the more often came up a question; “how do I and my cultures differ from those, which I meet? What connects and what separates us? “Not only in its outer shapes and colours, but also on the level of emotions, needs and expectations regarding music.
Chopin and Polish folk music
No one can really question the fact that the uniqueness of Chopin’s masterpieces a result of inspirations drawn from folk music. However custom has it that both of these phenomenon’s function in a separate context and belong o a different performance traditions. Our program has been born in order to break this stereotype. By reducing folk music and Chopin’s Mazurkas to a common denominator our aim was to give to the listener a completely new look on this music. Such an interpretation of Chopin’s music has not been heard before. |