Cultural Importance of the 4th International Chopin Piano Competition in the Light of Polish Music Life Reviving after the WW II

Abstract

The article aims at summarizing different activities undertaken to organize and run the first post- war Chopin piano competition. It is an attempt to collect facts, accounts and memories concerning actions initiated by Polish music culture environment after the Second World War. The author focuses on a detailed description of the organization and proceedings of the 4th International Piano Competition, making use of information that has existed in independent sources so far. The article uses diaries, biographies, autobiographies, private notes, interviews with representatives of Polish culture, archive films and documentaries belonging to the Polish Film Chronicle. Press excepts were not used on pur- pose, as most press information was included in the aforesaid bibliography entries. The analyzed sources let us conclude that the organization of the first post-was Chopin piano competition in Warsaw was an event requiring both the engagement of all state institutions and personal contribution of mu- sicians and music teachers. The author considers such a detailed historical-cultural account justified and necessary, especially in 2020, the 210th birth anniversary of Frederic Chopin, the year in which the 18th Frederic Chopin International Piano Competition was supposed to take place.

Keywords

• chopin piano competition
• ww ii
• jan ekier
• halina czerny stefańska
• zbigniew drzewiecki