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Chopin's family background. Mikolaj Chopin's French origins ; His early years in Marainville, in the province of Lorraine ; He is brought up on the nearby estate of Polish-born Count Michal Jan Pac, whose manager Adam Weydlich brings Mikolaj into his household, where the boy is educated and learns Polish ; In 1787, age sixteen, Mikolaj accompanies the Weydlich family to Warsaw and becomes a French-language teacher in their newly opened boarding school ; During the Kosciuszko Uprising he joins the civilian militia (1794) and takes part in the defense of Warsaw ; He later finds a position as tutor to the children of Countess Ludwika Skarbek in Zelazowa Wola, where he meets Justyna Krzyzanowska, his future wife and the mother of Fryderyk Chopin ; The marriage of Mikolaj and Justyna (June 28, 1806) at the parish church of St. Roch in the village of Brochow ; The birth of Fryderyk, his three sisters, and their family life considered ; Mikolaj is offered a position as assistant master in French at the Warsaw Lyceum and settles in the Polish capital -- Childhood and youth in Warsaw, 1810-1824. On October 1, 1810, Mikolaj begins teaching at the Warsaw Lyceum, located in the Saxon Palace ; He opens a boarding school for boys to augment his income ; The history of the Lyceum and its academic curriculum outlined ; Fryderyk overhears his sister playing the piano and finds his way to the keyboard ; Mikolaj purchases a Buchholtz grand piano and Wojciech Zywny becomes Fryderyk's teacher ; Zywny's eccentric personality drawn from contemporary descriptions ; The boy publishes his first composition, a Polonaise in G minor, age seven ; He makes his first bulic appearance on February 24, 1818, not yet eight years old ; He is called "a Polish Mozart" and appears in the salons of the Warsaw aristocracy ; The Tsarina of Russia visits Warsaw and Fryderyk presents her with two of his dances ; He is summoned to the Bruhl palace to play for Grand Duke Constantine ; Constantine's deranged personality described ; Fryderyk's friendship with the Grand Duke's son Paul and Alexandrine de Moriolles ; The soprano Angelica Catalani sings in Warsaw and after hearing Chopin play presents him with a gold watch ; The boy gives concerts for Warsaw's charitable society ; A holiday in Zelazowa Wola, summer of 1823, and a reminiscence from the octogenarian Antoni Krysiak ; Mates and the rector, Dr. Samuel Linde ; Some schoolboy pranks ; Fryderyk graduates at the end of the first year with a special prize -- Exploring Poland: holidays in Szafarnia, 1824-1825. Chopin travels to the village of Szafarnia for a summer holiday, to the home of his friend "Domus" Dziewanowski ; The patriotism of the Dziewanowski family ; Chopin's daily routine in Szafarnia ; His failed attempts to ride a horse ; A letter to his family ; He issues a satirical journal called the Szafarnia Courier, and issues news bulletins ; He explores the surrounding countryside of Mazovia and hears Polish peasant music for the first time ; An early mazurka (the "Little Jew") ; Composes another mazurka, in A-flat major, and dedicates it to his friend Wilhelm Kolberg ; Harvesttime in Szafarnia ; Tsar Alexander I arrives in Warsaw and opens the Polish Sejm, April 1825 ; The fifteen-year-old Chopin is invited to play on the newly invented Aeolomelodikon for the tsar, who presents him with a diamond ring ; Two concerts in the conservatory (May 27 and June 10) ; Another holiday in Szafarnia (July 1825) ; He roams across Mazovia and visits Torun, the birthplace of Copernicus ; Some merrymaking during the harvest in Szafarnia ; Back in Warsaw the youth is appointed organist at the church of the nuns of the visitation ; Descriptions of his playing ; Letters to his friend Jan Bialoblocki ; A Christmas visit to his birthplace, Zelazowa Wola -- The Decemberist revolt, 1825-1826. Tsar Alexander I dies of typhus ; Disaffected Russian army officers in Saint Petersburg refuse to acknowledge his brother Nicholas as his successor and the "Decemberist revolt" breaks out ; Public hangings of the military in Petersburg ; Passive resistance grows in Poland ; The Russian secret police arrest and torture dissenters in Warsaw ; The death of the Polish statesman Stanislaw Staszic (January 20, 1826) rallies the nation ; Chopin's godfather, Fryderyk Skarbek, delivers an oration at the graveside of Staszic ; Chopin receives a fragment of the Staszic burial shroud and treasures it as a relic ; He becomes ill and is treated for tuberculosis by Dr. Wilhelm Malcz ; Some memories of Eugeniusz Skrodzki, including a skating accident on a frozen pond and a "tryst" in the botanical gardens ; Justyna takes Chopin and his sister Emilia to the Reinerz (Duszniki) spa for a five-week "cure" ; Chopin composes his Polonaise in B-flat minor ; A description of Reinerz and Chopin's daily regimen ; He gives two concerts in aid of Reinerz orphans and writes a letter to Elsner ; Visits Prince Radziwill on his return journey to Warsaw ; A drawing of Chopin by Eliza Radziwill (1826) -- At the Warsaw high school for music, 1826-1828. Chopin enrolls at Warsaw's high school for music, whose rector is Jozef Elsner ; The complex connection between this institution and the Warsaw conservatory, whose principal is Carlo Soliva ; Chopin's curriculum of studies at the high school under Elsner ; Elsner's early career reviewed, together with his maxims about music and musicians ; Chopin's classmates at the high school ; He comes across the music of John Field and composes his Nocturne in E minor (op. posth.) ; The death and funeral of Emilia Chopin, age fourteen (April 10, 1827) ; The Chopin family moves to the Krasinski palace ; Chopin completes his first year at the high school and accepts an invitation to join Count Ksewery Zboinski at his residence in Kowalewo, near Drobin ; Chopin plans a journey across Pomerania to the northern port city of Gdansk and begins work on his "La ci darem" variations ; Back in Warsaw he moves into his new home in the Krasinski palace and plays in a concert to mark his father's name day, December 6, 1827 ; His bosom friend "Jasio" Bialoblocki dies from tuberculosis ; Chopin composes his sonata in C minor and dedicates it to Elsner ; Hummel gives concerts in Warsaw and meets Chopin ; After completing his second year at the high school, Chopin goes to Sanniki in Mazovia for another summer holiday -- First trips abroad: Berlin and Vienna, 1828-1829. In September, Chopin attends an international science conference in Berlin in the company of the Warsaw zoologist Dr. Feliks Jarocki ; Chopin meets Alexander von Humboldt and other famous scientists, but prefers to spend time at the Berlin opera ; He hears performances of Weber's Der Freischutz, Spontini's Fernando Cortez, and Cimarosa's Il matrimonio segreto ; A performance of Handel's Ode for Saint Cecilia's Day at the Singakademie moves him deeply: "This is nearest to the ideal I have formed of great music" ; Returning to Warsaw, he stops at Zullichau and improvises on the piano at a local inn; it later becomes his Grand Fantasia on Polish Airs, op. 13 ; At Poznan he visits Archbishop Wolicki and Prince Antoni Radziwill, who invites him to play at a concert that same day ; The event is captured retrospectively in Henryk Siemiradzki's painting ; Chopin dedicates his piano trio in G minor to mirror Radziwill ; Chopin's studies at the high school come to an end ; Mikolaj Chopin appeals to the government for funds to allow his son to study abroad ; The appeal is rejected: "public funds should not be wasted for the encouragement of this type of artist" ; Tsar Nicholas I comes to Warsaw for his coronation as King of Poland (May 24, 1829) ; The concerts of Paganini dominate the season ; Chopin describes the Italian's playing as "absolute perfection" ; A newspaper war breaks out between the supporters of Paganini and Karol Lipinski ; Paganini and Chopin meet (July 16) ; Chopin graduates from the high school for music with flying colors (July 20); Elsner's report describes him as a "musical genius" ; He sets out for Vienna (July 22), a journey subsidized by his father ; An adventure in Ojcow ; He arrives in the imperial city on July 31 ; Tobias Haslinger promises to publish the "La ci darem" variations ; Two concerts in the Karntnertor theater (August 11 and 18) ; Czerny, Ignaz Schuppansigh, and Count Dietrichtstein are in attendance and urge him to stay in Vienna ; Trips to Prague, Teplitz, and Dresden, where he attends a performance of Goethe's Faust ; Back in Warsaw he begins work on some "exercises," the first versions of his twelve studies, op. 10 -- |
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Konstancja Gladkowska: the distant beloved, 1829-1830. Chopin becomes infatuated with the singer Konstancja Gladkowska but does not declare his feelings ; He unburdens himself instead to his best friend, Tytus Woyciechowski ; The intimate nature of the friendship between Chopin and Tytus considered ; Chopin receives an invitation to stay with Prince Antoni Radziwill at the latter's hunting lodge Antonin ; A description of the lodge and Chopin's friendship with the Radziwill family ; Konstancja becomes the inspiration for the larghetto of the F minor piano concerto ; The first performance of the concerto in the Warsaw national theater ; He meets Konstancja for the first time (April 1830) ; An encounter with the soprano Henrietta Sontag ; He visits Tytus at the latter's estate at Poturzyn and presents him with the newly published "La ci darem" variations, which are dedicated to Tytus ; Konstancja makes her debut in the Warsaw national theater ; Chopin prepares for a lengthy trip abroad, but procrastinates ; He visits his birthplace, Zelazowa Wola, for the last time ; Civil unrest breaks out in Warsaw and many people are arrested ; Chopin visits the military camp of the General Piotr Szembek at Sochaczew and plays for him ; In the midst of growing discontent against Russian rule Chopin gives a "farewell" concert in the National Theater (October 11) ; Before setting out on a tour that is supposed to take him to Austria and Italy, Chopin and Konstancja exchange rings ; He leaves Warsaw on November 2, 1830, and Elsner and a group of Conservatory students serenade him as he departs the city ; Tytus joins him at Kalisz and together they proceed to Vienna -- The Warsaw uprising, 1830-1831. Chopin's route takes him through Wroclaw, Dresden, and Prague ; He and Tytus arrive in Vienna on November 25 and find an apartment on the Kohlmarkt ; New reaches them of the Polish uprising (November 29, 1830) ; The Belvedere Palace is attacked by Polish army cadets and the Grand Duke Constantine flees the city ; Tytus rushes back to Warsaw and joins the army ; Chopin heeds his parents' advice and stays in Vienna ; A description of Chopin's daily life in the imperial capital ; He is visited by Hummel and forms friendships with the Czech violinist Josef Slavik and R. Johann Malfatti, Beethoven's old physician ; An encounter with Thalberg: "he isnot my man" ; A homesick Christmas from which emerges the first version of the Scherzo in B minor ; The Poles remove Tsar Nicholas from the throne of Poland; he responds with a declaration of war ; An account of the first military battles ; Chopin composes his four mazurkas, op. 6, and five mazurkas, op. 7 ; He visits the Vienna beer halls and hears the waltzes of Strauss and Lanner ; Composers his waltz in E-flat major, op. 18 ; Unable to secure concert engagements, he runs out of money and his father make good the loss ; On June 11, Chopin puts on his own concert in the Karntnertor Theater but runs up more debt ; After several delays the Russians issue a passport that allows him to travel to Munich ; Chopin leaves Vienna in the company of the Polish scientist Alfons Kumelski and travels via Linz and Salzburg to Munich ; Chopin stays in the Bavarian capital for more than a month and gives a successful concert in the Odeon theater (August 28) ; At Stuttgart he hears of the fall of Warsaw ; An account of the Warsaw bloodbath and the capitulation of the city on September 8 ; Chopin's "Stuttgart diary" records his reaction to the catastrophe ; He composes his "Revolutionary" study and travels via Strasbourg to Paris, where he begins a new life as a Polish emigre -- An exile in Paris, 1831-1833. Chopin arrives in Paris on October 5, 1831, and moves into an apartment on the fifth floor of 27 Boulevard Poissonniere ; His first impressions of Paris: "nothing but cries, noise, din, and mud" ; He confesses to an encounter with "Teresa," a prostitute in Austria ; From his apartment's balcony Chopin witnesses street fighting against supporters of the unpopular "citizen king," Louis-Philippe ; General Girolamo Ramorino (who had fought with Napoleon) moves into an apartment opposite Chopin's and his presence attracts a demonstration ; "Vive les Polonais!" ; "You cannot imagine what impression the menacing voice of the people made on me," Chopin writes ; The "Great emigration" gets under way and thousands of Polish exiles arrive in Paris ; Among their umber is Wojciech (Albert) Grzymala, who becomes Chopin's closest Polish confidant ; An account of Grzymala's storied career ; Prince Adam Czartoryski arrives in Paris and forms a de facto Polish government ; Chopin becomes attached to the Polish cause ; he meets numerous musicians in Paris, including Franz Liszt and Friedrich Kalkbrenner ; Chopin declines Kalkbrenner's offer to give him lessons ; Kalkbrenner's personality considered ; He is pilloried by Heine ; Short of money, Chopin instructs his father to sell the diamond ring given to him by Tsar Alexander ; Chopin gives his first concert in Paris (February 26, 1832), which brings in no income but receives an excellent review from the critic F.-J. Fetis ; Chopin is turned down for a concert at the Paris Conservatoire ; Cholera returns to Paris: "a riot of the dead" ; He moves to a new address at 4 Cite Bergere ; A description of his apartment by the critic Ernest Legouve ; Chopin is chastised by his father for his cavalier attitude to money: "Let me advise you to save what you can, so as not to find yourself without a penny" ; Chopin meets the Rothschilds, who open doors to the Paris aristocracy ; "I have found my way into the very best society" ; He hears John Field play (December 25, 1832) but is not impressed ; An account of Field's stay in Paris ; Chopin is elected to membership in the Polish literary society ; He moves into a new apartment at 5 rue de la Chaussee d'Antin with his childhood friend Dr. Aleksander Hoffman ; "How delighted I am that you are together!" writes Mikolaj Chopin -- Chopin and the keyboard: the Raphael of the piano. The Paris virtuoso school as "a theater of stunts" ; Heine caricatures Kalkbrenner, Dreyschock, Pixis, and others in his Musikalische Berichte aus Paris while eulogizing Chopin as "the Raphael of the piano" ; The influence of the singing voice on Chopin's compositions ; Chopin as "the greatest contrapuntist since Mozart" ; Chopin's "Sketches toward a piano method" ; Some views of Heinrich Neuhaus on Chopin considered ; Chopin rejects the idea of "finger equalization" in favor of "finger individuation" ; "The third finger is a great singer" ; Chopin's fingerings as prescribed for his pupils ; Chopin's pedaling observed by Antoine Marmontel ; Some special pedal effects in Chopin's music ; Liszt and Chopin compared ; Chopin and the Pleyel piano ; Its restricted compass is turned to creative use by Chopin ; His harmonic innovations arise from physical contact with the keyboard ; Two techniques of composition considered: the "apotheosis of themes" and "developing variation" ; The demise of the Paris virtuoso school as its members go their separate ways -- Maria Wodzinska: "my misfortune," 1834-1837. The Wodzinski family invite Chopin to join them in Dresden ; Chopin first visits the Lower Rhine Music Festival in Aachen, where he meets Mendelssohn ; Chopin takes French citizenship (August 1, 1835) and travels via Carlsbad, where he is reunited with his parents (August 15) ; They spend an idyllic month together and visit Tetschen as guests of the wealthy Thun-Hohenstein family ; Chopin dedicates his Waltz in A-flat major, op. 34, no. 1, to one of their daughters, Countess Josefina ; He arrives in Dresden on September 19 and becomes enamored of the sixteen-year-old Maria Wodzinska ; They go for romantic strolls together along the banks of the Elbe ; Before departing Dresden he dedicates his Waltz in A-flat major, op. 69, no. 1 ("L'Adieu") to Maria and entertains hopes of an engagement ; A letter to Chopin from Maria ; He falls ill on the way back to Paris and false reports of his death are circulated in Warsaw ; He rejoins the Wodzinski family in Marienbad the following year and travels with them to Dresden (August 1836) ; He proposes to Maria at "the twilight hour" on September 9, 1836, and is accepted ; Mme Teresa Wodzinska insists that the engagement remain secret ; She harbors doubts about Chopin's health and eventually withdraws her support ; Her letters to Chopin reveal her manipulative character ; In early 1837 Chopin falls ill ; He accepts an invitation from the Marquis de Custine to spend time at the latter's villa in Saint-Gratien ; A description of this visit from the diary of Jozef Brzowski ; Chopin declines an invitation from Tsar Nicholas to become "pianist to the imperial Russian court" ; Chopin is caught up in the problems of Mme Wodzinska's son, Antoni, to whom he lends money that is not repaid ; Realizing that his ill-fated engagement to Maria is over, he bundles her letters into a package and labels it "My misfortune" ; Maria's later life, her failed marriage to Jozef Skarbek, and her final days considered -- |
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An English interlude, July 1837. Camille Pleyel takes Chopin to England ; Some complications in Pleyel's private life ; Chopin acquires a French passport (July 7, 1837) ; The pair of travelers arrive in London on July 10 and stay at the Sablonniere Hotel ; The Polish poet Stanislaw Egbert Kozmian acts as their guide ; Chopin insists on anonymity and is introduced as "Mr. Fritz from Paris" ; He and Pleyel rent a carriage and in their quest "to spend money" they visit Richmond, Blackwall, and Windsor, among other places ; At Arundel they observe the parliamentary election of Lord Dudley Stuart, the champion of the Polish cause in Britain ; Chopin attends the opera and admires the singing of Pasta and Schroder-Devrient ; He also attends a performance of Beethoven's "Emperor" concerto played by Moscheles, which fails to impress him ; Pleyel takes him to a soiree given by the piano manufacturer James Shudi Broadwood ; Chopin is asked to play and the identity of "Mr. Fritz" is revealed ; Chopin signs contracts with his English publisher, Christian Wessel, but objects to the nicknames that Wessel attaches to his works ; At this time Pleyel probably meets the young Emma Osborn, who later becomes his common-law wife ; Chopin visits Brighton Pavilion ; He travels back to Paris from Dover and arrives in the French capital at the end of July -- Buffets and rewards, 1833-1838. Chopin's position in the world of music has meanwhile been transformed ; Fetis includes an entry on Chopin in his Biographical Dictionary ; The twenty-four studies, opp. 10 and 25, considered, together with their respective dedications to Liszt and Marie d'Agoult ; Ludwig Rellstab declares war on Chopin's music ("ear-splitting discords") in the columns of his journal Iris ; Charles Halle's recollections of Chopin ; Princess Cristina Belgiojoso-Trivulzio comes to the aid of the Italian refugees with a fund-raising concert ; She arranges an "ivory duel" between Liszt and Thalberg and commissions Hexameron variations, based on a theme from Bellini's I puritani, to which Chopin makes a contribution ; Bellini's premature death and funeral in Paris ; His influence on Chopin considered ; Chopin gives some important concerts in 1838, one of them in benefit of his friend Alkan (March 3, 1838) ; A vituperative review of his impromptu in A-flat major, op. 29, is published in La Revue musicale ; Chopin plays in Rouen (March 12, 1838) and receives a glowing tribute from Ernest Legouve in the Gazette musicale -- Enter George Sand, 1836-1838. George Sand's family tree ; George Sand takes up residence in the Hotel de France, where she meets Chopin at a soiree on November 19, 1836 ; The evening does not go well: "What an antipathetic woman that Sand is!" Chopin complains ; He holds a soiree of his own on December 13, which hoes much better, and his playing captures Sand's imagination ; A backward glance at Sand's early life ; Her childhood home at Nohant, where she witnesses the death of her infant brother and her father ; She is brought up by her grandmother, who places her in a convent school for young girls ; Through her rebellious behavior she becomes a "devil among the nuns" ; At the age of seventeen she inherits Nohant and attracts several suitors ; Her marriage to Casimir Dudevant in 1822 produces two children, Maurice and Solange ; The paternity of Solange questioned ; Casimir and Sand separate and she moves to Paris ; She meets the writer Jules Sandeau, the first syllable of whose name ("Sand") she adopts as her nom de plume ; Her novel Lelia (1833), with its approval of "free love," brings her notoriety ; She dons men's apparel and smokes cigars to show equality with the opposite sex ; Sand makes several attempts to attract Chopin down to Nohant in 1837 ; She finally meets him again in Paris in the summer of 1838, when they become lovers ; Her celebrated six-thousand-word letter to their friend Grzymala outlines the pros and cons of an affair with Chopin ; She breaks with her current lover, Felicien Mallefille, who threatens her and Chopin with violence ; Delacroix pains his well-known portrait of Sand and Chopin, which is cut into two separate images after the painter's death ; Sand becomes concerned about Chopin's health and that of her son, Maurice ; She accepts the advice of her friend Charlotte Marliani, the wife of the Spanish consul, and plans a trip to Majorca ; A honeymoon in everything but name -- A winter in Majorca, 1838-1839. Chopin and Sand leave France on November 1, 1838 ; They journey through war-torn Spain to Barcelona and board the paddle steamer El Mallorquin for Majorca ; A smooth voyage across the Mediterranean Sea to Palma ; Sand rents a house called "So'n vent" ("House of winds"), where they stay for a month ; The winter rains then begin to fall and he becomes ill ; The local doctors diagnose tuberculosis and report his illness to the authorities ; Driven out of Palma by prejudice against the disease, Chopin and Sand move into a deserted Carthusian monastery in Valldemosa ; Chopin likens his cell to an upright coffin ; He cannot compose because his piano has not yet arrived from Paris ; His illness worsens and a doctor is summoned ; The piano finally arrives (mid-January 1839) and Chopin resumes work on the Preludes, the second ballade, and the third scherzo ; Sand's description of Chopin's disturbed mental state: "phantoms and terrors" ; Chopin's money worries and his dealings with publishers considered ; Unable to tolerate the winter weather, Chopin and Sand return to Palma (February 13) and await passage back to Barcelona ; During the sea voyage (shared with a hundred hogs) Chopin spits up "bowlfuls of blood" ; The strange fate of Chopin's piano considered: a morality tale ; He is treated in Marseille by Dr. Cauviere ; The death of the tenor Adolphe Nourrit ; Chopin plays the organ at the singer's funeral and Sand excoriates both the service and the poor condition of the instrument ; Antoni Wodzinski defaults on the repayment of money he owes Chopin ; A sojourn in Genoa (May 5 to 16) and a rough sea passage back to Marseille ; Chopin and Sand finally set out for Nohant ; They travel along the Rhone river by ferryboat as far as Arles, and then transfer to a diligence, arriving on June 1 -- At Nohant, 1839. Euphoric to be back at Nohant, Sand likens the place to "a garden of Eden" ; Sand and Chopin settle into their respective routines: she writes at night and sleeps during the day, he composes during the day and sleeps at night ; Sand brings in a local physician, Dr. Gustave Papet, who examines Chopin and diagnoses an "inflammation of the larynx" ; Sand comes to terms with her new responsibilities as Chopin's caregiver ; She describes their relationship as "chaste," sustained by bonds of platonic friendship ; Sand's insights into Chopin's complex personality outlined ; Her description of his tormented composing process: "He would spend six weeks on one page, only to return to the first draft" ; Chopin becomes frustrated with his rustic lifestyle at Nohant and invites Grzymala to join them ; Grzymala is charged with the task of finding separate accommodations in Paris for Sand and Chopin ; Chopin composes several works at Nohant, including the Sonata in B-flat minor, op. 35 ; A description of the sonata with some commentary on its unusual structural features ; Schumann's criticism of the sonata considered ; Chopin and Sand leave Nohant and get back to Paris on October 11, 1839 -- |
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Growing fame, 1839-1843. Sand and Chopin move into separate apartments, hers at 16 rue Pigalle and his at nearby 5 rue Tronchet ; Sand's new play, Cosima, is produced at the Comedie-Francaise on April 29, 1840, and is a failure ; She loses 10,000 francs over the debacle, falls into debt, and is unable to return to Nohant in the summer of 1840 ; Chopin, by contrast, is financially secure through his teaching and the publication of his latest pieces ; Chopin as a teacher: his pupils include Friederike Muller, Geroges Mathias, and Pauline Viardot-Garcia ; He meets Moscheles, and the two composers are invited to play at Saint-Cloud before the queen and her entourage, October 30, 1839 ; Chopin composes his Trois Nouvelles Etudes for the Methode des Methodes, edited help pay off her debts ; Her growing estrangement from Marie d'Agoult and her unflattering portrait of Marie in Horace ; Balzac describes Sand's living quarters at the rue Pigalle ; Paris is brought to a standstill by the state funeral of Napoleon Bonaparte, December 15, 1840 ; An account of Napoleon's exhumation ; Mickiewicz creates a stir with his lectures on the Slavs in the College de France, to which Sand "comes with the famous pianist Chopin and leaves in his carriage" ; Chopin gives a recital in the Salle Pleyel (April 26, 1841), which nets him 6,000 francs and is reviewed by Liszt for the Revue et Gazette ; Chopin reacts negatively to Liszt's article ; The complex background to the review considered ; Chopin and Sand return to Nohant for the summer of 1841 ; An earthquake at Berry ; His pupil Marie de Rozieres has an affair with Antoni Wodzinski ; A hive of gossip ; Chopin completes the Ballade in A-flat major, op. 47; the two nocturnes, op. 48; and the Fantaisie in F minor, op. 49 ; Back in Paris he plays for the Duke of Orleans in the Pavillon de Marsan, December 2 ; He gives a second recital in the Salle Pleyel on February 21, 1842, which garners another 5,000 francs ; Chopin's old teacher Adalbert Zywny dies that same night ; Chopin's loyal following is likened to a congregation worshipping at "the Church of Chopin" ; Another summer at Nohant, where Sand and Chopin are joined by Delacroix ; They move into new apartments in the Square d'Orleans (September 1842), where Chopin resumes his teaching ; His pupils now include Wilhelm von Lenz, Mlle Laure Duperre, and the young Hungarian prodigy Karoly Filtsch, perhaps his most gifted student ; Meyerbeer drops in on a lesson and gest into an argument with Chopin about "tempo rubato" ; Karoly Filtsch's career considered in depth -- The death of Mikolaj Chopin, 1844. Chopin's father dies from tuberculosis on May 3, 1844, and is interred in Warsaw's Powqzaki cemetery ; The news reaches Chopin three weeks later and devastates him ; The Warsaw Courier publishes a panegyric to Mikolaj (May 12) ; George Sand's letter of commiseration to Justyna Chopin: "he thinks only of you, his sisters, and all his family" ; Chopin contacts his brother-in-law Antoni Barcinski requesting a full account of his father's last days ; Barcinski reveals that Mikolaj wished that his body be cut open and the heart removed, "lest I be buried alive" ; Professor Jozef Belza's influence in this matter ; Chopin's sister Ludwika and her husband, Kalasanty, travel to France to spend a holiday with Chopin ; He takes them sightseeing in Paris and brings them down to Nohant, where they are guests of Sand (August 1844) ; Family life in Nohant ; Chopin completes his B minor sonata, op. 58: the sonata considered in detail ; Kalasanty explores the countryside and Sand reads aloud from her new novel, The Miller of Angibault ; Ludwika and Sand form bonds of attachment ; Chopin returns to Paris with Ludwika and her husband, and arranges a farewell party for them on September 2, attended by a small audience, which listens to him and the cellist Auguste Franchomme play a short recital ; The party does not break up until 2:00 a.m., when Chopin copies out his song "Wiosna" in Ludwika's album ; A few hours later (September 3) Ludwika and Kalasanty return to Warsaw ; After resting in Nohant for several weeks, Chopin returns to Pairs (November 29), where he encounters the first of the winter snowstorms and falls ill ; Sand arrives in the city and acts once more as his caregiver ; During the Easter weekend they hear Mozart's Requiem and Haydn's Creation at the conservatoire ; The English actor William Macready visits Sand ; An unusual encounter with North American Indians ; "I no longer have anything to do here, and I am bored," writes Sand ; Chopin buys a new carriage and they depart for Nohant on June 12 -- A harvest of sorrows, 1845-1847. The first fissures in the Chopin-Sand relationship appear ; Nohant is swept by rainstorms and the Berry region is flooded ; Chopin is marooned there, together with Pauline Viardot, who works on her vocal arrangements of Chopin's mazurkas with the composer's approval ; Sand adopts the nineteen-year-old Augustine Brault and brings her to live at Nohant ; Sand's daughter, Solange, objects to the presence of her new "sister" and roils the household with her rebellious behavior ; A dark secret: Maurice Sand begins a clandestine affair with Pauline Viardot ; In the midst of the turmoil Chopin brings his three mazurkas, op. 59, to fruition ; Sand and Chopin return to Paris (November 1845), where he falls ill and once more becomes Sand's "resident patient" ; Mickiewicz calls Chopin the "moral vampire" of Sand ; After returning to Nohant (May 1846), Chopin resumes work on his cello sonata, op. 64, and completes his Polonaise-Fantaisie, op. 61 ; A consideration of his "late style" ; An account of Chopin's piano playing by Elisa Fournier: "an astonishing tour de force" ; Sand's family circle begins to fall apart ; Maurice and Solange at loggerheads ; Sand works on her novel Lucrezia Floriani, a thinly disguised account of her declining relationship with Chopin ; Solange is seduced by the sculptor Auguste Clesinger and they marry in hast at Nohant (May 1847) ; A squandered dowry and a violent quarrel between Clesinger and Sand, who exchange blows ; Chopin, back in Paris, learns of the fiasco from Solange and takes her side ; Sand accuses Chopin of "going over to the enemy" ; He and Sand make a final break: "there is no point in ever discussing the rest" -- Deepening shadows, 1847-1848. A bleak winter ; Chopin plays for Baron James de Rothschild and Prince Czartoryski ; Jane Stirling emerges as his chief caregiver ; He visits the atelier of Louis-Auguste Bisson and sits for a daguerreotype (autumn of 1847) ; Friends persuade Chopin to give a concert in the Salle Pleyel (February 16, 1848), at which he plays the last three movements of his newly published cello sonata with Franchomme and his barcarolle, op. 60 ; A description of his playing by Charles Halle and a revue in the Revue et Gazette musicale: "the sylph has kept his word" ; An unexpected encounter with Sand outside the home of Charlotte Marliani: "allow me to inform you that you are a grandmother" ; Revolution breaks out in Paris and King Louis-Philippe abdicates ; Rumors circulate that Chopin might return to Poland -- Twilight in Britain, 1848. Revolution and cholera bring Paris to a standstill ; Chopin accepts an invitation from Jane Stirling to visit Britain ; He arrives in London on April 20 and rents an apartment at 48 Dover street ; The artistic life of London ; He is taken up by high society and gives several concerts in private homes ; He plays for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Stafford house ; Pauline Viardot and her arrangements of the Chopin mazurkas considered ; J.W. Davison's opposition to Chopin ; Chopin's jaundiced views on the British aristocracy ; Fane Stirling and Katherine Erskine loom large ; He travels to Edinburgh and stays in Calder house as a guest of Lord Torphichen ; Chopin suffers bruises when his carriage is overturned ; A concert in Manchester (August 28) hosted by the industrialist Salis Schwabe ; Some mixed reviews ; Chopin becomes a patient of the Polish homeopath Dr. Adam Lyszczynski ; In the company of Jane Stirling he endures visits to Johnstone Castle, Strachur house, Milliken house, Keir House, and Hamilton Palace, among others ; A concert in Merchants' Hall, Glasgow, September 27 ; A description by the Scottish diarist Sir James Hedderwick ; Chopin's letters to Grzymala ; A concert in Edinburgh's Hopetown rooms, October 4 ; Chopin lampoons the Scottish gentry ; He returns to London on October 31 and plays at the Guildhall in aid of Polish refugees despite his illness: "a well-intentioned mistake" ; Chopin returns to Paris and suffers a seizure during the channel crossing -- |
| Contents |
The death of Chopin, 1849. Chopin turns to three physicians for help: Dr. Pierre Louis, Dr. Jean Blache, and Dr. Jean-Baptiste Cruveilhier ; Cholera returns to Paris and Chopin moves to an expensive apartment in the suburb of Chaillot ; Jane Stirling sends him an anonymous gift of 25,000 francs, which is mysteriously "lost" and traced with the help of the famous clairvoyant Alexis ; Chopin's illness reaches a critical stage ; He writes to his sister Ludwika asking her to come to Paris ; She arrives with her husband, Kalasanty, and fourteen-year-old daughter, "Ludka" ; Among the friends who visit him at Chaillot are Jenny Lind, Fanchomme, his pupil Gutmann, and Charles Gavard, who leaves a memoir of his visit ; Chopin composes at Chaillot what some consider to be his last work, the Mazurka in G minor, op. 67, no. 2 ; A visit from the poet Cyprien Norwid ; In mid-August, Chopin moves into a new apartment at 12 Place Vendome, where he is besieged by curiosity seekers ; Delfina Potocka visits him and sings for him ; The deathbed drawings of Teofil Kwiatkowski ; Chopin is the unwilling recipient of extreme unction from the Polish cleric Jelowicki ; Chopin dies on October 17 ; A partial autopsy is carried out by Dr. Cruveilhier ; Chopin's funeral service in the Madeleine Church ; A committee is formed to raise a monument to his memory ; Ludwika's "Confession" ; Chopin's effects are auctioned ; Ludwika returns to Poland carrying an urn containing Chopin's heart ; The fate of George Sand's letters to Chopin -- Epilogue. The Chopin family commissions Julian Fontana to bring out Chopin's unpublished manuscripts ; Fontana's credentials as an editor ; His problems, both financial and personal, considered ; Modern criticism of Fontana's posthumous edition of Chopin is rebuffed: "it is difficult to overestimate his contribution" ; He refuses remuneration for his work, which he undertakes as a tribute to Chopin ; Fontana's career considered in detail ; He travels to Cuba, where he meets Camila Dalcour, his future wife ; They marry in New York and move to Paris ; Camila dies in childbirth ; A distraught Fontana spends his final years facing illness and encroaching deafness ; He commits suicide on December 23, 1869 ; The search for a Chopin biographer ; Grzymala and Fontana emerge as candidates, but their work founders ; Liszt arries on the scene with his book F. Chopin, a publication that incurs Jane Stirling's disapproval: "he spat on the plate to spoil the others' appetite" ; The biography of Moritz Karasowski: "weaver of legends" ; Frederick Niecks, Chopin's fist modern biographer ; The Polish scholar Ferdynand Hoesick takes command of the field ; The spurious correspondence of Chopin and Delfina Potocka considered ; The forged "journal" of Chopin creates more pitfalls ; "A lantern on the stern" ; Chopin's heart is interred in Warsaw's church of the holy cross ; It is removed for safekeeping during World War II to the suburb of Milanowek ; On October 17, 1945, the ninety-sixth anniversary of Chopin's death, the heart is returned to Warsaw via Zelazowa Wola and the nation pays homage ; Requests to take tissue samples from the heart to determine the cause of Chopin's death are denied by the Polish government -- Appendix. Liszt's questionnaire concerning his life of Chopin. |
| Abstract |
This book is the most comprehensive biography of the great Polish composer to appear in English in more than a century. Based on ten years of research and a vast cache of primary sources located in archives in Warsaw, Paris, London, New York, and Washington, D.C., it is a corrective work intended to dispel the many myths and legends that continue to surround Chopin, and an intimate look into a dramatic life. Of particular focus are Chopin's childhood and youth in Poland, which are brought into line with the latest scholarly findings; his oftentimes troubled romantic life with George Sand, with whom he lived for nine years; and his untimely death at age thirty-nine, which inspired three thousand people to flock to the Madeleine Church in Paris for his funeral. Thorough and engaging, and written in highly readable prose, Fryderyk Chopin wears its scholarship lightly: this is a book suited as much for the professional pianist as it is for the casual music lover. Just as he did in his definitive biography of Franz Liszt, Walker illuminated his subject with unprecedented clarity. This magisterial work brings to life one of the nineteenth century's most confounding, beloved, and legendary artists. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| LCCN | 2017046936 |
| ISBN | 9780374159061 (hardcover) |
| ISBN | 0374159068 (hardcover) |
