It amuses me to see and hear Mark Jurkiewicz play Chopin. It just feels to me that this is how it should be: mammoth commitment to the complexities and challenge of the undanceable Chopin waltzes. Like many people, I played Chopin waltzes and it was as far as I went on piano as a kid. Suffice to say mine was nothing like this! But then Mark studied at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, no less; I studied with the local nuns. Not to put them down (my playing was my own invention!) but Mark was undeniably closer to the action. It shows heaps. I was in awe, often smiling or even chuckling quietly to myself with the delirious invention of it all. Finally I've come to love Chopin again. He played 4 waltzes (5 with the encore) and two mazurkas and a tarantella and Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise brilliante. No talking, just a few bows and back into it. Good value for money; lots of notes! But I josh. Mark played from memory with all the considered interpretations, all the little pauses and time variations, the delays and pushes, tons of thought and application spelling complex emotional extravagances; mature playing, informed and connecting to the composer. Every pause proves it. A huge pleasure. Thanks again to Mark.
Mark Jurkiewicz (piano) played Chopin at Wesley.
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