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Just try to imagine that picture with longer hair (MUCH longer) and unfortunately dark rings under the eyes (from insomnia, sickness etc.)...

I'd appreciate some feedback on my performance of Chopin's prelude in Db maj, Op. #28/15. I'm sure there are some good critical ears in this group.

I don't like how I played the bass note prior to the ff chords. Usually I do that much better.

link to youtube --thanks!

Hawgdriver, this has many excellent qualities. I can't say much about the sound itself, on that bass note or any others, because the sound was coming through a bit fuzzy on my computer, but other than a bit of hesitation on that note, no big deal.

The only thing that bothered me was the variation in tempo (more than rubato) in the A section; you steadied when you got to the minor section in the middle. It sounds like you're just uncertain, still getting settled into the piece, which I assume is what was happening. I wouldn't play those lone RH notes in the 8th and 7th measures from the end so slowly-- can't see any musical reason for it-- but I'm not you.

Elene

Byron Janis and the Chopin death mask

My copy of the death mask just sits there, which is fine with me. Unless it is up to some funny business in the closet when I'm not looking.

You know, a while back I had joked that since there are so many who "worship" him, we should start a Church of Chopin. Now we have a recorded miracle, so it must be time!

(We have the Church of Beethoven in Albuquerque, but it is basically a concert series-- a different matter!)

I just checked out Janis' website, and I see that he has some excellent books in his "recommended reading" list, in particular Extraordinary Knowing by Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer and The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot. I highly recommend these as well.

I didn't think much of Janis' writings about Chopin when we encountered some last spring, but I will try to keep an open mind and will read his new book.

Elene

Helloooo out there....

Another friend just sent me this:

Now they're saying Chopin had a form of epilepsy

Elene

Here's a little something I prepared earlier:
http://www.box.net/shared/bmjm7kgdym

Thank you very much for sharing 'Chopium' with us, Keyboardklutz. You've gone to a great deal of trouble and it's very interesting.

Here's an interesting essay I found while researching: www.whitwellessays.com/docs/DOC_576.doc . He seems to have extracted every bit on Chopin's health that's available. If you go to www.whitwellessays.com/ you'll see the guy's real busy!

Pity these scientists weren't subscribers to Just for those totally devoted to Chopin:

Sorry for derailing the discussion for a personal thingy — I just wanted to say I'm happy this thread is still alive It's heartwarming to see that some things don't change, even after a long pause from reading the forum.


M.

From the article Elene cited:

"As the radiologist read about the composer, he kept his eyes open for anecdotes and scenes that fit within known seizure symptoms.

He found quite a few. In a letter to Sand's daughter, for example, Chopin described why he abruptly left the room while playing his Sonata in B flat minor during a concert in 1848. "I was about to play the March," he wrote, "when suddenly, I saw emerging from the half-open case of my piano those cursed creatures that had appeared to me on a lugubrious night at the Carthusian monastery.""

There's reason to be suspicious about the legitimacy of this letter. The only record of it is in Gavoty's book about Chopin; an inquiry with his wife after his death failed to turn up an autograph, or indeed any other source. It is quite out of keeping with other reports of this concert. Absent an autograph, I suspect the letter is inauthentic.

(I wrote about this in my article on "Chopin's March" in 19th-Century Music awhile back.)

Jeff Kallberg

I've been distracted enough to miss Mozart's birthday, a date Our Friend would probably have noted.

Mati, I am happy to read any sort of thingy from you. Good to hear from you.

KK, thanks for your efforts. I am hoping that your own health is excellent at this point.

As usual, we are left in a sort of quantum uncertainty state with these questions about Chopin's health and the reasons for his symptoms. If he did have hallucinations, and that is not entirely clear, various explanations are possible, the opium use being one. It does seem that his letters, including those from near the end of his life, are lucid and sane.

I've read that there can be personality changes, including irritability and difficulty controlling one's temper, in the late stages of respiratory illnesses such as COPD. Not being able to breathe, constantly coughing, and being in pain most or all of the time seem like extremely good reasons for crankiness.

(When I had croup years ago and coughed 24 hours a day for nearly a month, I would have taken just about anything to make it stop. I'm surprised my family didn't strangle me during my brief periods of sleep, because it must have been nearly as bad for them as for me.)

Temporal lobe epilepsy, by the way, seems to be a popular explanation for people seeing things they aren't supposed to, whether those things are "really" there or not.

Elene

Hello all Chopiner's out there. I just finished writing the start of my new article about Chopin, the painter. It turns out that Chopin was a very capable sketch artist. He used to draw a sketch now and than of things he thought were interesting in his private diaries. I put some examples to picture sketches which were drawn by Chopin in my blog. Check it out if you have a second or two

http://chopin-opus.66ghz.com/chopin-the-painter/

Have a great day,
Shaul.

Very nice, thank you!
Many artists are indeed talented in many areas, and our friend was no exception...
Are there more?

Speaking of graphics - something we all might enjoy. Be sure to click on each image. They enlarge and a few are the first part of a series.

Winners - Chopin's Smile Caricature Contest 2010

I know of at least a few more, including a landscape he drew on Majorca. (I imagine in the absence of a piano he probably drew a good bit on Majorca.) There were probably more of his drawings (as well as letters and several music manuscripts,) among the family papers that were burned when Russian soldiers ransacked and gutted the Chopin family apartment in Warsaw in 1866.

I think i have two or three more, let me check it out
ok its done, you can check i added three more

Shaulhadar, thank you so much for gathering together this information and sharing it with us. It's really great to know that I am not the only one eagerly trying to gather every possible snippet of information about my lifelong passion, Chopin!

Thanks! I am going to bookmark that page now!

Frycek, interesting caricatures. Some are really gorgeous in their ingenuity.

Also two pages of Chopin posters one can purchase:
Chopin posters