The last time Várjon partnered with the Radio Orchestra to play Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor was more than a decade ago, when he pointed out the chamber music elements built into the work's structure. The composition is one of the young Chopin's masterpieces, premièred by the composer himself when he was still living in Poland. After one of the first performances, the renowned Polish publicist Maurycy Mochnacki wrote, "Wonderful and bold transitions that adapt to the nature of the instruments and bear the vivid colours of feelings and fire, as well as the power that masterfully forms it all into a whole - these are the main features of the composition.” Contemporary audiences reacted with special sensitivity - in Paris just as much as in Warsaw - to the Polish colouring of the work. The most popular piece of the symphonic cycle (My Homeland) by Czech composer Bedřich Smetana - as a child, Bartók would experiment with a similar theme in his composition The Course of the Danube - paints a portrait of the River Vltava from its source to the point where it flows into the Elbe.

Presented by: Hungarian Radio Art Groups