No less than 4 concerts will be offered during this exceptional weekend, by four young musketeers of the piano from three different countries, all preselected for the next Chopin Warsaw Competition on vintage pianos that will take place from 5 to 15 October in Poland. Hyunji Kim (Korea), Nao Takahashi (Japan), Madoka Okada (Japan) and Derek Wang (USA) invite you to a rare experience: sharing their love of Chopin’s music, their passion for period instrument playing and their hopes of success in this very high-level competition, all in two unique heritage places! Nao TAKAHASHI will give the first of the two concerts of the day Saturday at 4 pm on the stage of the Château de Valençay. His recital entitled “Une heure avec Chopin” will allow him to play short works (Polonaise de jeunesse, Valse op. 42, Mazurkas op. 59, Barcarolle op. 60) as well as the 2nd Sonata called “Sonate “funèbre”, Chopin’s flagship work during his stays in Nohant.
Doors open at 3:30 p.m. Three pianists will be on stage for the second concert Saturday at 18:30 : Derek WANG and Madoka OKADA will take turns playing Chopin’s Concerto 2 in F minor, op. 21, accompanied by the pianist Yves HENRY, President of the Nohant Festival Chopin and at the initiative of this musical weekend around Chopin. To hear twice the same work (otherwise brilliant) under the fingers of different pianists, it is a rare experience that is experienced only during international competitions and to which you can indulge.
Doors open at 6pm. Madoka OKADA will open this second day with a recital “Une heure avec Chopin” on Sunday at 11 am. For those who have heard it in concerto the day before, it will be an opportunity to hear it again, this time in a program of works by Chopin for solo piano, composed of short pieces (Mazurkas op. 24, Polish youth in B flat, Barcarolle op. 60) and the 3rd Sonata op. 58, a great masterwork in four movements that occupied Chopin throughout the summer of 1844 in Nohant. One of the masterpieces of maturity…
Doors open at 10:30. In closing of this day and this weekend dedicated to Chopin on vintage piano, three pianists will share the stage again at 3pm to hear the two Chopin concertos: Hyunji KIM will first perform Chopin’s Concerto No. 2, of which you will have heard two versions the day before, while Nao TAKAHASHI will perform Chopin’s Concerto No. 1, both accompanied by the pianist Yves HENRY.
Doors open at 2:30 p.m. Olivier FADINI, harpsichord maker and piano restorer of the Romantic period, specializing in the instruments of organ builder Pleyel of the Chopin era will bring and regulate all the weekendend two period instruments that will allow you to hear the sound of the Pleyel of the 1840s: an 1844 grand piano for soloists and a upright pianino for the accompaniment parts of the concertos. These instruments are in perfect state of play and make a sound whose romantic character makes it possible to travel in time and to find oneself in the time of Chopin…