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If you see the reconstructed picture of the two of them George and Chopin don't look like they occupy the same dimension - Delacroix wasn't at his best with perspective. Perhaps Delacroix himself was dissatisfied as well. I think Chopin looked fine (he might have thought it too emotionally revealing) but George didn't come off nearly so well. Perhaps Chopin was being chivalrous supporting his lady in her dislike of it. As for Chopin being hard to please, many, many people drew him from rank amateurs to the great and he was apparently courteous and patient with all of them, obligingly posing and even praising the results of some of the most unlikely in his letters.

Chardonnay - I have never come across a reliable source that shows that Chopin didn't like Delacroix' paintings although it is often repeated in biographies, which seem to feed off each other. I think it's just a myth although I'd be happy to be shown that there is some evidence one way or the other.

Thanks, pianistical: You give wonderful history lessons, which I sorely need. Poland shares something in common with France in that one can hardly keep track of all the kings and battles and such. Whenever I try to figure out what has gone on in the past, my eyes glaze over.

About Delacroix: I have often wondered how Chopin and he kept their friendship so solid throughout the years. We have read that Chopin did not care that much for Delacroix's works, but who knows for sure. I do like his portrait of Chopin because I think he tries to show not just an image of the man but all the emotion and inner conflicts that were so often deeply hidden and only came to the surface through his music. Compared to the renderings by other artists (which are so flat and boring), Delacroix's is alive and teaming with respect, love and perhaps some understanding of what made Chopin, Chopin.

Now here's a way-out fantasy question for you. If you suddenly found yourself in Chopin's studio as one of his students, which composition of his would you ask the master to play? We all know about his gentle touch and also his ability to play those raging chords with little effort.

I confess I would have a difficult time choosing one. But I think it would be that mighty giant...48.1. This piece has its delicate and lovely moments but also moments of wonderous and exceptional grandeur. The fact that it is my favorite has something to do with my choice, but not everything. I would just love to hear his "interpretation." I believe it might be somewhat different from what we hear played today.

So...what say you all?

Fondly,
Kathleen

Kathleen, I think that's very insightful and explains why the Delacroix portrait is perhaps the most popular and most well-recognized one of Chopin.
Oh dang, how could one choose? Any of the mazurkas would do, but I'd choose a longer piece to get the most bang for my buck!

For me, then, I'd select any of the following: the Polonaise-Fantaisie, Ballade #3 or #4, the Allegro de Concert or the Barcarolle.

Steven

Great question, Kathleen! It would be hard to pick just one but I think I'd choose the Fantaisie in f minor.

It's got everything-- gorgeous lyricism, stormy drama. wow.

If I could have a second it would be the 2nd Sonata.

Sophia

For me - the Sonata Funèbre.

According to my friend from Warsaw, there is still friction between Warsaw and Krakow, but I don't know much about that. Yes, thanks for the history lesson!

About the Delacroix painting, one thing I find interesting is that the washy, loose portrayal of Mme Sand makes her appear to be surrounded both by smoke and by music. It's as if the music itself has been painted in. She seems to be enraptured and enveloped by the music.

What would I like Chopin to play if I time-traveled into his studio? I suppose whatever he felt like playing at the time, since that is what would express his inner being at that moment and what would come out best.

Elene

I would like to hear him improvise. (I would also love to hear how he played Bach if this were a prolonged visit. )

Elene: I agree that Delacroix's Sand does look different; almost like he didn't quite finish it, which I think I read somewhere. She looks quite demur and reticent, which we all know is quite far from the truth. I don't think Delacroix knew or understood her quite as well as he did Chopin and thus probably had a less instinctive ability to put her to his brush. I do know that he was incensed when she read her Lucrezia Floriani to both Delacroix and Chopin.

I have often wondered just what kind of reaction Sand hoped from Chopin. And why she chose to read it to him, especially in the company of his best friend. I believe that she not only wanted to humiliate him but also she wanted and expected Chopin to react as she imagined he would. That he would fly into some kind of childish rage and storm out of her house and her life forever. That she didn't know him as well as she thought she did is quite evident. That he chose to ignore the obvious cruelty she penned tells me much of his character. And it also speaks volumes of hers.

This is interesting: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpa...8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2

Thank you for your replies as to which composition you would have liked Chopin to play. To hear him improvise would have been exciting.

MaryRose: I thought I was in the minority of those who liked his Sonata Funèbre. Rather than concentrating on the death dirge, I love the middle section, which seems to be (to me) a ray of sunshine and hope.

Kathleen

Kathleen - the best bit of the link you provided was this:

Rubinstein asserted Chopin's personality was 'one in which passion was combined with lucidity, temperament with discretion, and forcefulness with self-control.'

What a lovely quote.

As for Delacroix' painting - I think it is entirely unfinished. I've seen it in reality and it looks as though he gave up halfway through. The colour has't been completed (Chopin is mainly yellow/brown) and it looks very sketchy.

When choosing what I would like to hear Chopin himself play I wanted to choose something with a lot of variety, that went on for quite some time! I was being greedy. But having now read Frycek's response, I so agree that to have heard him improvise would have been best of all.

Kathleen: I have been thinking and writing a great deal about Lucrezia, and hashing the matter out with our MR, but I have made little headway in understanding it, I'm afraid. But one thing I can say is that since Sand typically read her current work to family and friends in the evenings, it would have looked exceedingly odd to everyone if she had not read that book. It would have looked like she had something to hide.

I could not make myself read Eisler's biography because of what I perceived as its relentless, depressing negativity. Not to mention her description of Chopin's eyes as "rabbity," etc. Perhaps I need to get past that.

Elene

I haven't read it, but what does that even mean? In my experience, it's not an adjective that anyone would choose and expect it to be understood.

Rabbits are sweet, gentle and intelligent. I have a sense that she meant to imply something else, which gives me a negative feeling toward her (and her editor).

Steven

p.s. Improvisation would be a great request, but only if I had a means of recording it! I've often said that I need the immersion of repeated listenings to appreciate something to the fullest, and that's as true for our Chopin's music as for anyone else's.

In our tardis we will of course have state of the art recording equipment so sophisticated that Our Friend will never suspect he's being "captured."

I wonder what Chopin would have thought about the experience of recording his own playing (or being recorded), if he could have. Would he have liked the process? Was he meant to be a live performer or a recording/studio artist?

I think Chopn would have expired from terminal Red Dot fever if he'd been forced to record. He was an utter perfectionist. One of the wonderful things about a live performance is when it's over, it's over. Recordings can always be better. He'd have driven himself (and everyone else involved) crazy. He was meant for the intimacy of the salon, or even better, his own studio.

What might save him as a recording artist is the fact that one can go back and fix things with modern techniques... but he would need a strong-minded recording engineer and/or producer who would be willing to drag him bodily out of the studio if necessary!

So Steven's idea of recording him surreptitiously would be best.

Somebody please get to work on inventing that time machine!

Elene

Moravec has my favorite interpretation of the Ballade No. 1:
Ivan Moravec performs Chopin\'s Ballade No. 1 in g minor

Welcome: DDS24P&FOP87

Thank you for Moravec's interpretation, and I agree that it is heaven to the ears. We're happy that you've joined in, and please post often.

Chopin fighting the "red dot" fever? I don't think he would for the same reason most of us do...fear of making a mistake. He wouldn't give a thought to that, IMO. However, as Frycek mentioned, he would not be happy with the recording because he would love to change a bar here or there or perhaps a whole section. BUT if he did record, I would imagine (and this is a fantasy) that his albums would break every single record out there. I can just picture him at the Grammy Awards, waiting in the audience, sitting next to some hip-hop guys or country-western people. Yikes, that would be a sight. But, I doubt that he would be interested in the award itself; perhaps just the money that the sales brought in.

I received my copy of Pianist yesterday. I'd like to share some of the articles with you.

First of all, someone in Kent thought that the writer (from the U.S.) in the previous issue, who really bashed Zimerman, was totally unfair. This writer thought that Zimerman had a right to his opinions about the United States and both its foreign and domestic policies. Yes, of course, this is certainly true, but I wonder what this writer would have thought about Zimerman if he had said the same thing about England. Also mentioned---that Zimerman chose to live in Switzerland and not Poland (his native land) would have nothing to do with how the Poles respected or felt about him. That they would still be very proud of him. Well, how in the heck does this writer know what the Poles feel? Did she interview each and every one of them? I agree that he is an extremely marvelous and talented pianist, but there are so many who are just as talented and who don't hate the U.S. I recently read that he had cancelled all his tours of the U.S. I imagine there were a lot of disappointed people out there, and perhaps if they knew the reason, it just might change their opinion of him.

What Mr. Zimerman doesn't seem to understand is that the citizens of the U.S. (many of whom would love to attend one of his concerts) ARE NOT the ones who make policies. That responsibility rests soley with the politicans. If ever there was a group of people who are more arrogant and insensitive to the needs of this country, it is they. We vote, hoping and believing that things will change, but they never do. The only things that change are the names and faces. I am so SICK AND TIRED of taking the blame for things over which I have no control or say. We do not live in a democracy, as so many think...but in a republic. And there's a really big difference between the two. I have to get off my soapbox or else I'll be writing for two days.

Now on to the more pleasant items in the magazine. MaryRose...Angela Lear wrote a very interesting and wonderful article in response to someone who was wondering why her edition of Chopin's F minor waltz was different from the one published in the last issue. Ms. Lear went on (in length) to explain that much of the music by Chopin that we play today was not written by him. Fontana completely disregarded Chopin's wishes about not publishing his half-completed or mere sketches of music. Chopin also begged many, for whom he wrote dedicated pieces, not to make them public. What I found so surprising was that only eight of his waltzes were published during his lifetime. This means the rest and so many more were tampered with by not only Fontana, but by publishers and editors who wanted to make a buck. I got very depressed reading this because now I will always wonder if I am playing Chopin or someone else.

Just another item: In the Q & A section, a person wrote to Tim Stein, who is a well-respected teacher and very qualified to answer questions concerning music and the piano. The question was something like this. I often like to play for some of my friends. What rather short (so to be memorized) but impressive pieces would you recommend? Mr. Stein mentioned a couple of Burgmueller's studies. But then he said that playing anything by Chopin "should hopefully raise more than a few eyebrows and have the audience eating out of the palm of your hands." He recommended the preludes...the one in E minor, then perhaps the lovely and so well-known A major. He suggested coupling the A major with the C minor for a "really dramatic" ending.

I need to take this man's advice. I can play all three, but I need to polish them up a bit and commit them to memory (ugh!!).

That's it for me for now. Sorry this is so long.

My best,
Kathleen

Hi Kathleen - it's a coincidence that you mention the C minor Prelude as I have been feeling depressed about that one lately. There are one or two chords I just can't reach properly which puts me off playing the whole thing. That's a shame as it is one of my favourites. Can you reach them all?

Hi MaryRose:

Yes, I can play it, and yes, it was certainly a stretch for me when I learned it years ago. Are you using the one-finger for two notes trick?

For instance: Thye 3rd RH chord in measure 2, I use my thumb to lay across the Db and the Eb. The same holds true for the 3rd chord in the 8th measure, thumb on F and G.

I can only reach a 9th somewhat comfortably, if they are all white keys. After that...no way.

Good luck with this one. It is quite elegant albeit somewhat somber. But how I love when it changes moods, starting in the 5th measure. It almost breaks your heart with its loveliness.

My best,
Kathleen