Chopin concert in the “Chopin park” (NEWSLETTER NO. 5)

On June 30th, I went to a Chopin concert at Warsaw’s Lazienki Park, in front of that giant Chopin monument.

It was so neat to listen to a concert outside, in a park, hearing the live piano melding with the ambient sounds of wind, rustling parasols, and bodies shifting under the sun, rather than in the vacuum of a performance hall.

The concert was free, most people were not on their phones (except to record snippets to take home), they were instead enjoying wordless music composed nearly 200 years ago!  Music that moves the nervous system even when/if the intellect cannot comprehend.

The pianist was on stage, but the stage was set up humbly off to the side,  dwarfed under the gaze of Chopin.  People were lying down, slouching, rather than sitting primly on velvet seats.  It was as if the motive of the whole shenanigan was solely for the enjoyment of music (imagine a world like that). The star wasn’t the pianist, we weren’t there because we already bought tickets or it was high-brow to go out for a night of classical music at an esteemed auditorium.  There was a religious feeling, a feeling of homage and reverence to the God of Chopin rather than confusing our mortal egos into the mix. 

Person to people, people to person. The purest form of thank you and you’re welcome.  Thank you for listening to this music, you’re welcome for listening to it. Thank you for sharing your talent of playing this beautiful music for us to enjoy, you’re welcome. 

Isn’t that absolutely lovely? How lucky to be in Warsaw on a Sunday.

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I want to share the experience with you, and wonder if I can make you feel how I felt. I desperately want it to not be boring.