Visit by Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music

23/03/2010

16 March 2010

At the FCUM, the Jubilee year 2010, mark­ing the 200th anniver­sary of the University’s found­ing and the 200th birth anniver­sary of its patron Fry­deryk Chopin, has been filled with a range of excep­tional events.

The Uni­ver­sity has in the past hosted vis­its by pres­i­dents and prime min­is­ters, but now for the first time in his­tory it has received mem­bers of a royal fam­ily: on 16 March 2010, FCUM received a visit by Their Royal High­nesses the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.

Prior to the con­cert, HM Rec­tor Pro­fes­sor Stanisław Moryto addressed a word of wel­come to the Dis­tin­guished Guests:

Your Royal High­nesses,
Excel­lences,
Prime Min­is­ter,
Min­is­ters,
Dis­tin­guished Guests,

The Fry­deryk Chopin Uni­ver­sity of Music is greatly hon­oured to wel­come Their Royal High­nesses — The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Corn­wall. The impor­tance of this visit is mag­ni­fied by the fact that the heir to the British throne, and his wife, rep­re­sent a coun­try that boasts a tremen­dous con­tri­bu­tion to the devel­op­ment of our civil­i­sa­tion, as well as a rich national tra­di­tion and out­stand­ing cul­tural achieve­ment. We con­sider this oppor­tu­nity to wel­come them here to be an enor­mous distinction.

The Uni­ver­sity I have the hon­our of rep­re­sent­ing is one of the old­est music schools in the world. Sev­eral of its alumni through­out the years have made music hi-story, and their cre­ative foot­print may, till this day, be found in coun­tries across the globe. Their most impor­tant work, how­ever, is their con­tri­bu­tion to the devel­op­ment of the Pol­ish music and national cul­ture. To these artists, we bow in respect. More­over, it is worth empha­sis­ing that through­out the University’s exis­tence, and regard­less of our country’s geopo­lit­i­cal sit­u­a­tion, the classes in our school has always been taught in the Pol­ish language.

The ongo­ing aca­d­e­mic year marks two anniver­saries. Firstly, the 200th birth anniver­sary of Fry­deryk Chopin, the University’s genius alum­nus and patron. Sec­ondly, the 200th anniver­sary of the University’s found­ing. We are hon­oured by the fact that the Pres­i­dent of Poland, Pro­fes­sor Lech Kaczyński, has accepted hon­orary patron­age over both these jubilees. We can­not, how­ever, focus all our energy on cel­e­bra­tions and must remem­ber that our prin­ci­pal task is to teach. Thus, our main effort re-mains invested in didactics.

In pre­sent­ing our Uni­ver­sity to Their Royal High­nesses we aim to present those we are most proud of: namely, our stu­dents. They have pre­pared a spe­cial pro­gramme for tonight — a pro­gramme quite under­stand­ably dom­i­nated by the works of Fry­deryk Chopin. On 16 Novem­ber 1848, less than a year before his death, Fry­deryk Chopin gave his last pub­lic per­for­mance. The com­poser had been invited by Lord Dud­ley Stu­art, head of the Lit­er­ary Asso­ci­a­tion of the Friends of Poland, to play dur­ing a recep­tion organ­ised in Lon­don for the vet­er­ans of the Novem­ber Upris­ing. The exact pro­gramme of that per­for­mance is not known; it is, how­ever, almost cer­tain that it included the two first etudes from Opus 25. One of these etudes, namely, the Etude in A-flat major no. 1, will also be per­formed tonight dur­ing the spe­cial con­cert in hon­our of Their Royal High­nesses — The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Corn­wall. The pro­gramme also includes pieces by Hen­ryk Wieni­awski and Stanisław Moniuszko.

And now, I would like to invite our Dis­tin­guished Guests to enjoy our stu­dents’ per­for­mance. I do hope that the music you hear tonight will leave the best of impres­sions in your hearts.

The Fry­deryk Chopin Uni­ver­sity of Music con­sid­ers Their Royal High­nesses’ visit, and the fact that the remain­ing guests — invited by HM Rec­tor and the British Ambas­sador in Poland — included sev­eral out­stand­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the cul­tural, polit­i­cal and eco­nomic cir­cles, to be not only a great dis­tinc­tion, but also a con­fir­ma­tion of the University’s inter­na­tional renown.

This pres­ti­gious posi­tion was, undoubt­edly, empha­sised by the night’s spe­cial musi­cal event, which opened with the British and Pol­ish national anthems, per­formed by Piotr Wilczyński.

Con­cert programme:

• Hen­ryk Wieni­awski — Polon­aise in D major Op. 4
  Kamila Wąsik – vio­lin
  Karolina Nadol­ska – piano
• Fry­deryk Chopin — Andante Spi­anato and Grande Polon­aise in E-flat major Op. 22
  Joanna Różewska – piano
• Fry­deryk Chopin — Etude in A-flat major Op. 25 no. 1, Noc­turne in C-sharp minor Op. posth.
  Krzysztof Trza­skowski – piano
• Fry­deryk Chopin — The Maiden’s Wish Op. 74 no. 1, My Beloved Op. 74 no. 8, Lithuan­ian Song Op. 74 no. 16
• Stanisław Moniuszko — Recita­tive and aria If by the Morn­ing Sun from the 2nd act of the Halka opera
  Justyna Sam­borska – sopran
o
  Robert Morawski – piano

By spe­cial request and invi­ta­tion of the British Embassy addressed directly to the per­form­ers, dancers Anna Wró­bel and Michał Ros­tek pre­sented a waltz chore­o­graphed by Maciej Zak­liczyński. The per­for­mance was set to Fry­deryk Chopin’s Noc­turne in E-flat major Op. 9 no. 2, played by Paweł Paw­lik. The dance was a some­what sur­pris­ing addi­tion to the clas­si­cal con­cert pro­gramme pre­pared by FCUM for the evening. It was well received by the Audi­ence and the Dis­tin­guished Guests.

As attested by the press reviews and the Guests’ com­ments pub­lished after the con­cert, the pub­lic was highly impressed with the per­for­mances and delighted by the artists’ tal­ent, skill and mas­tery. Imme­di­ately fol­low­ing the con­cert Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla spon­ta­neously con­grat­u­lated the per­form­ers, in a sur­pris­ing and extremely kind ges­ture not fore­seen in the visit protocol.

Click here for a photo report of the visit.