FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 14, 2009
CONTACT: Marge Dwyer, Manager of Media Relations
27 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138
617.876.0956 x1626
marge.dwyer@longy.edu
Pianist and Author Roberto Poli to Shed New Light on Chopin’s Works in Nov. 3 Program at Longy
Cambridge, MA – Some of the musical signs and symbols that appeared as early as the 1770s may have been reinterpreted over the decades, failing to reveal what Frederic Chopin and other 18th and 19th century composers originally intended in their works, according to Venetian pianist and Chopin scholar Roberto Poli.
Poli, author of the forthcoming book The Secret Life of Musical Notation: defying interpretive traditions (Amadeus Press), a volume on interpretation that sheds new light on the music of composers from the 18th and 19th centuries, will discuss and demonstrate his new discoveries, and perform, on Tuesday, Nov. 3, at 7pm at Longy School of Music, N1 Recital Room, 33 Garden Street, Cambridge (near Harvard Square), MA. The program is sponsored by Longy’s Bakalar Library. Admission is free and open to the public.
About Roberto Poli
Roberto Poli has established himself on and off stage as a powerful and eloquent communicator. The works of Frederic Chopin, which he records for the European label Onclassical, form the core of his current studies. Residing in Boston, he balances his time between teaching, performing, lecturing, writing and directing The Chopin Symposia, which he created to celebrate the life and art of the composer.
Roberto Poli’s new book will discuss musical notation with a particular focus on Chopin’s works and will be published next spring to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The book, based on Poli’s meticulous analyses of Chopin’s manuscripts and early editions, features his discoveries in regard to intention and meaning in these works. This volume on pianistic interpretation provides an original vision of Chopin’s works that is both scholarly and practical. Poli will share some of his discoveries and will demonstrate his insights by playing several works by Chopin and excerpts from works of Chopin, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert.
The misconstrued readings of some of the notational symbols in these works—which are some of the most celebrated in the piano repertoire—are due precisely to traditions themselves, suggests Poli—traditions that have rested largely on received knowledge rather than deductive reasoning and musical sense. “Restoring the original meaning of signs and symbols in these scores,” he explains, “can bring us closer to practices that have not gained access to our vocabulary because of decades of misinformed playing and fallacious scholarship. The restoration of these meanings can give us greater interpretive insight and freedom.”
You can access performances by Roberto Poli at www.roberto-poli.com, and at youtube.com/user/robertopolipianist, where, for instance, you will find selections from The Late Works of Frédéric Chopin, a recently produced DVD of one of Poli's live performances, featuring Opp. 58-62. Poli is in the process of recording the complete works of Chopin, and you can find a number of videos at youtube.com/user/robertopolipianist that are part of this project.
About Longy School of Music
Longy School of Music, founded in 1915 by renowned oboist Georges Longy, is a degree-granting Conservatory and school of Preparatory and Continuing Studies located in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school serves 225 undergraduate and graduate students from 37 states and 21 countries, and nearly 1,000 children and adults from the Greater Boston area. For all students, Longy provides a distinguished faculty that promotes profound musical understanding and technical mastery, encourages growth of imagination, and fosters inquiry about the role of music and the musician in the larger world. With a curriculum rooted in the traditions of Western music, Longy’s mission is to prepare musicians to make a difference in the world. It is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and the National Association of Schools of Music. For more on Longy, visit our website at www.longy.edu.
