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

Contemporary Review, Feb, 1997 by Iwo Zaluski

I had to include Amelia's only surviving composition, if only because it was Amelia's. As a piece in its own right it does not stand scrutiny, but as a theme for a set of whimsical variations, it was perfect. I was intensely aware of my great-great grandmother in the writing of the Amelia Variations. She seemed to be there with me, sharing in the fun. The Variations were in turn, Beethovian, out-of-tune musical box, Gershwin, right hand jazz solo and Lisztian fireworks. Amelia was a creative person, and I sensed she would have approved. Be there ghosts?

Karol Bernard's Mazurkas, Nocturnes and Funeral March constituted the main body of my programme. It was uncanny that several turns of phrase and harmonies used by him have been used by him as well, even though he wrote 19th century piano music, while I wrote children's rock musicals. I have always sensed an extraordinary empathy with great grand uncle Karol, and sometimes even feel him, playing through my fingers, even adding decorations and embellishments that he would have added in performance, but edited out of the published version. Can a gene have specific characteristics? Be there ghosts? I staked my claim as fifth generation composer by adding my two Sombre Waltzes for left hand, which I wrote specially for the occasion. The whole was, as is fitting for a Polish concert, interspersed with Chopin Polonaises, Waltzes, Mazurkas and Etudes.

I handed the organisation over to Antoni Bojanowski, who embraced the brief with the same unbridled enthusiasm he had harnessed for my niece's wedding the previous year. The Zaluski-friendly directorate of the spa was co-operation itself. The hall was made available, and the Steinway tuned. With my lapsed technique honed over a year to as near perfection as I shall ever get, I set off with my wife by car to the bottom right hand corner of Poland, not knowing what to expect. Hostile natives objecting to the return of the cursed landowners to oppress the peasants? A ticker-tape welcome to beloved aristocrats returning to the bosom of their people? In the final analysis, this concert was going to be another public relations exercise - but how effective would it be?

Waiting for us in the 100 degree heat was the Polish media circus. Posters advertising the concert were everywhere. Television, radio and press were all there. I was paraded through Iwonicz preceded by video cameras. I held court in the bar of the Hotel 'Pod Jodla' - built by my great-grandfather a century ago - before reporters from papers and art journals. Sitting down to supper I heard Antoni being interviewed about me on local radio. I caught him extolling the excellence of my Polish - that is, considering that I have never lived in Poland. Many members of my family were there, from Poland, England and Switzerland. All had come to bear witness to the fifth generation manifestation of the Oginski Gene. In the audience was Aunt Iza Ostaszewska. She had travelled across Poland to hear the son of Bogdan Zaluski, with whom she had shared that Mozart Concerto, exactly 60 years before. With her was her cellist son, Zygmunt, holder of the gene over on the Ostaszewski side of the line. My niece, Barbara, whose wedding the previous year was still the talk of the town, was also there.