Chopin: Fantasia On Polish Airs / Andante Spianato / Krakowiak

Idil Biret

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Cat No: 8554541

Release Date: 01 January 2000

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 636943454121

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: CHOPIN

Description
Fryderyk Chopin(1810-1849)Complete Piano MusicVol. 15 Fantasia on PolishAirsAndante spianato andGrande PolonaiseVariations on 'La cidarem la mano' from Mozart's Don Giovanni KrakowiakChopin throughout his life remained a Polish patriot. Paradoxically hewas the son of a French father, who had settled in Poland to avoid conscriptioninto the French army and had become a respected teacher of French in Warsaw. Toadd to the paradox, Chopin spent almost his entire professional career inParis, where he moved in 1831, quickly winning acceptance as a fashionablepiano-teacher and as a performer in the elegant salons of the French capital.As a pianist Chopin lacked power but commanded a delicate and variedidiom and technique of his own. The greater part of the music he wrote is forsolo piano, but at the outset of what seemed likely to be a career as avirtuoso he wrote works for piano and orchestra, the kind of music that anyperformer-composer might have as part of his stock-in-trade.The Fantasia on Polish Airs Opus 13, was written in 1828 andpublished in Paris in 1834, with a dedication to the Mannheim virtuoso pianistJohann Peter Pixis. It came at a time when Chopin, still a pupil of JozefElsner at the Warsaw Conservatory, was beginning to experiment more widely withforms beyond those of any prescribed syllabus and was first performed in Warsawon 17th March, 1830, at a National Theatre concert that included the F minorPiano Concerto. The Fantasia opens with an orchestralintroduction, before the entry of the piano with figuration that bears theunmistakable mark of Chopin's own musical language, to which the orchestra haslittle to add. The first theme, the air Juz Miesiac Zaszedi, isannounced by the soloist and repeated by the orchestra, with elaborate pianoembellishment, testimony to Chopin's own technical proficiency on theinstrument. The second theme chosen is by Karol Kurpinski, principal conductorat the Warsaw Opera and conductor of Chopin's first public concerts, and isthoroughly Polish in form and inspiration. The theme is introduced by theclarinet, leading to a dramaticintervention from the soloist, and a slower, gently lyrical version of thetheme, which is later taken up by the orchestra once more, with bravuraembellishment from the piano. It is the latter that ushers in the final Kujawiak,a theme typical of the Kujawy region, to the north-west of Warsaw, and onceagain a framework for characteristic solo display.The more familiar Andantespianato and Grande Polonaise is a composite work. The Polonaise itselfwas completed in 1831 and the introductory Andante spianato in 1834.Both were published together in Paris in 1836. Chopin wrote the Polonasie duringhis unsatisfactory stay in Vienna in the winter of 1830-183 land it representshis last attempt at writing for the orchestra. In Paris he performed thecomplete work on 26th April, 1835, at a benefit concert at the Conservatoirefor the conductor Habeneck. The introductory G major Andante, for pianosolo, i
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