Janusz Prusinowski Trio (Poland) 

 

Promotional concert of album „Mazurki”:

23.07.2009, 8:00 PM, Rotunda

WORKSHOPS: Mazovia music - violin: 23.07.2009, 2:00-3:30 PM and 24.07.2009, 4:00-5:30 PM, Rotunda

 

Wedding musician and lyrist; he studied bassoon playing. One of the best musicians from young generation, who plays music of Polish village. In his repertoire there are not only melodies of Polish dances: oberek, mazurek and polka, but also lyrical ballads and religious songs. He plays among others on violin, three-row harmonium, dulcimer and hurdy-gurdy. He uses knowledge and tips of still alive great masters and also notes of Oskar Kolberg. He played concerts in many European countries: France, Italy, Ireland, Germany, Scotland, Estonia, Ukraine, Hungary, but also in Morocco and Kyrgyzstan. He was a member of ensembles: Bractwo Ubogich, Dla Róży, Kapela Domu Tańca, Kapela Brodów. Together with his wife, Kaja, they stage musical theatre spectacles for children. Since 2008 he is a leader of a group Janusz Prusinowski Trio. He lives in Mława.

 

„The first kujawiak dance I learned from my father. Then there were blues and electric guitar and later, in the Andrzej Bieńkowski's film, I heard the ensemble of Józef Kędzierski and that was an illumination: authenticity, intensity and freedom, which I have looked for in the wide world, were always here, just next to me – in my language and a phrase, corresponding to it. It started journeys to musicians and fascination of mazurek dance and all the world surrounding it. It turned out that almost every violinist touches the strings in different places, so he plays different sounds, different scales. Indeed, there are musical families and schools, but lifetime of one man is long enough for him to crystalize original style, especially when he is playing at three weddings weekly. Musicians from Tajikistan, when they heard my playing, said: <<Here in neighboring village violinists play exactly as you>>. Griot from Mali recognised mazurek of Jan Lewandowski as his own melody, he sang it and gave it totally different rhytmic scheme. For many ages people from Mazovia region were called Mazur. How did mazurek dances come to Mazovia? Were it ancient communities or universal human source of music, which is still alive? Mazurek is three-dimensional, circular movement hidden under the surface of this world's occurences. In its pulse you can find rhythm division on two and four as well as on five and seven. Accent shifts – not brushed, but resulting from dance moves – they twist and turn, undermining the logic of the melody, putting it in a new, unexpected light. The man is liberated from a corpuscular, metronomic experience of time and flows out into the deep seas. It is not rubato anymore, but an ancient language, shared by people and... birds. I remember one dawn, when in the forest near Rdzów I had been awaken by a bird concert; and after a while I was listening to playing of Jan Ciarkowski and Piotr Gaca. <<There is no significant difference>> - I have thought at that moment and I still do”.

[Janusz Prusinowski]

 

Band members:

Janusz Prusinowski – violin, hurdy-durdy, vocals

Michał Żak – wooden flute, shawm

Piotr Piszczatowski – drum, baraban, basolia

Piotr Zgorzelski – basolia