Can you imagine having the chance to invest in such a thing? This manuscript was even sort of affordable! The only trouble is that I would never sell it so I'd never realize any appreciation.

I notice that on the Christie's page, the French translation of Chopin's description of Marquis, in a letter to his family, refers to his coat as "blond" rather than "blanc." I'll have to look on the site that has all his letters in the original languages and see what he wrote originally.

At least it's nice to know that as bad as 1846 must have been at Nohant, there were still some bright spots for Marquis' friend.

Elene

Dear Mark,

I don't think anything concrete is known about the origins of the piece, so all we can do is speculate.

Jeff Kallberg

BTW I can't remember if there were any pup puppets among the ones left at Nohant. I still have a postcard that shows some of them.

Elene

My daughter and I have our plane tickets for October, and we're booked at hotels in Warsaw and Paris (Hotel Chopin in Paris, where else). Now we just have to figure out everything in between.

Elene

Lucky you!

Very lucky you!

Is Warsaw the only place you will be in Poland? You won't travel around Poland? at least to Zelazowa Wola?

Wish I could go too.

Not sure if this has posted but here's a recording I found on the net of Chopin's Nocturne 9/2 with added cadenza's:

http://www.chopinproject.com/2009/06/02/nocturne-in-e-flat-op-9-no-2-wadditional-cadenzas/

I like, especially the descending chromatic sixth's. (or thirds? someone correct me if I'm wrong)

It would be fun exercise to add your own cadenzas to classics like these, and apparently this one was suggestion penciled in by Chopin on one of his pupil's scores.

There's a Brazilian pianist, Ricardo Castro, who has also recorded 9/2 this way. I'm not sure, without going all through both, whether they're exactly the same. I like the idea of improvising on these pieces, which I am not really able to do, in addition to trying variations Chopin himself suggested. I think adding one's own creative thoughts is very much in the spirit of Chopin's work. It's just that so few of us have ideas that are as good... I sure don't....

LA, we will no doubt go to Zelazowa Wola. We plan to go to Krakow and Prague, then to Paris. The question now is, since we have to go across Germany, where we should stop in that country.

Elene

I'm going to see Valentina Lisista's first Chopin recital in Montreal on Monday, which is part of the Féstival de Lanaudière. She is to perform the Op. 73 Rondo in C major for two pianos with her husband, all of the Op. 10 and 25 études, Ballade Op. 38 no. 2 in F major, Fantasie Op. 49 in f minor, Scherzo Op. 54 no. 4 in E major and the Variations on "La cì darem la mano" Op. 2. I am bringing my copy of the Op. 10 and 25 études with me to follow along and, hopefully, to obtain an autograph.

Some of you know this place.

I did that with this piece.

I had gotten a little tired of the piece 'as is' so I started fooling around with it. And then I played it as an encore at a recital, making a little joke out of it.

I brought an empty Perrier bottle with a music score inside, signed by "Fred" (I showed it to the audience). I said it had washed up on the shore of the Hudson River that morning and I would now play the premiere of this newly-discovered version.

People liked the cadenzas but I think they liked the joke more.

Mark, was that 9/2 you "fooled around with" too?

(He was Fryc, not Fred, of course....)

LA, is that the room where they did that week-long broadcast in February-March?

Elene

That's the room in the Polish embassy in DC where they had a rather lackluster catered Chinese buffet after the performance of Monsieur Chopin that Kathleen and I were lucky enough to attend. The performance (and Paderewski's sad old piano) were in an adjoining room.

I'll be darned. How did you end up playing in the Polish embassy, LA?

I haven't been there, but as I mentioned before, I did run into the members of the Polish Chamber of Commerce at the Biblioteka Polska in Paris. They were having some kind of reception when my husband and I visited.

(I hope they are better than the US Chamber of Commerce, which is becoming more and more of a loony fringe group, climate-change deniers and so forth. But that's a whole other subject.)

A Chinese buffet-- interesting. Perhaps the favorite of someone in charge, or the caterer was someone's friend or relative, or everyone was sick of pierogi?

And I wonder if the Paderewski piano was the one (a small upright) that has toured with the famous Steinways (Horowitz's and Cliburn's). If so, I've played it.

Funny how we get these various vague connections.

Elene

-Frycek - that's the place, but we had western-food buffet this time. The Paderewski's piano must have had some work done on recently; I think all the hammers are new. It's a pretty nice piano to play on. I really enjoyed the touch and tone.

The piano is a present to the Polish Embassy by then the Prime Minister of Poland Ignaz Paderewski. I believe the piano has always been in this one place.

Yes, how did you end up there????? We want ALL the details.

I'm very glad the piano has been worked on. When I got to try it after Monsieur Chopin the action was very wobbly and sluggish.

Ah, but I did call my piano Fred in honour of Fryc...

We were wondering on Pianist Corner if any of y'all know about this!

(about Chopin's voice)

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2010/08/09/100809crmu_music_ross?currentPage=1

Someone alerted me to this NY Times article about new recordings of Chopin, Larcher, and Bach. The reviewer says some cogent stuff about how challenging it is to make a piano sound like it's singing, and says that Stephen Hough manages this particularly well in the album "Chopin: Late Masterpieces." He is much less impressed with Yundi on the Nocturnes. I haven't heard either yet so I know nothing.

Elene

Here is my just-finished recording of the song "Melodia." It will have to be OK.

http://www.box.net/shared/uod1se0agr

Elene

Ever heard of this ? I searched here, but couldn't find it mentioned. (Sorry if it has already been mentioned...)

Wonderful...

Folks, anybody seen the autograph of op 69 no 1? I'm interested in knowing if there's any pedaling. The Alfred (Willard A. Palmer) edition says it's from the manuscript - anybody got that? Or any other authoritative version that would indicate what pedalings the manuscript contains?

Wow...You are terrific. I am going to go through these links one by one.

Janet

keyboardklutz:

As is often the case with the waltzes, there are three extant manuscripts of the A-flat major Waltz (op 69 no 1 in Fontana's numbering - a numbering, btw, that recent editors seem to want to stop using). Moreover, there are 5 manuscript copies of the piece, by different people, careful study of which suggests that there must have been at least one more autograph manuscript in existence at some point. The pedaling varies from manuscript to manuscript.

Without question the best edition to see the various pedalings (as well as the very many melodic and harmonic variants) is the recent edition by Christophe Grabowski, which is a volume in The Complete Chopin, published in 2006 by Peters London (not Peters Leipzig).

Jeff Kallberg

Knew you'd come up trumps Jeff thanks, I've just put an order in for it.

Chopin's Dentist???

Cholera jasna, we have his heart and his hair and now maybe his teeth??

I did get to go through ChopinAddicts link a little bit, but there is so much more at that site, which no, I hadn't seen before. One of the items there is this blog post:
http://justlistentoit.com/2010/08/18/chopin-and-the-sins-i-had-not-committed/

which contains gems of writing such as:

"My parents brought me up with typical British reserve; wearing your heart on your sleeve or even carrying it anywhere about your person really wasn’t the done thing."

and

"If a heart does have strings, mine aren’t plucked but are attached to hammers, keys, pedals and a steel frame," which might have been exactly what Chopin would have said if he had thought of it (and if he'd been fluent in English at the time).

Elene

A friend, knowing how much I love Chopin, sent me the link to this article where David Dubal interprets the 24 Preludes. Not much interpretation, actually. But he ends with this:

"Probably more people have come to great music through Chopin than from any other composer. In my case, growing up in Cleveland, I used to listen to a radio show whose theme music entranced me at first hearing but was never identified by the host. Although the show aired much past my usual bedtime, I would occasionally sneak down the stairs, turn the radio on at low volume and drink in the strains of this music, over so quickly that I listened with all my might. It was not until somewhat later, when I was taking piano lessons, that I found out that it was No. 7, the Prelude in A Major. Not too long after that I could play it myself, which was bliss! Only later did I find out that there were 23 more Preludes that I would love equally, and in later years would come to study and teach."

"Chopin's Small Miracles"
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703447004575449732019362448.html

Hello Everyone! I have been away much too long, and I apologize. I've felt that I had nothing to contribute that could compare to what you all have been posting. Thank you so much for keeping our "hero" just where he belongs...front and center.

Last night I recorded a brief documentary of the Cliburn competition of 2009. There was a tie for first place. One of the winners of the gold was a young man from Japan, who was blind. As so many have said, he is truly a miracle. But, as magnificiently as he could play, not withstanding his lack of sight, I believe it was his interpretation of Chopin's Concerto in E m that brought him the prize. And I think he chose that concerto to prove to the world that one doesn't have to hammer away at a Rachmaninoff concerto to show true talent and genius at the piano. Even one of the judges confessed that he had to control himself not to sob openly during Nobuyuki's performance. So many in the audience (myself included by just watching) thought our hearts would break by his absolute tenderness and sensitivity, especially during the second movement.

When Gold Medalist Nobuyuki Tsujii rose from the piano having completed his final performance at the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, audience members leapt to their feet, and jurors were moved to tears by his passionate interpretation of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 11.

My screen keeps jumping up and down, so that's all for now. My best to you all,
Kathleen