Warsaw buzzes with final performances at Chopin contest

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Music lovers line up on Sunday for a free concert by one of the contestants in the International Fryderyk Chopin Competition in Warsaw.Anna Liminowicz/The Globe and Mail

Christian Kaszewski got up at 3 a.m. Sunday and lined up outside Warsaw’s Philharmonic Concert Hall in the hope that he might score one of the hottest tickets in town.

By noon, it wasn’t looking good. There were 70 people ahead of him, and only a handful of last-minute tickets would likely be available for that evening’s performances. “The tickets are in very, very small amount,” Mr. Kaszewski said with resignation. “It’s a wish of luck to get one.”

The 20-year-old car salesman wasn’t lining up for tickets for a superstar pop singer’s show but a chance to watch the final round of the International Fryderyk Chopin Competition, a three-week contest that is billed as the Olympics of the piano.

The competition is held every five years, and its intensity and drama captivate classical music lovers around the world.

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Christian Kaszewski got up at 3 a.m. Sunday morning to score a ticket to the competition’s final round.Anna Liminowicz/The Globe and Mail

It’s open to pianists aged 16 to 30, and more than 600 applied to enter this year’s edition. Only 84 were selected for the first round, which started on Oct. 2.

Since then, the field has been whittled down to 11 finalists, including Canada’s Kevin Chen. The final performances started on Saturday, and they’ll finish Monday night, after which the panel of 17 judges will announce the winner and five runners-up. The winner receives €60,000, or $98,000, and a massive boost to their career with a world tour.

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Canada’s Kevin Chen performs during the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, in the concert hall of the National Philharmonic, in Warsaw, Monday.Aleksandra Szmigiel/Reuters

Poland has gone all out for the contest, and Warsaw has been buzzing all weekend.

Fan zones have been set up in seven cities where thousands of people have gathered each night to watch live broadcasts of the final performances. There are Chopin quizzes, colouring books and face-painting areas for kids, and a host of free concerts around the country, as well as lectures about the life of the composer, who was born outside the Polish capital in 1810.

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Gas stations feature coffee cups with QR codes to access Chopin selections, and tourists have been lining up to snap photos of park benches that play works by the composer at the push of a button.

“All my family is watching,” said Martina Mateja as she stood in a fan zone in Gdansk while her nine-year-old daughter Matilda coloured a drawing of Chopin. “We are in love, totally in love with the music.”

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Martina Mateja and her daughter Matilda participate in a Chopin quiz in a fan zone in Gdansk, Poland.Anna Liminowicz/The Globe and Mail

She’s pulling for one of the Japanese finalists, Miyu Shindo, 24, who made the semi-finals in the 2020 competition, which was held in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Emila Chmielewska, 18, had her hopes set on Poland’s Zuzanna Sejbuk, but she didn’t make it past the first round. Ms. Chmielewska still got a chance to see Ms. Sejbuk play at a free concert in Warsaw on Sunday afternoon.

Chopin has often been claimed by both Poland and France. While he was born and raised in Poland, his father was French, and Chopin spent much of his career in Paris, which is where he died in 1849. But he was passionate about his homeland and requested that after his death, his heart should be removed from his body and buried in Poland. His sister complied. After he died, she spirited the organ out of Paris, and it is interred in a pillar at Holy Cross Church in Warsaw.

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Children play piano at one of seven Chopin fan zones set to commemorate the competition.Anna Liminowicz/The Globe and Mail

“Some people think he was French, but he was not. We like to emphasize this and we are really proud too,” Ms. Chmielewska said sternly.

Canadians have done well at the competition over the years. Canada’s Bruce Liu won it in 2021, and Eric Guo took first place in the 2023 International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments, which is also held every five years in Warsaw.

“Over the past two International Chopin Competitions, Canada has had more laureates than any other country,” said Janet Lopinski, president of the Canadian Chopin Society, which holds a Canadian competition in conjunction with the Warsaw event.

Dr. Lopinski is in Warsaw and has been following the progress of the five Canadian contenders: Mr. Chen, Mr. Guo, Athena Deng, Ryan Wang and Victoria Wong, who is Canadian and American. Aside from Mr. Chen, Mr. Guo made it to the third round, and the others were eliminated in the first round.

“I don’t think there is any other piano competition that has such a history of winners who’ve made major careers,” Dr. Lopinski said.

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Mr. Chen, who gives his final performance on Monday, has impressed the judges with his confidence and daring. In the second round, he elected to play all of the Opus 10 Études, something no other pianist attempted.

“The Études are technically demanding,” Dr. Lopinski explained. “He voluntarily played the entire set of all 12. It was as if to say, ‘I’m confident enough in my playing, but I’m going to play these incredibly difficult pieces.’ And he pulled it off.”

Mr. Chen, 20, has been a rising star ever since he was nine years old and earned an Associate Diploma, or ARCT, from the Royal Conservatory of Music, its highest academic award.

“He is sort of the ultimate child prodigy,” said Dr. Lopinski.

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Chopin’s heart, which he asked to be separated from his body once he died and was buried in France, is interred in a pillar at Holy Cross Church in Warsaw.Anna Liminowicz/The Globe and Mail

The other favourites this year include Eric Lu of the United States and 16-year-old Tianyao Lyu from China, who would be the youngest winner in the competition’s history, which dates back to 1927.

Dr. Lopinski said picking a winner is next to impossible, and the talent level has soared since she first attended the competition in 2000. The judging this year has been so close that the final round was expanded to 11 from the usual 10 pianists after two finished the third round with the same score.

For the first time this year, all of the 11 finalists must play the Polonaise-Fantasy, Op. 61, accompanied by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as one of the Piano Concertos: in E minor, Op. 11 or in F minor, Op. 21.

Dr. Lopinski said that program will give the judges a good sense of the range of the pianists’ abilities, as the concertos date from Chopin’s younger days, while the Polonaise was one of his last compositions.

Wawrzyniec Suleja will be among those listening. Chopin means far more to him than just another famous composer.

“He is a symbol of our nationality, and who we are,” Mr. Suleja said on Sunday as he admired a giant monument to Chopin in Warsaw’s Royal Bath Park. “And his music is Polish in the soul.”

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Warsaw’s Royal Baths Park is home to a monument to Chopin, who was born in Poland and spent much of his career in France.Anna Liminowicz/The Globe and Mail