Fryderyk Chopin Photo: Maria Wodzińska, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
What lies at the heart of Chopin’s music?
It would be a mistake to over-politicise the 19th century Polish pianist-composer but there’s certainly a compelling historical backdrop. As a young man, he’d barely left Poland when his countrymen rose up against Russian domination. The subsequent crushing from imperial forces threw Chopin into deep anguish. His ‘Revolutionary’ Etude is the most famous response, but the pain, pride and longing of this Polish exile can be found in every corner of his music.
Margaret Ogilvie gets up close and personal in this introduction to Chopin’s life and works, which include at least 69 mazurkas Schumann called “cannons hidden beneath flowers.”
Music Details:
CHOPIN: Nocturne Op 15/3 - Artur Rubinstein (pno) (RCA 5613-2-RC)
CHOPIN: Etude in Gb Op 10/5 - Maurizio Pollini (pno) (Philips 456 940)
CHOPIN: Mazurka in C Op 24/2 - Artur Rubinstein (pno) (RCA RD 85171)
CHOPIN: Heroic Polonaise - Julius Katchen (pno) (Decca 475 7221)
MOZART: Mozart_Sonata in C, mvt2 - Mitsuko Uchida (pno) (Philips 422 117)
CHOPIN: Piano Conc No 1, mvt2 - Maurizio Pollini (pno) (Philips 456 940)
CHOPIN: Etude in F minor Op 10/9 - Maurizio Pollini (pno) (Philips 456 940)
CHOPIN: Ballade No 1 in G minor - Evgeny Kissin (pno) (RCA 09026 63259)
CHOPIN: Prelude in E minor Op28/4 - Michael Houstoun (pno) (RNZ)
CHOPIN: Presto from Sonata in Bb minor - Edna Stern (pno) (Naïve AM 197)
CHOPIN: Waltz in Ab Op 69/1 - Viktoria Postnikova (pno) (Erato 4509 94692)
