Rare treat for Christchurch music lovers
To mark the 100th anniversary year of Poland’s regained independence, visiting professor, music educator and Steinway
Artist Raphael Lustchevsky will delight Christchurch music lovers with a piano recital.
The programme will include compositions that were played in Christchurch by another Polish pianist 114 years ago – a man
who was destined to become the first Prime Minister of the fledging Polish republic, Ignacy Jan Paderewski. In 1904 when
Paderewski first visited New Zealand he was considered the world’s foremost pianist.
This is also a return to Christchurch for Raphael Lustchevsky who played at the newly opened Great Hall in the Arts
Centre almost two years ago.
This year, his concert programme will include the works of Poland’s best known and most loved composer Frederic Chopin,
and by Ignacy Jan Paderewski himself. Highlights also include Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 (which was performed by
Paderewski in his glorious 1904 concert tour of New Zealand), and Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin, rarely performed
in its original, acrobatically virtuoso piano-solo version.
Lustchevsky debuted at the age of 16 with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and has been included on the prestigious list of
Steinway Artists since 2001.
New Zealand has a long tradition of welcoming Poles to its shores. From 1795 and for the next over 100 years until 1918,
Poland found herself divided among Austria, Prussia, and Russia, and deprived of independent statehood. Poles were
subject to a series of measures aimed against them, against their language and their culture, which were replaced by
incremental enforcement of the language and culture of the controlling states. This led to a large wave of emigration
from Poland in search of freedom and a better life. A small number of Polish Jews started arriving in New Zealand in the
1850s and 60s, followed by a larger group of migrants from the Prussian zone arriving from 1872 onwards.
ENDS
Raphael Lustchevsky’s “Heart of Europe” piano recital is on Saturday, 28 April 2018,
7-9 pm at The Piano, Armagh Street. Tickets are available from Eventfinda: