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chopin r us, did you mean the version of the Fantaisie-Impromptu/Posthumous Impromptu in C# minor/whatever that was what Chopin apparently decided on as his official version and sold to the Baroness, or the actual autograph? If the former, I've got it in an Alfred publication, "Chopin: Music Inspired by Women in His Life." A questionable concept for a collection, I'd say, but it's a useful book because it has alternative versions of a number of pieces.

Elene

I am listening to the radio program right now.

I am already crying after just 2 minutes...

I saw it's in the Chopin Museum Jeff - I thought someone may have a copy. Elaine - I've ordered Chopin: Music Inspired by Women in His Life - what the heck?

Gee, that radio program was way back last week. It was better than I expected based on previous experience. Still not sure how people read Chopin's letters and get the impression of him being an unpleasant person, which was what one of the people on the program said. (We've discussed that issue here at length.)

I was interested in the suggestion that Chopin's art helped to keep him alive. The question of whether chronic disease in itself makes one creative, though, seems stupid to me. Any of us who have long-term pain or illness to deal with knows that it saps time and energy, leaving fewer resources for one's art or other activities.


Yesterday (Easter) a friend referred to hard-boiled eggs colored and flavored by pickled beet juice, which she remembered from her old home in Pennsylvania. I was reminded of the purple, also beet-dyed fried egg I had at La Chatre, near Nohant, as part of a plate of local specialties. I wondered at the time if Chopin had liked them. Being that they were purple, I suppose he would have been in favor of them.

Elene

In case you'd like to weigh in:

Would you like to live in the times of classic composers?

Elene

Looks like I and several other PW members will be saying hello to Chopin and Warsaw this September!

Contestants in amateur Chopin competition

Will be contest be broadcast online live?

Lots of people are wondering. I think all we can say is maybe. They did it for the professional Chopin competition in 2010 for (I think) the first time, and hopefully they'll do it for this too.

Wow, I'm so proud to know you guys! I certainly do hope that the competition will be broadcast. One way or another, our thoughts will be with the contestants.

I'm not sure what's going to happen to my own keyboard life in the near future. The universe has seen fit to give me a small harpsichord on a long-term loan! It's more like a virginal than a Bach-era instrument, which is fine for most of what I want to do with it. I had only been hoping to get my hands on a harpsichord for a short time, in order to answer some questions about how to handle Baroque music on the piano, but now this thing is living right next to my piano, and will be for some months at least. Playing it has already changed my piano reflexes. I think eventually I'll just be able to switch back and forth without major issues, but that may take a while.

I'm told that one of our local harpsichordists once said, "I don't play Chopin on the harpsichord, so why should you play Bach on the piano?" But wait a minute, Chopin played Bach on the piano! And pianos existed in Bach's time.

Elene

Nice line, but baloney of course.

That's great news Mr. MOCHOROWSKI!!!?!??! That's quite interesting Mark! Nice to know a tiny bit more about you!

Best of luck with the contest and I do hope to see you live (BTW, Poland is not far from Greece... Why not come over for a few days? as a hard earned vacation?)

Hey Nikolas, welcome to the thread!

Yes, that's me -- and it would be great if you could come.

Dr. Kallberg paid a great visit to this thread on Pianist Corner, about the late Mazurka in F minor, Op. 68 #4.

I'm sorry to say that although I'd heard Rubinstein's recording of 68/4 numerous times, I'd never paid enough attention to that piece to realize that it had an extra section compared to the editions I had! Now I have the National Edition, so I have the version Rubinstein played. Which has been around since I was 5. Sheesh.

Spending time with "my" harpsichord has got me wondering again whether Chopin ever played Scarlatti, and if so, what he thought of his work. To the best of my knowledge, we have no written record of Chopin giving any opinions about that. There is only a reference in the fake Delfina letters, as far as I know. I have no direct information on this myself, either. Jeff, or anyone?

Elene

Fairly OT, though there is a link to "Fryderyk Chopin's Poland":
Poland bans Monsanto GMO corn

More intelligence there than in the US at the moment. Go Poland.

Elene

This week's 'Building a Library' slot on BBC Radio 3 featured Chopin's Mazurkas. For those that don't know it, 'Building a Library' is a weekly feature on Radio 3's 'CD Review' programme in which one of their regular panel of critics, musicians and academics gives a personal survey of the available recordings of a particular work, and recommendations for your library. The great thing about it is that it is available as a podcast, and that the podcasts stay up on the website indefinitely.

This week the quirky but wonderful David Owen Norris surveyed recordings of the Mazurkas. Here's the link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/bal

Thank you very much - I'd missed that.

Yeh, thanks.

A couple of days ago I took a Duncan dance class, that is, based on the work of Isadora Duncan, one of the inventors of modern dance. Most of the music was Chopin, with a little Schubert, Schumann and Mozart thrown in. Isadora particularly used the mazurkas, I'm told, though not with actual mazurka steps. We danced to a mazurka or two and a couple of waltzes, plus 25/1, something it might not have occurred to me to choreograph. The teacher provided filmy tunics to go over our tank tops, so that we looked rather like a collection of animated Greek statues, though perhaps less well-proportioned.

It was SO hard to stand still and listen to what we were supposed to do next while mazurkas and waltzes were playing!

Elene