Masecki and Chopin

Marcin Masecki, jazz pianist, improviser and composer, will perform at the Narodowe Forum Muzyki in Wrocław together with the Lutosławski Quartet. The artists will present “Impressions on 24 Preludes Op. 28 by Fryderyk Chopin”. Masecki is a graduate of Berklee College of Music, and the Lutosławski Quartet is an ensemble from Wrocław. The pianist's output already includes an album of Chopin nocturnes, in which he showed he is not afraid of bold reinterpretations of works by the Polish romantic.

Chopin has accompanied Masecki since childhood. His grandmother, Halina Masecka, a music school director, taught him. Studies abroad and the composer's presence in Polish culture initially drew the pianist toward other areas, but he never abandoned Chopin. Over the years he built his identity at the intersection of styles: he played works by Bach and Beethoven, jazz and alternative music, and also wrote film music. He collaborated with, among others, Capella Cracoviensis, Pink Freud, Wojciech Waglewski, Jan Emil Młynarski, Tomasz Stańko and Michał Urbaniak. In 2013 he also engaged with the Chopin tradition, entrusting the recording of his own polonaises to a ten-piece wind orchestra.

The Preludes Op. 28 are most often treated as a cycle. Chopin completed it during his stay with George Sand on Majorca, at the turn of 1838 and 1839. The pieces reflect the emotional rollercoaster he experienced after being diagnosed with tuberculosis. The collection consists of twenty-four short miniatures, nearly half of which last less than a minute. They were written in all keys of the circle of fifths, directly referencing the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. The miniatures differ greatly in tempo, dynamics and expression, from extreme despair to ecstatic delight. Together they form a microcosm of human experience, which Marcin Masecki and the Lutosławski Quartet will present in their own interpretation.

Program: Impressions on 24 Preludes Op. 28 by Fryderyk Chopin
Performers:

• Marcin Masecki