A MEETING WITH ANTONI LIBERA (hosted by Konrad Wojtyła) – 20th May 2024 at 6 p.m. – entry is FREE OF CHARGE
‘TOCCATA’ – text read with piano accompaniment – 20th May 2024 at 8 p.m. – A TICKETED EVENT
‘TOCCATA’ – text read with piano accompaniment – 21st May 2024 at 6 p.m. – A TICKETED EVENT
Our evening events on 20th and 21st May 2024 feature writer, literary translator, critic and theatre director Antoni Libera as well as pianist Adam Tomaszewski.
The audio drama to be presented on those two nights recounts the story of Robert Schumann’s unique Toccata in C Major, Op. 7. Originally titled Etiude fantastique en double sons (Fantastic Study in Double Notes), it was referred to by Schumann as ‘the hardest piece ever written’ – and is considered as such to this day. No wonder that only the crème de la crème of technically most able pianists have this piece in their concert repertoires.
The famous composition has also fascinated writer Antoni Libera. In his short story, the Toccata is presented by a piano teacher at music school as a challenge for students preparing for their final diploma exam.
As the author explains in an interview for Polish Radio Programme Two, his novella is partly autobiographical. Once a student at music school, he had seen himself as a future musician, but, as he says: ‘at one point I realised I cannot overcome certain inhibitions and I must try my luck at something else. What decides about the future fates of my protagonists is the music itself, which acts as a kind of oracle. I was intrigued with how music speaks to humans in its own mysterious ways.’
A musical career, the author claims, is not something self-evident. ‘Sometimes it’s about very mundane considerations, as when someone cannot become a soloist, but is not satisfied with being simply an orchestra member’.
Please join us for these events.
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Ikony Kultury. Robert Schumann. Toccata. Antoni Libera i Adam Tomaszewski.
