I did write here in Polish already about new Polish musical talent emerging on Vancouver scene, Łukasz Mikolajczyk (pronounced: Lookash Mikolaytchick) in a post from October 25.  So just very briefly an express summary of his bio: Mikajczyk came to Vancouver recently to further his musical studies and concert piano performance  in broad sense of the subject. Almost immediately he become a persona musica in Vancouver entering the very first edition of new Canadian international music festival: 2017 International Music Competition in Vancouver.  Where he came out as … no less than the grand award winner (‘Diamond 1st Prize’) in the piano section of the Competition.  It is worth noting that very recently this young pianist was able to compete in the quarter- finals of the renowned and prestigious International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, Poland, being often called the  Holy Grail of any talented pianist in the world and definitely Chopin’s music interpreters.

Of course – as any young and energetic musical performer he is eager to play almost anytime and anywhere. Hopefully with wise voice trying to temper him a bit and not to fall for the typical traps awaiting many young talents before him. Alas, youth has it’s own privileges and right to make mistakes, ha ha ha.

Very recently I received an invitation from him to attend premiere concert of just formed, new musical duo of him and Serb-born clarinetist,  Marko Ivkovic. It was rather smartly organized in a small, familiar venue of one of the training rooms of Vancouver Music Academy – smartly, for it allowed them to ‘test the waters’ on familiar, not too official grounds.

It is not very often that we do see in classical music a piano and woodwind instrument and even less common a clarinet. Which is too bad, as clarinet makes amazing and interesting sound, a bit rasp one could say. So I was very glad of this ‘instrumental marriage’. They have chosen solo pieces intertwined with duet plays.

First was  the Great Polonaise A-flat, op.53, Chopin’s masterpiece and one of his most played composition.  It gives a pianist the ability to woe the audience and show his bravado, showmanship, so to speak. And it is the very composition Lukasz played during the finale of the 2017 Vancouver Music Competition! Obviously he decided to have the audience right on his side from the very beginning, ha ha ha. And the powerful grand Steinway filled every cranny of this old room of the Academy. The charge was done almost in cavalry style and the audience was won! There is, of course, few schools of how to play Chopin. Mostly it oscillates between a more robust and energetic , the other keen on the lyrical aspect of his music. Sometimes it even changes drastically within a lifetime of one player. The perfect example of it was no one else but the ultimate Chopin interpreter, Arthur Rubinstein.  From the dramatic earlier style to later much more demure, lirical.  I think that both are very valid and often it depends on external, in a way independent of soloist own style of play, circumstances. Sometime the atmosphere of the audience, atmosphere ‘of the street’, if I can use the term. I suppose, age of the pianist has something to do with it, too. It saddens me that we no longer have in Vancouver the original concert piano of great Ignatius Paderewski from his concerts in Vancouver at the turn of previous century. For a while it was in Faculty of Music on UBC (at the Cecil House), than confined to same dusty warehouse it was rescued from oblivion and slow death by the Polish Vancouverites and given temporary home at the Polish Consulate. At the end the only viable solution was gifting it to California, to town devoted to the memory of this great pianist where it is today in a local museum and is being still used for concerts. Would love to hear Mikolajczyk playing on this instrument. The funny thing is that the very Steinway Mikolajczyk was playing on was gift to the Academy by professor Lee – the very same musician and pedagogue, who was very instrumental in saving the Paderewski’s piano from slow death at UBC…

The second piece was 1st movement of Johannes Brahms Clarinet Sonata No 2, op. 120. Both soloists complemented each other very well. I was a bit afraid the sound of clarinet could be drown by the powerful piano. Not so. Not even in the second part of the movement, when they play the familiar, recurring subject together in forte. I was later telling Lukasz how that particular fragment almost simultaneously forced me to thing of much later music of Gershwin – there is a certain cacophony of sounds (both in clarinet and piano) in Gershwin compositions (“American in Paris” as a prime example) that evokes the echos of Brahms sonata. In nature nothing passes without leaving a mark. And so in culture, especially in culture …

The Prelude for solo Clarinet by Krzysztof Penderecki, another giant of contemporary music, gave an opportunity to show his mastery to Marko. The young Serbian soloist came out of it with flying colours (or sounds, more appropriately). This prelude is not particularly easy piece. As most of Penderecki’s compositions. And yet, the player kept our attention intakt and under control. And was able to produce notes and sounds we were surprise to hear.

The next composition was own work of Marko Ivkovic, played very nicely on an electric organs by young master of the keyboard, Lukasz Mikolajczyk. What a sweet composition, the one from the onomatopoeic variety, where musical notes mirror nature’s sounds. Ivkovic called it “Vancouver Rain Drops”.  And, again the brain always doing it’s own, independent from mind, research – I was listening to it and at the same time comparing it to “Claire de lune” (famous movement form Suite bergamasque) by Debussy.

Later I inquired about some similarities of these two compositions (more in spirit than formally) and to his (not mine, ha ha ha) surprise, Marko recalled that he was working on Debussy just about the same time he composed his “Vancouver rain drops’.  After we left the concert – the rain drops truly gave us a typical Vancouver shower, true to norm…

The last formal piece was ‘Fantasie for clarinet solo’ by Jorg Widman.

And this was the end. But we (the audience) would have none of it. We wanted more of this talented and energetic duo. And they obliged. With a wonderful rendition of none other than George Gershwin. They couldn’t have chosen more appropriate piece for the biss. After difficult and intellectual/philosophical Penderecki – Gershwin is like a glass of cool, refreshing Chardonnay! Now I wan to listen to them again and perhaps a small, limited edition of CD? Sometime it is nice to listen to good music not only in concert halls, but solo, by one’s own fireplace. With a glass of cool chardonnay in hand, of course…