"I watched, I listened, but can find no adequate description of that thrilling music. One never thought of 'execution', though that was marvellous. It seemed to come from the depths of a heart, and it struck the hearts of listeners."

[An anonymous Scottish lady, describing in 1903 her memories of Chopin’s... (more)

"I watched, I listened, but can find no adequate description of that thrilling music. One never thought of 'execution', though that was marvellous. It seemed to come from the depths of a heart, and it struck the hearts of listeners."

[An anonymous Scottish lady, describing in 1903 her memories of Chopin’s playing].

No composer has been more closely associated with a single instrument than Frédéric Chopin with the piano. Chopin's affinity with the instrument was quite unique; when he played, the piano became almost an extension of himself and as such was the vehicle for his most personal thoughts. Ferdinand Hiller, an acquaintance of Chopin, wrote: "I must describe his wonderful playing, which will remain impressed on my soul until I draw my last breath. I have said that he rarely opened his heart out, but at the piano he abandoned himself more completely than any other musician I have ever heard — with such concentration that all extraneous thoughts simply fell away."

Frédéric Chopin was born near Warsaw, Poland, on 1st March 1810, the second of four children of a French schoolmaster and a Polish farmer's daughter. From his earliest childhood Chopin's innate musical genius astounded those around him and by the end of his teens he was writing sparkling piano pieces that showed his complete mastery of the keyboard. His father wrote in a letter to him: "The mechanism of playing took you little time, and your mind rather than your fingers were busy. If others have spent whole days struggling with the keyboard you rarely spent a whole hour at it.." Contemporary accounts of both his playing and his music were ecstatic: "I have just returned from the concert given by Chopin... He plays with such certainty, so cleanly... no ambiguity, nothing false... no pretensions. His music is full of expressive feeling and song, and puts the listener into a state of subtle rapture". Another listener perceptively observed that "His gayest melodies are tinged with a certain melancholy by the power of which he draws the listener along with him."

Chopin’s fame soon spread well beyond his native Poland, and in the autumn of 1830 he began an extended journey across Europe, destined never to see his Polish homeland again. He arrived in Paris in the autumn of 1831. At this time Paris was regarded not only as the cultural capital of Europe but also as the most modern, most cosmopolitan city of the age, the Mecca for artists, musicians and intellectuals from all over the world. From the start, Chopin's charm and genius won him many friends among Paris musicians, and a chance meeting resulted in his introduction to the wealthy and influential Rothschild family; through their patronage he gained entry into the numerous private salons of fashionable Paris society, which he found an ideal environment for playing his music. As wealthy aristocratic families began to send their daughters to him for piano lessons, he could at last earn a decent living, and Paris became his home for the rest of his life.

In the autumn of 1838 Chopin began a passionate affair with the feminist and novelist Aurore Dudevant, better known as George Sand. To escape Parisian gossip the couple travelled to Majorca but the cold wet weather of the Majorcan winter proved disastrous for the already consumptive Chopin and he was lucky to escape with his life. On returning to France his health improved, and his life entered a fairly settled routine in which he taught and socialised in Paris for most of the year and spent the summers at Nohant, George Sand's country retreat in the beautiful Berry countryside. Chopin did most of his composing at Nohant, where he found tranquillity and freedom from the distractions of Paris.

In 1847 his relationship with George Sand came to an abrupt end when family quarrels involving George Sand’s two children from her previous marriage led to a rancorous split between the former lovers. Chopin never really recovered. His creativity was stifled, and his health deteriorated rapidly, taking its toll on his teaching and hence on his livelihood. Political violence on the streets of Paris forced him to seek temporary refuge abroad, still only 38 years old but with no source of income and dying of consumption. His devoted Scottish pupil, Jane Stirling, persuaded him to visit Britain, and despite an exhausting whirl of social engagements and the suffocating but well-meant attentions of Jane Stirling and her sister, he managed to give concerts in Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh — an astonishing feat for a man so close to death.

In October Chopin returned to London where he spent three weeks in rooms at St James's Place, venturing out only once to play at a concert and ball in aid of Polish refugees at the Guildhall. It was his last public appearance. He was heartily relieved to escape the choking London fog and return at last to his beloved Paris. In his last year he was supported by his devoted friends and pupils, but his health continued its inexorable deterioration. Shortly before his death his sister Louise made the long and arduous journey from Warsaw to be with her brother for his last remaining weeks. Chopin finally gave up the struggle and died on 17th October 1849. On his tombstone in the beautiful Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris is the simple and moving inscription: “To Chopin, from his friends”. Now, over 150 years later, Chopin’s friends number in millions as his incomparable music continues to reach out to and move audiences across the world.

Program notes by Jack Gibbons © 2004