Pianist Brian Ganz Joins National Philharmonic For Chopin and Gorecki Concerts Featuring Soprano Aleksandr

Playing with The National Philharmonic pianist Brian Ganz returns to continue his journey through the music of Frédéric Chopin with the Fantasia on Polish Airs and Rondo à la krakowiak. Soprano Aleksandra Kurzak joins the orchestra and Maestro Piotr Gajewski for Henryk Górecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, an austere yet moving work that marked a shift in the composer's style and has since earned a place among classical music's cult favorites. Tickets are $29-$89 with a 20% discount with code KURZAK20. The concert takes place at 8 pm on Saturday May, 7. Tickets can be purchased at nationalphilharmonic.org or by calling 301-581-5100.

Ganz noted that Chopin wrote the two works he will perform when he was just 18 years old. "At the time Chopin composed these two works, he would have been able to get into the concert for free!" Brian laughed, referencing the National Philharmonics policy of children 7 to 17 being admitted for free.

The Krakowiaks composed by Chopin are the only Krakowiaks he wrote. While Chopin was

known for his many polonaises and mazurkas, it is the Krakowiak that is most often

associated with being the official dance of Poland.

Chopin was doing things with arpeggios that other composers later imitated. For example, both hands sweeping up the piano in wonderful, rich arpeggios that created a wave-like sound. In the Krakowiak, Chopin uses a figuration that had never been used before, which was the seed for a work he used later in an "ocean" etude. This is just one of the wave metaphors he created with sound, Ganz referenced.