The Central Library of the Masovian Voivodeship, one of the largest public libraries in Poland, has just announced a sensational music find! This library was burned to the ground in January 1945 by retreating Nazi German soldiers, and roughly 300,000 books were destroyed, and another 100,000 were looted.
Yet, somehow, in 2026, they have managed to unearth an unknown and complete movement of a Chopin piano concerto. According to the first reports, it is scored in the manner of the opening movement of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
Chopin’s Concerto in F minor facsimile edition
Musicologists and experts from the Fryderyk Chopin Institute and the National Library of Poland are now in the process of authenticating the manuscript, and they plan to provide a digitised score for global access. Because the manuscript is almost complete, a modern edition is in the works, and a first performance is planned for 2028.
Frédéric Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21
Calendar Mix-Up
National Institute of Frederic Chopin
If you’ve read this story so far… you’ve been had! It is an April Fool’s! Nobody really knows exactly where this April foolishness is coming from, but I like the version dating back to France and the 16th century.
France was changing their time-keeping from the Julian calendar, established by Julius Caesar, to the Gregorian calendar introduced by Pope Gregory XIII during the 1500s.
In the old Julian calendar, the new year began on April 1, but with the new Gregorian calendar, it is set to begin on January 1.
In those days, news didn’t travel very fast, so not everybody got the word that the New Year now started on January 1. Many kept celebrating it on April 1, and they were quickly mocked as April Fools.
François Francœur: “Sicilienne and Rigaudon,” (Fritz Kreisler Hoax)
Not Fake News
April Fools’ jokes are very different from the fake news that are flooding us every day. So what’s the fundamental difference? First, they have to come from an authoritative source, like Interlude.hk.
The joke must be false but initially believable. And most importantly, it must be harmless or inconsequential. One such joke took place in 1980, when the BBC announced that Big Ben, the Great Clock of Westminster in London, was changing its clock face to a digital one.
Another BBC story from 1957 featured a celebrated stunt that told viewers Swiss farmers were struggling to cope with an exceptionally heavy spaghetti crop. They even brought a camera crew that filmed pickers taking spaghetti strands from plants.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violin Concerto in D Major, K. 294a “Adelaide” (Marius Casadesus Hoax)
Funniest April Fools’ Ever
Here is another really funny April Fools’ from the American newspaper The Daily Graphic. In 1878, they announced a technological breakthrough, claiming that Thomas Edison had invented the “Food Creator.” Apparently, it would be able to manufacture meat, vegetables, wine and biscuits using only air, water, and common earth. It seems that Edison received “a flood of letters from all parts of the country.”
A hilarious April Fools date from 2008, when the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton apparently challenged Senator Barack Obama to a “bowl off,” winner takes all. She was quoted as saying, “It’s time for his campaign to get out of the gutter and allow all of the pins to be counted.”
On April Fools 2006, The Daily Mail reported that Prime Minister Tony Blair was breaking with decades of tradition. Apparently, he had decided to paint the door of 10 Downing Street in “socialist red.” Too funny, and if you’d like to read more of these April Fools stories, have a look at this dedicated website, the Museum of Hoaxes (Museum of Hoaxes)
Johann Georg Benda: “Grave” for Violin and Orchestra, (Samuel Dushkin Hoax)
Keep it Clever, Keep it Harmless
There was one April Fools that got taken a bit too seriously. On 1 April 1993, a story in the China Youth Daily announced that the Chinese government had relaxed its one-child-per-family limit. That particular hoax got fiercely condemned.
This year, why don’t you get inventive with your April Fools. As long as it’s clever, unexpected, and harmlessly hilarious, you’re good to go. And just in case you’re wondering, the video of Yuja playing Chopin is real; the other musical examples, however, are musical hoaxes.
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