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INTERVIEWS

INTERVIEW AT FRYDERYK CHOPIN’S BIRTHPLACE

Siudmak/Chopin/Nocturnes. Temporary exhibition in Żelazowa Wola

The temporary exhibition Siudmak / Chopin / Nocturnes is a presentation of 23 drawings by Wojciech Siudmak inspired by Fryderyk Chopin’s nocturnes. The exhibition available in museum spaces located in Żelazowa Wola is only a fragment of a series of drawings and paintings called Nocturnes. The artist’s works, created over several years, were collected in the publication Siudmak. Chopin, published by the REBIS Publishing House and the Fryderyk Chopin National Institute. The collector’s album, in addition to the works of Wojciech Siudmak, contains discussions of Chopin’s nocturnes prepared by the outstanding musicologist prof. Irena Poniatowska.

The music of Chopin’s nocturnes contains a whole palette of feelings ranging from love to a premonition of death, despair, lament, melancholy, and grief that, as the composer said himself, defined the character of his music, and especially of the nocturnes. Just the choice of the keys defines the emotional world of Chopin. (…) C-sharp minor denoted the complaint of the unrequited love, D-flat major – of suffering and rapture, A-flat major – of death, E-flat major – of heroism, and love and prayer, as its key signature contains the number 3 (of flats). That world was further defined by unexpected modulations, dissonances, decorative quality of the melody, contrasts in dynamic and expression, and the combination of the lyrical with the dramatical, and of simplicity with sophistication

Wojciech Siudmak