Century witness as a guest
Polish pianist Lidia Grychtołówna for concert, master class and panel discussion in Weimar
She is a piano legend of the Rubinstein era: The pianist Lidia Grychtołówna, born in 1928 in Rybnik (Poland), can be experienced at several events at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar. First, the 95-year-old "grande dame" of the piano will play a piano recital as a "Master in Concert" on Thursday, November 16 at 7:30 p.m. in the Festsaal Fürstenhaus.
The program of the solo evening includes works by Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms and Witold Lutosławski. Admission is free!
This will be followed by a public panel discussion titled "Memoirs of a Century Witness" with Lidia Grychtołówna, currently living in Warsaw, musicology professor Prof. Dr. Albrecht von Massow, and piano student Andrey Zenin.
Also on the podium on Friday, November 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the Hall Am Palais will be Weimar honorary professor and initiator of the honorable visit, Dr. Dr. Alexander Grychtolik, as well as musician Aleksandra Grychtolik. Again, admission is free!
On the following two days, November 18 and 19, Lidia Grychtołówna will give another master class for piano students of the Weimar University of Music from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. each day. Fluent in German and Polish, the artist has much to tell, having met such distinguished musicians and composers as Arnold Schoenberg, Artur Rubinstein and Krzysztof Penderecki in the course of her concert career.
Lidia Grychtołówna was a laureate of the 5th Chopin Competition in Warsaw (1955), the Robert Schumann Competition in Berlin (1956), the Busoni Competition in Bolzano (1958) and the Rio de Janeiro Competition (1959). She was also a long-time jury member of the prestigious Chopin Competition in Warsaw (1980-2005). For 21 years she led a piano master class as a professor at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz.
Maestra has performed in all European countries, in North and South America, Asia and Australia, and continues her concert activity. Lidia Grychtołówna has collaborated with renowned conductors, including Wolfgang Sawallisch, Kurt Sanderling, Kurt Mazur, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Antoni Wit, Andrey Boreyko and Wojciech Rajski.
In addition to her regular recitals and concerts with orchestras, since 2020 the artist has also been performing piano recitals live from her Warsaw apartment, streaming them online under the title "Lidia Grychtołówna - Live from Home".
Lidia Grychtołowna has recorded for many record companies, including Polskie Nagrania "Muza", Deutsche Grammophon and Philips. Most recently, she recorded the album "Lidia Grychtołówna plays in 2022: Polish Composers" at the Witold Lutoslawski Concert Studio of Polish Radio in Warsaw.
In April 2023, she gave a one-and-a-half-hour solo concert at the same concert studio, which was enthusiastically received by the audience. In July 2023, she celebrated the anniversary of her 95th birthday with concerts in her hometown of Rybnik and Ojców. Since 2020, Lidia Grychtołowna's artistic activities have been supported by the Warsaw Foundation for Art and Progress.
[2 November 2023]