Posted on 02/28/2010 3:32:32 PM PST by Borges
Burdened by ruinous health his entire life, Frederic Chopin often appeared like an apparition. But it is his music that is ghostlike. Two hundred years after his birth in 1810, more pianists and listeners than ever are chasing those ghosts, and loving every moment of it.
"Chopin's music came out of nowhere," says pianist Byron Janis, born in McKeesport and one of the world's authorities on the great Polish composer. "There is nothing that preceded it. He was truly unique. With Beethoven, you can hear it came out of Mozart. Not with Chopin."
Pauline Rovkah, head of the piano program at Chatham University, said Chopin's music possesses a seductive quality. "It's magical, irresistible -- it can transport listeners to another world."
"There is no doubt Chopin is more popular than ever," says Ian Hobson, who will give an all-Chopin recital this weekend presented by the Steinway Society of Western Pennsylvania.
Society board president Michael Cerveris went even further. "I doubt that any composer other than Chopin would likely carry an entire program, even if it weren't a celebratory year," he says. "Artists know that programming at least one Chopin work will please just about everyone in the house."
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Classical Music Ping
I have a Bachelors in Musical Studies and have studied the composers. Chopin was always my favorite, especially his Preludes.
MY students LOVE Chopin, but his music is very difficult to read.
So they ask ME to rearrange and simplify it for them. LOL.
Yeah, RIGHT.
Rearrange Chopin.
Right after I Rewrite the US Constitution! LOL
No bigger piece of BS has ever been written. Yes...Beethoven's first symphony is clearly Mozartian (and, IMO, better than anything Wolfie ever did), and several other of his early works. But to position Chopin as more innovative than The Big Bee is ridiculous. And, for the record, I love Chopin's ballades BIG time (and, to a lesser extent, his nocturnes, etudes, scherzos, etc.).
What a tragedy it was that he only lived to 39.
“What a tragedy it was that he only lived to 39.”
Chopin’s early works are his best (my favorite is the Nocturne opus 9 number 2), so it was much less of a tragedy than Mozart, whose late works were his best, dying at 35.
How do you figure? His nocturnes got much more advanced than the famous early one you mentioned. The high points of hic music were late works like the Barcarolle, the Polonaise Fantasie, the third piano sonata, the fourth ballade and the last three nocturnes.
But seriously, Mozart was fluff compared to Luigi...Amadeus used "too many notes..." HAHA! Bach and Beethoven ALWAYS had just the right amount...
Well, we agree: Ballade # 4 is BEYOND brilliant...
Bach and Mozart were the twin high points of Western Music. Beethoven wrote his share of bad music and a lot of his great music has blemishes and he couldn’t write for the voice very well. Do you think Haydn is fluff as well? If so then you just dislike that period (High Classical 1750-1800).
Yes I saw that too but B & M shared some cadences.
Chopin was truly unique but then so was Tchaikovsky.
I always tell people that there are only two types of music: good music and bad music, and I be the arbiter!
And then there’s rap......puke!
Chopin E Minor piano concerto — my favorite.
And piano layout derived from C.M. Von Weber, Hummel and John Field.
Well I’ll be!! not one decomposing joke.
The Opus 61 is a tough piece fo quantify. It feels like Liszt on the fingers, and it occupies a sonic world different from most of Chopin.
Technically, it's not that tough. The biggest challenge is holding the piece together because it is so episodic. When the opening A-flat theme returns at the end, you want the audience to say, "Oh, I know that theme!" But it's difficult.
I found the toughest part to be the B Major section in the middle where Chopin gets your fingers crossed up and tangled together, and it's difficult to articulate a clean musical line.
He was never easy to play.
Where is this picture taken? Just curious.
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