Chopin I jego ziemia [antikvár]

Fifty-four kilometres from Warsaw, on the river IJtrata, near the old road leading from Poland's capital to Poznan, is the little village of Éelazowa Wola. Its history goes back a long way-as early as the 16th century it is mentioned in the burgh charters of the Polish Commonwealth. However it is certain that the owners of Zelazowa Wola never supposed that the day would come when this modest village would go down in history for ever and that it would become a plaee of pilgrimage, like Salzburg, the town of Mozart, Bonn, the birthplace of Beethoven, or Eisenach where Johann Sebastian Bach first saw the light of day. For it was here, on a winter's day in 1810, that one of the world's greatest musical geniuses was bora, the immortal creator of mazurkas and polonaises, Frédéric Chopin. Legend has it that echoes of Mazovian music met his ears at the very moment of birth when a village band is supposed to have played under the windows of the house in Zelazowa Wola; he was alsó to absorb them avidly later when as a youth in his teens he revisited these parts. And it was these oft-heard melodies which, together with the peculiar melancholy of the great Mazovian plains, undoubtedly exerted a powerful formative influence on the profoundly national style of this composer of genius and provided him with the inspiration for his beautiful mazurkas. Zelazowa Wola has had mixed fortunes. After the suicide of the last of the Skarbeks-its hereditary owners-itchanged hands frequently. None of its new owners were overmuch concerned with looking after it with the reverence due to the birthplace of the great Polish composer. In 1859 Adam Towianski, the son of the well-known philosopher and mystic Andrzej Towianski, drew up a project for a small Chopin sanctuary, but the plans were never completed, and the succeeding owner used the house where Chopin was born exclusively for storage purposes. Things only began to look up for Zelazowa Wola in 1891 with the arrival in Warsaw of the Russian composer Milii Balakirev, a sincere admirer of Polish music and of Chopin's in particular. It was chiefly as a result of his representations, actively supported by the Warsaw Music Society, that a memória! obelisk was erected at Zelazowa Wola. Lustre was lent to the unveiling ceremony by performances from outstanding Polish pianists and from Balakirev himself. Once awakened, public interest in the matter did not abate, leading in time to the purchase of the Chopin house, together with the adjacent garden, from priváté hands, its restoration in the style prevailing in Chopin's youth and the laying out of a charming park-one of the most beautiful and interesting in central Poland. Today Zelazowa Wola is under the permanent care of the Warsaw-based Frédéric Chopin Society and is the Mecca of Chopin-lovers. Musicians from all over the world consider it their duty when visiting Poland to make a special journey to the birthplace of the great Polish composer. On holidays