Poland announced it had purchased a rare manuscript of a ballad by Frederic Chopin, a score whose exhibition will coincide with this year’s prestigious piano competition named after the composer. The manuscript for Ballade No. 4 in F minor was previously in private hands before Poland finalized a deal to buy it last year. “This is a treasure,” Poland’s Culture Minister Hanna Wroblewska told reporters in Warsaw’s Chopin Institute, adding that original manuscripts by the French-Polish composer are “very rare”.

The Institute has bought the four-paged manuscript using state funds but said the price could not be disclosed due to a clause in the contract. “This manuscript is in excellent condition. It has been kept for over 100 years in optimal conditions,” said the Chopin Institute’s Seweryn Kuter curator.

Born in 1810 in Zelazowa Wola, near the Polish capital, Frederic Chopin fled his homeland just before the 1830 uprising against the occupying forces of Tsarist Russia. The composer later lived in the Austrian capital Vienna before moving to Paris, where he died aged 39 after years of poor health -- but his music remains a symbol of Poland’s long struggle for freedom. The score will be displayed at the June opening of a Warsaw exhibition that runs until the end of October, coinciding with the final stages of the Frederic Chopin International Piano Competition.

Held each five years since 1927, the competition brings top pianists from around the world to Warsaw. In October, its organizers said Russian pianists would only be allowed to enter the competition under a neutral flag and if they did not support Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine. Host country Poland staunchly supports Kyiv’s efforts to fend off the invasion. — AFP