"Live to the point of tears" (Albert Camus)

Dear friends and fans,

the "1st Janacek - Revueltas Composition Award 2008" was in the end surprisingly succesful and at the same time exhilarating and immensely satisfaying experience for all of us. It was pretty tough, of course, too. Here follows just a  brief recollection of the beginning of the series.

Complete information you can find at

www.skarka-pohl.com/janacek-revueltas

On the second image has been captured the dialogue between Mr. Lopez and Mr. Omar Rojas, the manager of the project in

Well, the next event was a professional shoutcast in the residence of Mr. Vlastimil Lejsek, the eminent Czech composer. This was attended by special guests only, from the government of the cities of Jesenik mountains as well as by Mr. Petr Borecek, well-known sculpturer. Mr. Lejsek was very pleased with the commentary and presentation as well as with recordings and scores we provided. He wished the best to the composers, especially to Mr. Delgado and Mr. Barraza, whose scores he examined with admirable insight. Again, let me share few images from the event.

"The greatest misfortune of the wise man and the greatest unhappiness of the fool are based upon convention." (Franz Schubert)

Dear friends,

please, let me invite you to my current tour, with program consisting almost entirely of music by Franz Schubert.

Please, check my Facebook page www.facebook.com/richardpohl

and the Last.fm concert listing at

http://www.last.fm/music/Richard+Pohl/+events

for more information. 

Hope to meet you there and wish you a nice time :)

Yours faithfully

Richard Pohl

"There is nothing more dreadful than the imagination without taste." (Johann Wolfgang Goethe)

Dear friends and fans,

time had passed and I  went through another interesting time, full of personal changes and also changes in my business life... being offered some important positions in many music institutions I have to consider whether I would stay living only from my performing art (and my private classes) or could once again join staff of some music faculty.

Nonetheless, we got couple of great events lately with my cherished colleagues, including live performance at the "Slovanska epopej" (Slavic mystery) gallery of Alfons Mucha and espeially the benefit concert at the Shrine of Maria Hilf, raising over 27 000 for the victims of the flood. At least once in my lifetime I feel I´ve been doing something for others and it is not bad feeling at all.

I hope to post pictures and possibly some new recordings and videos soon as I keep preparing for some summer festivals next month, all of which should be recorded, too. You may be surprised, but the next season I will also engage on several projects from the popular music area, and perhaps the fruits could lead even in some cross-over commercial release. We will see.

With all my best to all of you and many thanks for all your sweet messages, in those time they had really kept me going on!

Yours faithfully,

Richard

P.S.: Do not forget to check out the complete information about our recent Mexican tour, including video clips, photo gallery and and more!

www.skarka-pohl.com/janacek-revueltas

In a low voice that could not be heard throughout the auditorium, Zimerman, universally considered among the world's finest pianists, made reference to Guantanamo Bay and U.S. military policies toward Poland.

"Get your hands off my country," he said.

Then he turned to the piano and played Szymanowski's "Variations on a Polish Folk Theme" with such passion and intensity that the stunned audience gave him multiple ovations.

Earlier, about 30 or 40 people in the audience had walked out after Zimerman's declaration, some shouting obscenities.

"Yes," the pianist, known in Poland as "King Krystian the Glorious," answered, "some people, when they hear the word military, start marching."

Zimerman then said that America has far finer exports than its military -- and he thanked those who supported democracy. He left the stage without further comment and was unavailable Monday.

His manager, Mary Pat Buerkle, told the Associated Press on Monday that Zimerman has talked for the last couple of years about not coming back to the United States "for a while. . . . I don't think it's appropriate to say it's all political."

Zimerman has had problems in the United States in recent years, but many in the classical music world thought they were logistical.

Just a week ago, before an appearance in Seattle, Zimerman expressed frustration about the hassle and expense of touring the U.S. with his piano.

Shortly after Sept. 11, his instrument was confiscated at JFK Airport when he landed in New York to give a recital at Carnegie Hall. Thinking the glue smelled funny, the Transportation Security Administration decided to take no chances and destroyed the piano. Since then he has shipped his pianos in parts, which he reassembles by hand after he lands. To get from city to city within the U.S., he hires a driver to take the shell of the piano, and he drives another car that holds the precious custom-designed keys and hammers.

Lately, he'd seemed pleased with the direction the United States has taken. During a performance Friday at Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall, he delighted his Bay Area audience by making sly reference to his approval of Barack Obama in the White House.

 But by the time he drove his piano to Los Angeles, Zimerman's mood appeared to have darkened. His remarks, which some in the audience characterized as angry, were the talk of Los Angeles' classical music world and its small Polish community Monday.

Deborah Borda, president of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, said that while some patrons were taken aback by Zimerman's comments, she did not believe it would affect attendance or fundraising.

"It was very clear he was speaking for himself," she said. "We obviously can't censor. We believe in freedom of expression. We don't use a hook to drag people off the stage."

In a spirited range of comments on The Times' Culture Monster blog, many praised Zimerman and others said the stage was no place for divisive political speech. "Go Zimerman, and take the Dixie Chicks with you," said one post, referring to the country music group that in 2003 created a ruckus when a member said they were ashamed President Bush was from Texas.

Others noted that though classical music culture in the United States is among the least overtly political of enclaves, Poland has a long tradition of mixing the political and the musical. Composer and pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski was Poland's third prime minister and is revered in Poland the way the Founding Fathers are here.

"There is a tradition of Polish pianists being in the middle of political events," said Marek Zebrowski, director of the Polish Music Center at USC.

Though Poland gets comparatively little attention in the U.S., American policy recently has been a hot-button issue in Poland. Poles were upset about allegations that the CIA held suspected Al Qaeda militants in secret prisons in Poland. A Polish newspaper mockingly referred to the country as "the 51st state." Also controversial was a Bush administration proposal to put missile defense facilities there.

Sumi Hahn, a Seattle journalist who interviewed Zimerman earlier this month, said she was not surprised to hear of his outburst. She said he told her that he had "very mixed feelings now about America."

"In the past five years," she quoted him as saying, "something happened here that changed the world: a war based on lies. . . . So much damage was done worldwide ... and Americans are so unaware."

On the other hand, Robert Cole, director of Cal Performances in Berkeley, said he was surprised to hear of Zimerman's L.A. comments -- especially because of the lightness that characterized his performance in Berkeley.

Just before playing a Bach partita, Zimerman told his audience it was important to consider the political purpose of a piece of music. Bach, he told his audience, "had made a decision to put his piece in a minor key rather than a major one." Perhaps, he said, according to audience members who were there, he did that because there was a leader Bach didn't like.

Zimerman made an approving reference to Obama and then played the piece, but ended it in a joyful C major instead of a melancholy C minor.

"The audience loved it," said Christina Kellogg, director of public relations at Cal Performances. "His playing was brilliant and they broke into huge applause, and he was clearly pleased that the audience was completely with him."

Cole said he had breakfast with the pianist last week at a music-themed cafe across the street from the campus. Zimerman spoke mainly of how exhausting it was to travel with a Steinway.

"I'm sorry he's not coming back," Cole said. "He reminds me of Don Quixote. He's on a quest for perfection."

Cole added that, from a public relations perspective, it's too bad Zimerman hadn't offered his comments about Bach to Los Angeles and saved his fiery political rhetoric for Berkeley.

"I think he maybe picked the wrong place," he said. "It would have been less of an uproar here."

Times music critic Mark Swed contributed to this report.

"Addios, Caballos!" (The Production Team of the 1st Janacek - Revueltas Composition Award after the last gala concert)

Dear friends and fans,

it took a bit longer in the end, but may I finally announce, that our complete project is already published and online.

The link for the complete presentation, along with video clips, photo gallery and various articles:

www.skarka-pohl.com/janacek-revueltas

Also would like to thanks to my great friend Omar Rojas, amazing composer and also the founder of the project for his marvellous job as a main co-ordinator in the Czech Republic and hope, that our collaboration will remain as fruitful as uptill now (I already premiered two of his piano works)

 Mr. Edgar Omar Rojas Ruiz (1982)

 Distinguished Mexican composer and producer.

For more information about his music, please visit his MySpace and Last.fm profiles at:

www.myspace.com/rojasmusic

www.last.fm/music/Omar+Rojas

Another thanks comes to the whole Mexican production (notably Mr. Edgar Merino, Carlos Barraza, Jose Miguel Delgado, Mario Duarte and Marco Cecchetti)  as well as to the Centro de Investigacion y Estudios de la Musica in Mexico City.

And many thanks to all our supporters, without you are visions would always just stay on the table.

And the next edition is coming soon (scheduled for spring of the next year).

Best wishes to everyone and thanks to all your sweet messages on MySpace, Facebook and here at my guestbook.

Sincerely yours,

Richard