The Friday concert at Sancta Sophia College in Camperdown on November 9th had a very challenging aim of bringing the Polish and Australian communities together for a celebration of Poland’s Independence Day.

Link to a review by Marek Baterowicz & more photos

It was without a doubt a very interesting and ambitious initiative. Having read the program I was looking forward to such a huge dose of “high culture” in one evening! S³owacki, Szymborska, Mickiewicz, Chopin, Paderewski, Bach just to name a few of the composers and writers. I was very excited to see that the Polish authorities and the local artists have organized something more approachable than a formal and dry function at the Parliament House or the Consulate.

Annika Stagg, baroque cello

Stan Kornel, Krzysztof Malek, Phillip Hinton

However, as a young Pole, and minority audience in these demographics, I could not help the feeling that I had difficulties with relating to the English translation of the poetry. I was closing my eyes trying to recite in my mind the Polish verses I vaguely remember from my Polish classes at high school, but I was experiencing the interruption, the noise of the English words. Despite a very accurate translation, mostly of Mr Marcel Weyland, and impressive recitation of a British-born actor Phillip Hinton, I could feel the gap between the uttered words and the meaning, sliding somewhere in between, unnoticed and undiscovered. I found myself drifting in this hallow space too often.

A chat before the concert

Monica's harpsichord was brought specially for the concert and then taken back home in heavy rain

Likewise I’m afraid that the English speaking audience, also a minority, would have issues with trying to grasp the lofty verses without knowing the historical context of Poland’s occupation and coming from the nation which has relatively insignificant experience of war-inflicted misery and persecution. The images of the barricades erected to defend an invaded homeland, carriages full of prisoners on the icy road to Sybir, or a distressed immigrant craving for the nature in the abandoned country of his childhood were suitable for the occasion, but could have missed the target Australian audience.

Nevertheless, I still think that the event was a significant project and enjoyable experience, which has raised a very important issue for a discussion. It has confirmed that bringing the past and the presence, the Polish and the Australian culture is an immense challenge, which needs to be constantly revised.

In the defense of the Friday evening, I believe that the most intense and delectable part of the program was a piano performance of a young Polish musician Krzysztof Ma³ek. The powerful sounds of Chopin‘s polonaise, mazurek or revolutionary etiude made an indelible mark on the audience, both Polish and English speaking. It goes to show that music is the most universal language and it can convey more than words.

Magdalena Kopyd³owska

Colour photos by Mick Godlewski