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I was looking through some pictures I have relating to Chopin, and came across this drawing of his very first digs in Paris. He moved in to the flat at the top of the building in the middle of the picture - it was really a basic attic room, but not wishing to worry his parents he described it in more glowing terms than it deserved, adding "visitors envy me the view but not the stairs". Of course, at this time he was a very young man and comparatively healthy, so he could manage the four flights of stairs.


If you look carefully you can see the shop at the foot of his building was actually an ice-cream parlour. I'm sure he was happy about that as he loved ice-cream!

Nice drawing !

I do hope he consumed a lot of ice-cream - since Chopin certainly did not have to worry about his weight.

When I spent a summer in Warsaw I really appreciated the ice cream bars you could find on nearly every corner - I loved the "lody" and used to have my breakfast there

Ragnhild

Originally posted by Hershey88:
[QB] RE: Pleyel action and sound...

I have played an 1845 Pleyel which is in the US - (at AshBurnham in Mass. Ever been there? What a collection of pianos!)


I happen to be at the fall opening concert in Ashburnham today and was awed, once again, by another outstanding performance. Today's guest performer, Gail Olszewski - Minneapolis/St Paul area, selected the 1839 Erard of Paris. The second part of her performance featured works by Louise Farrenc & Clara Schumann along with a few works by the beloved Chopin;

Fantaisie-Impromptu in c# Op 66 (1835)
Nocturne in B Op 32 No 1 (1836-37)
Nocturne in b-flat, Op 9 No 1 (1830-31)

Anyone who hangs out on this forum surely knows about the "devoted to Chopin" thread. I must confess to my lack of reading time as of late but whenever I hear mention of Chopin my thoughts almost always turn to this thread; as they did today when I listened to Gail's beautiful performance on the 1839 Erard.

Gail spoke briefly about the artists work she was performing before playing and did the same prior to the three pieces she performed by Chopin. She made mention of how the Erard was in direct competition with Chopin's preferred make, the more intimate Pleyel and went on to say that he preferred the Erard when he was feeling ill and wanted a piano that would produce more effects with less effort.

I usually take my camera along so I can post pics of the guest performers and their selected piano in the Piano Concert Forum but that didn't happen today.


After performing a search for the mention of Erard in this thread and finding only one tidbit of info I thought I would make mention of today's concert and also include a picture. Needless to say, there is not one of the Erard on the Frederick website.
The 1845 Pleyel from the Frederick website;

http://www.frederickcollection.org



As mentioned in the Frederick booklet:

The 1845 Pleyel, also made in Paris, is a living-room size, rather than a concert-hall size instrument. Chopin preferred playing in a salon setting for a small gathering of people, to playing in a concert hall. Pleyel pianos his preferred French make, were known for their "veiled, silvery" tone. This particular piano, made late in Chopin's lifetime, has a larger tone than the Pleyel pianos from ten years earlier, whose intimate sound probably pleased Chopin even more than their later ones.


Hershey,I hope you enjoyed your visit to the Frederick Historic Collection. The founders, Pat and Michael Frederick are two very special people who devote a tremendous amount of time and energy into making their collection and knowledge available to the public. The concerts they host in the spring and fall are phenomenal!

Dear Terrytunes, what an interesting contribution! How did the Erard sound to you?

Hi All:

Just a short note to say that I have enjoyed the posts above and to thank you. I really haven't had much time lately to do much reading or posting, so I am appreciative of those of you who have.

And Welcome TerryTunes! Super Post!

I found this on the internet, and I thought it interesting, especially the sentence about no body swaying and scarcely any movement of the arms.

***************
A distinguished English amateur described seeing Chopin at a salon:[citation needed]

Chopin ca. 1833, by A. Weger.“ Imagine a delicate man of extreme refinement of mien and manner, sitting at the piano and playing with no sway of the body and scarcely any movement of the arms, depending entirely upon his narrow feminine hand and slender fingers. The wide arpeggios in the left hand, maintained in a continuous stream of tone by the strict legato and fine and constant use of the damper pedal, formed a harmonious substructure for a wonderfully poetic cantabile. His delicate pianissimo, the ever-changing modifications of tone and time (tempo rubato) were of indescribable effect. Even in energetic passages he scarcely ever exceeded an ordinary mezzoforte.
********************

And also a link to "How To Play Chopin." I don't know if it would be of any use to anyone as I haven't had time to read it through, but thought I would post it anyway. Maybe I should have found it about 2 years ago.

How to Play Chopin

My best to all,
Kathleen

I have just been reading a kids' book about Chopin by Mike Venezia. It has some cute illustrations, such as the following one:

That's cute, MaryRose.

But it has always bothered me a bit that he kept that ring. Maybe he was thinking ahead for some possible rainy day when he could hock it! At least this is what I tell myself. :rolleyes:

Kathleen

That's exactly what he once wrote his father he was doing.

Hurray! That's our boy!

Kathleen

Another cute picture from the Venezia book

MaryRose: I just love it! Especially the little teddy bear next to him. So cute.

I'm sorry I haven't posted much lately. Things are a bit busy (or dizzy) in my household. I have been spending my free time practicing my prelude for the concert. Some days it sounds so good, but then the next day...what happened??

My best to all,
Kathleen

I noticed yesterday that the order of sharps starts with FC and that Chopinists have probably come up (or could come up) with some neat ways to remember the sequence - better than my tacher's Father Christmas Goes Doally After Eating Bananas... :rolleyes: although I suppose it have the advantage of being fairly unforgettable.

I tried to do a Chopin one with the D being Dolce (which seemed appropriate)... but failed... I will see if I can be more imaginative in the pub later after a few glasses of lemonade...



Speaking of which...

Frederic Chopin Gets Drunk After Entertaining Baronetts ?

or

Fryderyk Chopin's Graceful Dances And Etudes Bewitch

No offense, LaValse , but I like the latter over the former. Creative thinking though. :p

Kathleen

Frederic Chopin Gracefully Delights All Earthly Beings

Frederic Chopin Greets Duchess at Embassy Ball.

Well, I have to put my thinking cap on (if I can find it, or if I ever had one!) and get into this.

Later,
Kathleen

I am curious about something. To ask this is to reveal my vast ignorance, but the prospect of getting an answer makes it worth it.

It's well known that a good deal of the music of Mozart, some of Beethoven, and some of Bach is within the reach of a beginner or child. Mozart wrote Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, for example; Beethoven (I think) wrote a Musette in D-Minor that appeared at the end of Book One of the Suzuki lessons that formed the footings of my own musical education. Likewise, Schumann and later Debussy had suites for children.

Yet, Chopin's works are univerally difficult. Even the so-called "easy" preludes (2, 4, 6, 7, and 20) require a significant technical foundation to play well. In retrospect, this is probably a key reason for the mystique of Chopin - his music is "hard to get", a pinacle to climb - that the other composers, despite their greatness, lack - yes, even Beethoven.

Why did Chopin never write any "easy" music on the order of Twinkle Twinkle, or did he? Was it his upbrining, his Parisian clientele? Did Chopin like kids?

He apparently liked children quite well. In his letters he mentions trying to teach a little German boy a bit of Polish when he was at a health spa when he was fifteen. Theresa, the much younger sister of his some time fiancee Maria was besotted with him, referring to him as "her Chopin," as was Louise, the toddler daughter of Pauline Viadot. According to George Sand the feeling was mutual. His surogate daughter Solange was but a child when they met. She was troubled and abused and he met her more than half way. He once wrote a charming description of his friends Franchomme's toddler son to whom he'd given chocolate. He more or less adopted Carl Filtsch when he was his student, having him to supper with George and playing chess with him. And even at the end in his bitterly lonely letters from Scotland as he complains of the desolation of the landscape, he remarks,
"There's not a child for me to talk to, a dog for me to whistle at." And even as he was dying he remarked that a pediatrician might do him more good than anyone else because he still had so much of the child in him. Yes, I'd say he liked kids at least as well as the next guy.

That said, he didn't teach beginners and he didn't teach kids. Carl Filtsch was a rare exception to the latter and he had to audition for the priviledge, so it's not surprizing that he wrote nothing at a beginner level. It probably never occurred to him.

Thank you Frycek. Your cogent explanation seems consistent with what I know about his character.

Much of his music seems to evoke a certain childlike idealism, so it is quite natural that he would have been one to enjoy children.