Chopin: Piano Favourites, Vol. 2

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Cat No: 8555799

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Release Date: 01 January 2004

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 747313579921

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: CHOPIN

Description
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)Piano Favourites, Vol. 2Fryderyk Chopin was born in 1810, the son of a French fatherand a Polish mother. He spent his early life largely in Warsaw, where he hadhis musical training at the Warsaw Conservatory and gave his first successfulconcerts. He left Poland in 1830 to seek the kind of opportunities that his ownnative country could not then offer. He spent a winter in Vienna, where he hadearlier won brief success on the occasion of another visit, but now that he wasin earnest pursuit of a career, he achieved nothing. He then moved to Pariswhere he would live for the rest of his life. In Paris, Chopin established himself as a pianist, generallyperforming to private audiences in the elegant salons of the capital, ratherthan competing with more ostentatious performers such as Liszt, Thalberg orKalkbrenner. Instead he found a more congenial position for himself as ateacher with a socially distinguished client?¿le.Through Liszt, at whose way of life he had previously lookedaskance, Chopin met the blue-stocking writer George Sand (Aurore Dudevant),recently separated from her husband. The two became lovers and in the winter of1838-39 travelled together to Mallorca, where the climate had a deleteriouseffect on his health, with signs of tuberculosis that were alarming not only tothe couple but also to the local people, who had already nurtured suspicions ofthe strange couple, accompanied, as they were, by George Sand's two children.In France again he returned to his life in Paris, generally spending the summermonths at George Sand's country-house at Nohant. The complications ofinvolvement with George Sand's now adult children led to their separation in1846. During the political disturbances of 1848, when normal life wasimpossible in Paris, Chopin accepted an invitation to Britain, but the climategreatly affected his weakened health. He returned to Paris, where he died in1849.Chopin's compositions were mainly for the piano. He was ableto use the instrument to convey subtle tone-colours, creating new forms to suithis genius. His two Piano Concertos were written before he left Warsaw and wereintended as material for his career as a virtuoso performer. Much of his laterwork, however, was for solo piano, composed in forms that he adopted anddeveloped, such as the Nocturne, the Waltz, the Polish Mazurka, and thePolonaise.The waltz, a German country dance in origin, had, by the endof the eighteenth century, won considerable popularity in the ball-room, inspite of the warnings of doctors and moralists. With Lanner and the Straussfamily in Vienna it became even more fashionable, making its way into opera andinto ballet. With composers like Chopin it found a further home in the salon,and later, with Mahler and others, in the concert hall. Chopin had first turnedto the form in Warsaw in 1827, having already adapted Polish dances for his ownartistic purposes. The present collection includes two examples, the Waltz in Eminor [1], with its
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