A Polish family in music - Prince Michal Kleofas Oginski's musical gene lives on

Contemporary Review, Feb, 1997 by Iwo Zaluski

While researching Chopin's Poland for a projected book I also rediscovered the land of my forebears - specifically Iwonicz and my initial pilgrimage became an annual event. As a working, state-run health spa, it is as well kept and pretty as ever, though needing a few coats of paint and an update of marketing ideas. The family home of 'Belweder', once a shine of music and elegance, now stands empty, in need of restoration. The Zaluski family, spread throughout Poland, Britain, Switzerland, France and Denmark, are currently pursuing the complicated reclamation process, which will take years to unravel.

I met my many relatives, till then only names on my family tree, for the first time, and the rich musical history of our family began first to interest me, then to take over my life: Jeremi Kunicki-Kwilecki, who used to dance with Nureyev in Paris, and now teaches ballet; the pianist Iza Ostaszewska, eighty-five years old and still sprightly, whose advice I sought about piano technique; her son Zygmunt, principal cellist with the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Poland, and his composer wife, Lydia; Antoni Bojanowski, local squire and entrepreneur, at whose manor I found Karol Bernard's compositions, and who, in 1993 arranged the wedding of my Swiss-based niece, Barbara. She had the wildly romantic whim of getting married in Iwonicz, and instigated a week-long family festival that left the inhabitants reeling in a public relations exercise that gained our family local support.

Then there was the academic and author, Andrzej Kwilecki. I read - with difficulty as I have had scant experience of reading Polish - his book, The Zaluskis at Iwonicz. Fascinated, I followed the course of the Oginski music gene from Prince Michal, through Amelia, to Karol Bernard and his sisters Maria and Emma. Then on to 'young' Emma and the three Ostaszewski boys (one of whom built and flew his own aircraft). Then there was my father. How come I ask myself, that he had never told me that he had conducted Mozart while Aunt Iza played? Legend has it that while travelling by train to an engagement, his suitcase containing his tails, score and baton were stolen. This upset him so much that he gave up conducting altogether. Alas, history has passed, and I shall never know.

I was named Iwo after Karol Bernard's younger brother, who was himself named after Iwonicz. By most accounts he was a devious and unscrupulous character, and the black sheep of the family. My brief was given to me at my baptism - to cover up the old rascal's bad name. It seemed as if the time had come, and I knew what I had to do. I spent a year preparing for the definitive, fifth generation Zaluski concert at Iwonicz, on Aunt Emma's 1899 Steinway. It would, furthermore, be an ideal opportunity to restore my forebears to Poland's musical heritage. I included my older brother, Andrzej, also a pianist and co-inheritor of the gene in our generation. Therefore I selected two Oginski Polonaises in duet form, as well as Farewell to the Fatherland.