You are invited to a concert by Magdalena Lisak, winner of the 4th prize at the 13th International Chopin Piano Competition, giving regular concerts not only in Poland and Europe but also in the USA, Canada, Japan and China.

The programme of the recital includes:
Waltz in E flat major, opus 18;
Variations in B flat major, opus 2, on "La ci darem la mano" from Mozart’s opera "Don Giovanni" (solo piano version);
Etudes from opus 25
E minor No. 5
G-sharp minor No. 6
C-sharp minor No. 7
B minor No. 10
A minor No. 11
C minor No. 12.

The summer recitals by the Monument to Chopin in the Royal Łazienki will last until the end of September. They will take place each Sunday at 12:00 noon and 4:00 p.m. 40 outstanding pianists will perform - not only from Poland, but also from Japan, Russia and Ukraine.

The concerts, which are organized by the Royal Łazienki in cooperation with Stołeczna Estrada and the Fryderyk Chopin Society, are extremely popular, both among tourists and residents of Warsaw. 80 thousand listeners take part in them every year, and the pianists consider giving these performances an honour.

The recitals by the Monument to Chopin were organised for the first time in 1959, soon after the monument to the remarkable Polish composer was reconstructed.

The monument itself had a turbulent history.  The idea to set up a monument was first conceived in 1889, on the fortieth anniversary of the composer’s death. However, Poland was then partitioned and the Russian authorities effectively blocked the initiative. It was not until ten years later that the artistic milieu in Warsaw managed to organize a competition to design the monument. The international jury voted the work of renowned Polish sculptor, Wacław Szymanowski, the most interesting and innovative. The result sparked numerous protests and discussions, but the monument was officially unveiled finally on 14 November 1926 a huge scale vision of an inspired Chopin seated beneath a broken willow tree.

In 1939, when Warsaw was under German occupation, Chopin’s music was banned and the monument was blown sky-high (in 1940).  The head of the Chopin statue was not found until the end of the war, in the ruins of the Wrocław Coach Factory, and Szymanowski’s work was reconstructed based on the surviving plaster cast. The Fryderyk Chopin monument was installed on its former site in 1958. A year later, the sound of his music emanated from this same place.

THE FRYDERYK CHOPIN MONUMENT - MORE