Event: Poland - Warsaw

Chopin Memorial Sunday Concerts

When:	18 May - 28 Sep 2008; Sun only (annual)
Where:	Lazienki Park and Palace
Costs:	Free
Opening Hours:	12pm & 4pm

The Royal Lazienki Park in Warsaw honours Poland's most famous musical son with Chopin Memorial Sunday Concerts between mid-May and September. The concerts, held next to Waclaw Szymanowski's imposing sculpture, feature the current crop of Poland's finest pianists.

The memorial is a popular destination for a walk, so during the summer months the additional incentive of some of the most beautiful music ever composed enhances a visit.

Chopin was born in 1810, at Zelazowa Wola, some 50km (30 miles) west of Warsaw. By the age of eight he had already performed in Warsaw and returned there when he was 12 to study. Recognised as both a composer and brilliant performer, and with two concertos under his belt, Chopin visited Vienna in 1829, to great success. On his way to Paris in 1830 while travelling through Europe, he learned that the Russians had invaded his beloved homeland and, tragically, he never saw Poland again.

After early concertante works, once he had left Poland Chopin never wrote again for the orchestra, concentrating on various solo masterpieces of smaller forms - ballades, scherzos, preludes and, notably, nocturnes. He also paid homage to his Polish roots in his mazurkas and polonaises, as well as leaving four sonatas - three for piano alone (the second including the famous Funeral March) and one for cello.

One of the world's most popular composers, there could be nothing better than a Sunday afternoon recital under Chopin's memorial.