The 16th annual EU SHOWCASE presented the best of new European cinema. For the first time it featured notable films from three of the 10 new EU member states — Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. American viewers had an opportunity to acquaint themselves with Andrzej Jakimowski’s “Zmruż Oczy” (Squint Your Eyes).
Mixing absurdist dialogue with jump-cut editing, this auspicious directorial debut by Andrzej Jakimowski features a series of quirky and inexplicable things happening under the “watch” of bearded Warsaw expatriate Zbigniew Zamachowski in his job as a warehouse guard.
Polish Philharmonic Resovia in the U.S.
The first thing one notices when Tadeusz Wojciechowski takes the podium is his hair, an egret-white mane that is billowy and dramatic. Fortunately, his conducting credentials don't end there. Wojciechowski has a commanding style that is at once fluid and precise. And with the Polish Philharmonic Resovia, Wojciechowski also has outstanding musicians. (…) The program began with a work by Wojciech Kilar, perhaps most widely recognized for the film score to "The Pianist." His alluring "Orawa" for string orchestra is a study in texture. The piece avoids monotony despite its repetitious melody by using sections of instruments in layers. Majestically, the work culminates with an exuberant upswing, the entire orchestra shouting an unlikely "Hey!" (..) The obvious influence of Rossini on Karol Kurpinski, the 19th-century Polish opera composer, made his Overture to "Kalmora" a delightful experience. Wojciechowski's approach to Kurpinski's contemporary Beethoven was efficient, effective and exhilarating.
(excerpts from the Gail Wein’s review - The Washington Post, October 30, 2003)
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Renowned pianist Ann Schein
performed at the Embassy of Poland Schein
returned to the Polish Embassy (…) for a glorious recital in a century-old stateroom
embellished in its original Wedgwood blue-and-cream splendor. Schein focused on works by
Chopin, followed after intermission by some frothy Ravel, Debussy and Liszt. For decades Schein has probed the many-faceted beauties of Chopin’s music – perhaps her supreme achievement – forging her own lustrous accounts of this repertoire while owing much to her Polish mentors, Mieczysław Munz and Arthur Rubinstein. Cecilia Porter, Washington Post, November 10, 2003 |