Grzegorz Niemczuk ⬩ LEGENDARY PIANO SONATAS

LEGENDARY PIANO SONATAS

Frédéric Chopin in the company of two great classical composers - Mozart and Beethoven - and four piano sonatas is the latest offering from pianist Greg Niemczuk in the continuation of his classical music presentation project entitled. "Music and the Word".

It is extremely rare to hear two of Fryderyk Chopin's monumental piano sonatas during a piano recital. Greg Niemczuk rises to this daunting challenge and in addition presents two of the most famous sonatas in piano literature: Beethoven's "Moonlight" and Mozart's sonata with the famous "Turkish March". In addition, the pianist who will lead the concert will reveal the secrets of the construction of these masterpieces and will make listening to this challenging music much easier for people who come into contact with classical music less often.

This is how the artist himself describes the programme: 
"Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata in C sharp minor and Frédéric Chopin's Sonata in B minor have much in common - both were written during the most difficult periods of the composers' lives and are testimony to coping with the very painful experiences and emotions that each of us sometimes experiences. At the same time, they are examples of how to wring the strength to cope. 
Mozart is a composer whose joyful and light music allows us to forget the heavy emotions of the first movement of the concerto, and Frédéric Chopin's Sonata in B minor is undoubtedly his greatest masterpiece, full of beautiful, unforgettable melodies. Its third movement is perhaps the most spiritual and "heavenly" work of piano music."

GRZEGORZ (GREG) NIEMCZUK

"His playing is characterised by fluency, a very wide dynamic range, from loud forte to whispery pianissimo, a variety of colours and timbres and dazzling virtuosity."
The Epoch Times, New York, 2013 

Hailed by influential Japanese critics as "the modern incarnation of Chopin," Greg Niemczuk has established an international reputation as an outstanding connoisseur and interpreter of the music of Fryderyk Chopin, to whose study he has devoted many years of his artistic life. In January 2017, Polish Radio's First Programme ranked Greg Niemczuk's interpretation of Chopin alongside such distinguished artists as Martha Argerich, Maurizio Pollini and Adam Harasiewicz.

His prolific international solo career, now in its seventeenth year, has taken him to many prestigious concert halls around the world, including Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall in New York, Kioi Hall, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, Beijing Concert Hall in Beijing, Konzerthaus in Vienna, Rudolfinum in Prague, Tonhalle in Zurich, Stadtcasino in Basel, and many others.

To date, the pianist has given nearly 500 recitals and concerts, during which he has visited 36 countries on six continents (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Lithuania, Russia, Romania, Austria, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Spain, Great Britain, Finland, Norway, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colombia, United States, Jamaica, Curacao). He often conducts concerts himself, where he introduces the audience to the secrets of the music he performs and gives interesting facts from the biographies of composers. Wherever he performs, he is warmly received by audiences and critics alike, resulting in further invitations in the future. In 2025, he will perform in most of the Polish Philharmonics, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Rudolfinum in Prague, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Stadtcasin in Basel, the Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, as well as making his debuts at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig and the Liederhalle in Stuttgart.

In Asia he is particularly highly regarded: after a spectacular solo debut in Tokyo in July 2017, an extremely enthusiastic review in the prestigious magazine "Chopin" was published, This performance led to further invitations to recitals in Japan (Tokyo, Osakaya, Nagoya, Sapporo, Asahikawa, Obihiro, Hakodate, Aomori) and also to a contract with the magazine "Chopin" for monthly articles on the performance of Chopin's music. In December 2017 he made his debut in China, where he performed at the prestigious Beijing Concert Hall as part of the "Polish Art Circles" festival (the largest festival of Polish art in China). The concert was widely covered by all major Chinese media. He is also a favourite of the Norwegian audience - so far he has performed in more than 30 different cities in Norway, attracting great acclaim everywhere and receiving invitations for further performances.

Greg Niemczuk has a very extensive repertoire of more than 250 solo works and 28 concertos for piano and orchestra, ranging from Baroque to 20th and 21st century music. He belongs to a small group of pianists who have in their repertoire all the works of Fryderyk Chopin. In the years of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2022), Greg Niemczuk has created an unprecedented and unique in the world project of recording film lectures on all of Fryderyk Chopin's works, especially for music lovers who want to gain a deeper understanding of the masterpieces of Poland's most important composer. More than 330 episodes have been created in two language versions (Polish and English), which are published on YouTube and on the author's Facebook page.

Greg Niemczuk is a winner of many piano competitions. In 2013 he won - as the first ever Pole - the "International Carnegie Hall Concerto Debut Competition" in New York. This prestigious award opened the way to Carnegie Hall, where he had the opportunity to present F. Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21 in February 2013 which received excellent reviews. In 2016, he was a finalist and winner of the Special Prize at the 2016 Busan Maru International Music Festival in South Korea. He is also the winner of the 40th National F. Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 2010 and international competitions in Italy and Belgium.

The pianist currently lives in Bielsko-Biała. Since October 2017 he has been a Doctor of Arts and works at the University of Silesia (Faculty of Arts) as a professor. He is also invited to give masterclasses at many music universities around the world.

The copyright of the photo is Shigeto Imura.