Kazimierz Brzozowski and his wife Tomoko Mack treated the audience to a truly riveting program during their Saturday, May 3rd concert at the Galeria at Orchard Lake. The concert was organized by the PICROL in honor of the 234th anniversary of the May 3rd Constitution, and was a part of two-day-long celebrations, which opened with the 5K Vivat 3 Maja Run/Walk earlier in the day, and continued on Sunday with a Polish mass, dinner and a young artists art competition with the 3rd May Constitution as its theme, and an exhibition at the Galeria.
The concert started with some well-known and loved works by Chopin, beautifully performed by the artists. Mr. Brzozowski played mazurkas and the Grande Polonaise while Ms. Mack preformed nocturns.
The second part of the concert, however, was when the temperature of the evening rose significantly, when the couple together simultaneously played on one piano compositions by Maurice Moszkowski (1854 -1925) and Ignacy J. Paderewski (1860 -1941).
When announcing this part of the concert, Mr. Brzozowski joked that while performing these pieces he “would be hiding behind his wife”, referring to the fact that in this musical genre, traditionally a woman would play “primo” (and is seated on the right), while a man, seated on the left, plays “secundo”.
One could assume that Mrs. and Mr. Brzozowski, partners in art and in live, are likely predisposed to perform this kind of compositions, which started with Mozart and became very popular in the second half of the 19th century.
The pieces composed for “four hand piano” were “Four Polish Dances” by Maurice Moszkowski and “Tatra Album” by Ignacy J. Paderewski. As Mr. Brzozowski forewarned, Moszkowski’s “Polonaise” sounded very similar to the famous Oginski’s polonaise, “Farewell to the Homeland”, while in “Six Mountain Dances” by Paderewski, the audience recognized motifs from such folk song like “Hej idę w las” and “W murowanej piwnicy”.
Maurice Moszkowski was a European composer with Polish roots. He was born in Breslau (Wrocław) to an affluent Polish-Jewish family and was very successful in his day as a pianist and a composer. Among his compositions are “dances for four hands”, and four of them, two mazurkas, polonaise and krakowiak, were wonderfully performed by Tomoko and Kazimierz Brzozowski.
Kazimierz Brzozowski and Tomoko Mack-Brzozowski are locally-based, critically-acclaimed performing pianists and educators. Mr. Brzozowski is also the founder and director of the Nałęczów International Piano Festival, which – in addition to concerts – also offers masterclasses with international faculty. This year the festival will have its 28th edition.
During Saturday’s concert Ms. Tomoko Mack-Brzozowski proudly announced that their Japanese students are currently performing in the preliminary round of the Nineteenth Warsaw International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition.
As the focus of the evening was on music, the opening addresses delivered by Ania Bieciuk, PICROL Associate Director for Polonia Affairs and Dr. John Radziłowski, PICROL Director, were very brief. While Ms. Bieciuk introduced the artists, Dr. Radziłowski spoke about the May 3rd Constitution, and its importance also for Polish immigrants to America, who have celebrated its anniversary since the time they first started arriving in the US.
The elegant and lovely afterglow reception, with a desert table and wine, allowed the audience to mingle with the artists, who generously lent their presence to the evening.
This was yet another beautiful cultural event organized by PICROL this year, with the music (and some musical education) front and center.
Text and photos: Alina Klin
If you got intrigued by “piano four hands”, please check: https://www.classical-music.com/features/instruments/four-hand-piano-when-did-the-fashion-for-piano-four-hands-start
