CHOPIN BICENTENNIAL CONCERT 1 maart 2010

Beautiful and Loving Chopin Performance
The Cultural Committee Fort Church commemorated Chopin’s 200th birthday last night (March 1, 2010) with a recital of his works by Harold Martina (Curaçao’s foremost internationally acclaimed concert pianist with many international awards and honors, now ‘pianist-in-residence’ at the School of Music of Texas Christian University).
Mrs. Millicent Smeets-Muskus - chair-person of the Fort Church Cultural Committee and a passionate Chopin lover & connoisseur - took the initiative to organize this event in a very particular manner.
Not only was there a recital, but in between the several compositions two narrators, Lucille Berry-Haseth and Joseph Hart, read in turns form a selection (compiled by Mrs. Smeets-Muskus) of letters and biographical information about Chopin’s dramatic life, which were then illustrated musically by Harold Martina’s magnificent rendering of Chopin’s mazurkas, polonaises, waltzes, including the second Sonata.
There is no composer that has been so excessively smooched over and theatrically performed by so many pianists as Chopin. Nothing of this excess in bad taste is to be heard in Harold Martina’s performance. Everything is performed in a simple and rhythmical manner, creating the impression of a seemingly effortless approach, with a loving tone setting and balance, and that’s the way it should be. Take Mazurka opus 24, for example. Technically the mazurkas belong to the simpler pieces. Musically, however, one has to be exceptionally good in order to give these pieces their due. That was also the idea of Jan Gerad Palm (a 19th century Curaçaoan composer), who introduced the mazurka in Curaçao, albeit with a fixed rhythm, whereas the Polish mazurka can have several tempi.
Of course two polonaises were included, the national Polish dance, but dressed up in a Chopin jacket: imaginative and colorful. Nocturne opus 32 was a warm-hearted expression, followed by the angry Scherzo opus 31, with that typical delicate middle part, of which only Chopin seems to possess the secret.
And then the 24th Prelude opus 28: the most dramatic one with a finale played in three fortissimo single Ds in the lowest octave that impact you right through the bone.
What a beautiful rendering did Martina give to Ballade opus 52! The technical difficulties served exclusively for an inspired musical performance.
And then the second Sonata: somber funeral music with that moving middle part.
The wildest stories circulate about the last part, Finale Presto: shrieking wind across the graves in the cemetery, the howling of a storm at sea, and etcetera. The hands play the same, unison notes in the fastest possible tempo. And what does Chopin himself say of this: “In the last part the left hand chats a little with the right hand.” Well.

My favourite piece as the penultimate composition: the Barcarolle opus 60. Chopin at his very best. His richest harmonic and melodic inventions are to be found here. For the finale the audience was treated to the inevitable Polonaise in A-flat opus 53, his best known work. The capacity crowd that filled the Fort Church to overflowing expressed their deep gratitude to the pianist, the narrators, and ‘Dudi’ Smeets-Muskus, the organizer of this Chopin banquet. A sculpture of Chopin by the Polish artist Jolanta Pawlak (who has been living here for ten years now), was placed on the dais. She did an introduction in Polish, while the Polish ambassador in Caracas also attended the event.
Iman Landheer (translated & adapted by Joseph Hart)

Cultural Committee Fortkerk (CCF)

Part of the restoration of the Fortchurch and Museum was subsidized by the 'Meerjarenplan Nederlandse Antillen' - an aid plan financed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands. One of the conditions for this assistance was that the Fortchurch and Museum be self-sustaining when it came to future maintenance of the monuments. For this reason the Church pews were cut in halves and thirds to accommodate a new layout to facilitate concerts and other events which could raise new funds for this objective. And as a result, the Cultural Committee Fortkerk was formed to initiate, organize and administrate the proceeds from such events.

OBJECTIVES

To organize cultural activities such as concerts;
To give lectures in the cultural field;
To hold meetings in the sphere of social welfare and spiritual wellbeing;
To operate a museum, and thereby also to sell postcards, literature, and typical, religious souvenirs;
To hold art expositions such as the quilting or patchwork craftsmanship;

Target group:

The culture-loving local population and foreign tourists;

Criteria:

The Cultureel Comité Fortkerk (CCF) is an organization of the “Verenigde Protestantse Gemeente van Curaçao"(VPG) [the United Protestant Congregation of Curaçao]
The organization, set up in 1991, consists of volunteers who work pro Deo to realize the objectives. The proceeds obtained from the activities organized are exclusively allocated to the maintenance of the (1769) monument: “De Fortkerk”.