www.chopin2010.pl

10.04.2008 Parliamentary Commission for Culture and the Media passed a bill on proclaiming 2010 the year of Fryderyk Chopin. On 1 March 2010 falls the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birthday. The planned celebration of the Chopin Year prepared for this occasion is going to be one of the most important international cultural events in 2010 organised by Poland. 

"Chopin, not only because of his works, but also due to the fact he was an outstanding individual living in perhaps the most beautiful cultural epoch – Romanticism – became a radiating value and radiating in an extraordinary way. It can be confidently said that what we deal with here is a cultural phenomenon going far beyond the convention of classical performances. Therefore, I am not worried about conventionality or stereotype.”     

Waldemar Dąbrowski

President of the Committee for the Celebration of CHOPIN 2010

Fryderyk Chopin in Kujawy and Ziemia Dobrzyńska

The region of Kujawy has a special place in Chopin’s biography. It was here in Długie manor house located in Izbica region that the composer’s mother – Tekla Justyna Krzyżankowska – was born in 1782. Długie near Izbica Kujawska was also the place of residence of Chopin’s grandparents – Antonina (née Kołomińska) and Jakub Krzyżanowscy. Unfortunately, there is no evidence whatsoever confirming the composer’s staying or residing not only at his mother’s home place, but generally in Kujawy save one characteristic episode in Nieszawa, colourfully and wittily reported by the composer in “Kuryer Szafarski”. “Kuryer Szafarski” is the title under which Chopin wrote his letters from Szafarnia edited by him in the form of a newspaper patterned on “Kuryer Warszawski” – a paper popular at that time in the capital. The editor appears in them in the third person as “JPAn Pichon” (an anagram of the word Cho-pi-n). Foreign News from “Kuryer Szafarski” informed that on 29 August 1824 “JPan Pichon, while passing through Nieszawa, saw Catalani sitting on the fence and singing something loudly. The scene compelled his attention and though he did manage to hear the aria and the voice, not quite pleased, he endeavoured to hear the verses as well”. The verse of “mazurek” (old song) cited by the 14-year old composer constitutes the first record of a song from Kujawy:  

Patsajze tam za gulami, za gulami, jak to wilk tańcuje

A wsakze on nie ma zony, bo sie tak frasuje (bis)  

Look! behind the mountains, behind the mountains, the wolf is dancing

He is in distress not having a wife (bis)  

(Correspondence…t.l., edited by Bronisław E. Sydow, Warszawa 1955)     

This unusual correspondence documents in detail Fryderyk Chopin’s Summer holidays in Szafarnia and its vicinities. In terms of area, they are connected with a region bordering Kujawy, i.e. Ziemia Dobrzyńska which was, since Władysław Jagiełło’s reign until the first partition of Poland, historically and administratively linked with Kujawy [quoting, e.g. after Wielka encyclopedia powszechna PWN (Kujawy, volume VI, Warszawa 1965)]. In 1824, the composer went there to pay a visit to the Dziewanowscy family where he spent his time in the company of his classmate Dominik Dziewanowski called Domuś. Captivated by the charms of Ziemia Dobrzyńska, he returned to Szafarnia the next year – in 1825. He spent his holidays making and playing music, walking, discovering vicinities and visiting nearby estates owned by related landowning families or Dziewanowscy’s friends, e.g. Wybranieccy in Sokołów, Borzewscy in Ugoszcz, Piwniccy in Gulbiny, Romoccy in Obrów. In Obrów and Szafarnia, the composer witnessed a harvest festival (“okrężne”) in which he took an active part dancing and playing on the basolia, recording lyrics of selected folk songs in his correspondence. In terms of its music and customs, this folk festival left a lasting impression on him. In addition, the composer visited Golub and less immediate vicinities such as Toruń as well as Turzno owned by Działowscy located in the Ziemia Chełmińska. Chopin was attracted by the countryside’s originality. The journeys were also an important change for him – a break from daily routine. They were also welcome by the composer’s parents who gladly sent their son to the countryside to improve his state of health. Through the journeys, he gained a wealth of experiences – tourist, cultural and above all those connected with music. The spirit of traditional music from various regions of the country, including Mazowsze and Ziemia Dobrzyńska can be particularly seen in Chopin’s Mazureks which contain the reminiscences of the Kujawy notes, certainly especially those heard from his mother, which is reminded by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz: “[…] from her mouth he surely heard the first kouiaviaks, the most Polish of melodies, pervaded by sweet internal power and internal sadness […] (Chopin, Warszawa 1984)    Ewa Sławińska-Dahlig  

Places visited by Fryderyk Chopin located in the borders of the present-day Kujawsko-Pomorskie province.

(Map excerpt from the book "Chopin's Poland" by Marita Albán Juárez and Ewa Sławińska-Dahlig, Warsaw 2008)

Map o f contemporary Poland

Places where Fryderyk Chopin stayed

The map does not show places where Chopin spent only a short time. 

Bydgoszcz Philharmonic Orchestra, on the occasion of the Chopin Year, planned a number of concerts.

Already in October, at the start of the new artistic season, Chopin’s notes will resound on the stage of the Concert Hall rendered by piano masters, winners of e.g. Chopin competitions.