report 2012/2013
85
André Tchaikovsky
The director of the Bregenz festival – David
Pountney – described Czajkowski’s opera as
“polytonal, existing in a world somewhere
between Britten and Berg”.
THE OTHER
TCHAIKOWSKY
Bregenz
18.07.2013
The world premiere of the opera
The Merchant of Venice
by Andrzej Czajkowski (André Tchaikowsky), co-produced
by the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera and the Adam
Mickiewicz Institute, took place at the Bregenzer Festspiele
in Austria, on Lake Constance.
The premiere was accompanied by a three-day symposium about
Czajkowski. The participants included scholars studying the
composer’s oeuvre, his friends and former associates: John O’Brien,
András Schiff, Christopher Seaman, and Uri Segal.
The director of the Bregenz festival – David Pountney – described
Czajkowski’s opera as “polytonal, existing in a world somewhere
between Britten and Berg”. The composer worked on it from 1968
until his death in 1982. Based on the play by Shakespeare, the libretto
was written by John O’Brien (who attended the premiere).
Andrzej Czajkowski’s greatest success was as aworld-famous pianist.
Endowed with an extraordinary memory, he could learn to play a new
piece overnight. His greatest passion, however, was composition.
Apart from
The Merchant of Venice
, the Bregenzer Festspiele 2013
celebrated other works by Czajkowski, including
The Inventions
Op. 2
,
Seven Sonnets of Shakespeare
,
String Quartet No. 2
, and
Piano
Concerto Op. 4
featuring soloist Maciej Grzybowski, an expert on and
enthusiast and populariser of the great composer.
