Janusz Olejniczak plays Chopin

The keyboard music of the early Romantics such as Chopin and Schumann – and even of still later composers – was written for pianos substantially different from the ubiquitous modern Steinway. This two-concert collaboration with the Vancouver Chopin Society is an exploration of how the use of period instruments can have a dramatic effect on an artist’s interpretive choices. Award-winning Polish pianist, Janusz Olejniczak, will play two recitals with different programmes. In each concert, he will play the first half on a 19th-century fortepiano and the second half on a modern Steinway.

Olejniczak has recorded best-selling soundtracks for two famous movies: Roman Polański’s The Pianist and Andrej Żuławski’s La Note Bleue, even acting in the latter as Frederick Chopin. He is also an avid chamber musician as well as concerto soloist, and has collaborated with, among others, the Orchestra of the 18th Century under the late Frans Brüggen. Chopin’s music fascinates Janusz Olejniczak with what he describes as its ethereal, elusive character: “It’s like a bird of paradise, which keeps slipping through your hands. Only occasionally do you succeed in grasping its essence, in getting close to it. It offers limitless possibilities for interpretation, …So I continually have to try again.”