Ewa Pobłocka

Ewa Pobłocka – pianist, chamber musician, pedagogue, professor at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz.

She is a First Prize laureate of the Viotti International Music Competition in Vercelli (1977), Gold Medal recipient of the International Festival of Young Laureates in Bordeaux (1979), and winner of the 5th Prize and the Polish Radio Prize for the best performance of Fryderyk Chopin’s Mazurkas at the 10th International Chopin Piano Competition (1980).

In an interview with Anna Skulska, the Polish artist talked about Lutosławski and his music: “I remember the atmosphere of the Lutosławski home, which was sparsely furnished, but with a special place accorded to each of the pieces, treated as objects of utility. I remember one of the paintings very well, and I return to it still today. It was a painting by Stajuda, titled Zone. On a blue-green, seemingly transparent background, there is an outline of trees. Every time I look at this painting, I am convinced that I hear (see) Lutosławski’s music as sky-blue. But this doesn’t mean that it’s cold. I say this in reference not only to the Piano Concerto, but Lutosławski’s music in general”.

Ewa Pobłocka recorded Lutosławski’s Piano Concerto no less than three times: in 1995 for a CD Accord release (with the composer conducting the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra in Katowice), another time also for the same label (with Kazimierz Kord conducting the National Philharmonic Orchestra), and in 2013 for Beatron (with Jerzy Maksymiuk leading the Sinfonia Varsovia). The pianist also made a recording of the Five Songs to Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna’s Poems with Ewa Podleś (Cd Accord).

In addition, Ewa Pobłocka returned the forgotten, early Piano Sonata by Witold Lutosławski to life in the concert hall, including it often in her recital programs of recent years. In the quoted conversation, she said of this work: “The third movement poses the greatest problems, because its form is reminiscent of the slightly diffuse nocturnes of Fauré. In turn, the second movement, with two musical ideas, is very interesting. One of them is a Baroque recitative, the other an Impressionistic motive. They are like two characters in the same opera”.

On October 5, 2013, in Warsaw, Ewa Pobłocka received a Year of Lutosławski Medal for an outstanding contribution to the dissemination of the composer’s music and knowledge about his person. (sw/mk)