Frédéric Chopin

A poet of the piano, a virtuoso musician and a visionary Romantic composer, Frédéric Chopin lived and composed, with few exceptions, only for an instrument that was never the same after him. Fryderyk Francsizek Chopin was born in Żelazowa Wola, some 50 kilometers from Warsaw, on March 1, 1810. The son of a French-born teacher, Nicolas Chopin, married to a Polish woman, Justyna Krzyżanowska, the boy grew up with his three sisters in a Poland divided between Prussia, the Russian Empire and Austria, with the Duchy of Warsaw under Russian rule. After his birth, the family moved to Warsaw, where his father opened a boarding school and bought a piano. Precocious from his very first lessons with his mother, the young Chopin's musical education was entrusted to Wojciech Żywny, who introduced him to Bach and Mozart, while at home he played popular melodies from local folklore, which were to exert just as great an influence on his compositions. After his first concert at the age of eight, the pianist prodigy, compared to Mozart, was introduced to the salons of the nobility, and his reputation spread throughout the city. In 1822, he learned the organ from Václav Würfel, who taught him the stile brillante, while during his summer vacations in the Mazovian countryside, he took note of the folk songs and dances played at village festivals. In 1826, Chopin entered the Warsaw High School of Music, which would later bear his name. Author of a Rondo op. 1 and Variations that dazzled Schumann ("Chapeau bas messieurs, un génie!"), he composed a Rondo à la mazur and his first Sonata in C minor (1828). In 1827, one of his younger sisters, Emilia, died at the age of fourteen of tuberculosis, a disease he may have contracted and which caused him much suffering. At the same time, he fell in love with a student singer, Constance Gładkowska, and gave several public performances, unveiling the Rondeau à la Krakowiak and his two Piano Concertos in March and October 1830, at Warsaw's National Theater. He made his first trip to Berlin, then to Vienna, where he was acclaimed. On November 2, 1830, he left his homeland before the uprising against Russian rule. Passing through Vienna and Stuttgart, he composed the Études op. 10, which he dedicated to Liszt, including n° 12 "Révolutionnaire", named after the Polish capitulation. Arriving in Paris on October 5, 1831, his introduction to the musical world was facilitated by Polish nobles living in the capital. He met Rossini, Cherubini, Liszt, Berlioz, Pleyel and cellist Franchomme, for whom he wrote pieces. He gave piano lessons and built up an audience of female admirers in the salons. In eighteen years of Parisian life, he gave only nineteen public concerts, of which only four were as a soloist. Nevertheless, one composition after another followed: melancholy Nocturnes opp. 9 and 15, nostalgic Mazurkas opp. 17 and 24, virtuoso Polonaises op. 26, Grande Valse brillante op. 18, Ballade n° 1 op. 23 and Andante spaniato and Grande Polonaise brillante op. 22, all met with immediate success before entering the repertoire of the greatest pianists. The publication of seven books of compositions between 1832 and 1835 contributed to his fame throughout Europe, and his pieces were already being performed by Liszt, Kalkbrenner, Hiller, Clara Wieck and other virtuosos. On a trip to Carlsbad, he reunites with his parents, whom he sees for the last time. Invited by Countess Wodzinska, he fell in love with her daughter Maria, to whom he dedicated Waltz no. 1 op. 69, known as the "Farewell Waltz", published posthumously with Waltz no. 2, but their engagement was not to be followed up. In Leipzig, he met Felix Mendelssohn, but on his return to Paris in 1835, Chopin fell ill. Nevertheless, he continued to compose: Mazurkas opp. 33 and 67, new Nocturnes opp. 27 and 32, the three Waltzes of op. 34. In April 1836, at the Salle Érard, Franz Liszt played his twelve Études op. 25, dedicated to his mistress, Countess Marie d'Agoult. At a reception for the latter in November, Chopin met George Sand for the first time. Their affair began a little later, intimate for the first few months, then platonic for the next eight years. In the winter of 1838, at the very beginning of their relationship, they left for Mallorca, but the rainy weather took its toll on the musician's fragile health, and he spent his time in the Carthusian monastery of Valldemossa, composing, on a piano sent by Pleyel, the masterpiece that is the twenty-four Preludes op. 28, including the famous nos. 4, 15, 20 and 24. Back in Paris, Chopin continued in 1839 with Ballade no. 2, Scherzo no. 2, two Nocturnes op. 37, two Polonaises op. 40, four Mazurkas op. 41, Scherzo no. 3 and Sonata no. 2, with its famous Marche funèbre. Every year until 1846, Chopin, Sand and her two children spent their summers at the Nohant estate, where they entertained their relatives. Here he composed the Polonaise héroïque op. 53 and the Ballade n° 4 in 1842, the Berceuse op. 57 and the Sonate n° 3 in 1844, and the Barcarolle op. 60 in 1846. During the other seasons in Paris, Chopin continued to perform, mostly privately, accompanying Pauline Viardot. He became close friends with Eugène Delacroix, who had painted his portrait a few years earlier. After the loss in 1842 of his friend Jan Matuszynski, also exiled in Paris, the composer fell into a depression that worsened with the loss of his father two years later, and the separation from George Sand in August 1847, following a family quarrel. He had composed the Polonaise-Fantaisie op. 61 the previous year, but his piano works dried up. The final years saw the birth of the Sonate pour violoncelle et piano op. 65, two Nocturnes op. 62, then in 1847, the three Valses op. 64, including no. 1 known as the "Valse minute", three Mazurkas op. 63, seventeen Chants polonais op. 74, a final Valse in A minor in 1848, and in 1849, a final Mazurka no. 4 from op. 68. On February 18, 1848, he gave a final concert at Pleyel, before leaving to play for seven months in England and Scotland. Returning to Paris on November 24, his health continued to decline until the very last day. Transported to 12, place Vendôme, he died on October 17, 1849, aged just 39. Buried in the Père-Lachaise cemetery, his heart was placed in a cenotaph embedded in one of the pillars of Warsaw's Holy Cross Church. At the head of an innovative oeuvre that heralded Rachmaninov, Debussy and Ravel, Chopin was, along with Liszt, the father of the modern piano, whose dazzling technique matched the demands of his compositions. A master of rubato, he combined a highly expressive, nuanced language with the freedom to reinvent piano forms.

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