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I took the picture. (That's a little feather tree on Sam beside the portrait.) MaryRose did the format and lettering.

It's lovely! What exactly do the words mean?

Merry Christmas, All!

They translate as "Merry Christmas." I'll have to see if MaryRose can translate literally.

Well, I got my new scanner. And I think the following is a big improvement over what I had posted before.

These are the people who were deemed "important" in one way or another, in Chopin's life. The list comes from the book: "Chopin: His Life & Music" by Jeremy Nicholas. Remember to bake that cake for me.








Kathleen

Happy Holidays (Wesolych Swiat) of God's birth (Bozego Narodzenia)

I hope everyone on the Devoted to Chopin thread has a very beautiful and musical Christmas, with plenty of Chopin's music.

Alas! Alkan is first!

Playdom: Wonderful! It appears that I know very little about your favorite. Do you have more information about him that you would like to share? The line that states he was the only one for whom Liszt was afraid to play sounds VERY interesting. What was it about the man that made this so?

To All: This is hiliarious.

I received an e-mail from Amazon telling me that the second volume of Sand's work "Indiana" was available and that I should hurry and buy it. Boy, did they ever ring the wrong doorbell.

Kathleen

Kathleen, you should listen to some Alkan.
Very interesting music.

I suggest you check out his Etudes, op. 39 and the Grand Sonata op. 33

To quote this quite good article(written before I was born ):

The first book begins with the aptly titled perpetual-motion study Comme le Vent. A glance at the first bar is sufficient to indicate the pianistic pain that lies ahead: the unusual 2/16 time signature (fast), the injunction Prestissamente (faster), the 160 metronome marking and the pair of thirty-second note triplets (fastest). When the performer realizes that the etude continues for twenty-one pages, the horrified reaction is usually disguised as feigned amusement or eye-rolling scorn.

Here's a video of said Etude:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=iyQ1QPLOol0
Another early Etude(you can see that it's a bit much for the performer, still loads better than me)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=EbrRUdSW2Sk

The first 2 movements of the sonata(the best) are spread out over this and the next video in the series:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9hLPIplGgdU&feature=related
(You can see the technical difficulties best at the beginning of part 7 -- HAMELIN makes mistakes here)

This is the Concerto for Solo piano(1st mvt):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OuxcI7nyKl0
First of 3 parts, other 3 aren't hard to find.

I just realized, this is like 50 min of music! But you should check it out at some point.

Of course, there are loads of undiscovered things, but this is the 'famous' stuff -- if you can call it that for such a relatively unknown composer.

Chopin left his unfinished manuscript of "A Method for the Piano" to Alkan. Chopin also attended an operatic performance with Alkan during the last months of his life when he was very weak and it was very difficult for him to get around. That implies a certain amount of intimacy and trust.

BTW -Filtsch didn't die of TB, he died of peritonitis following a burst appendix. The TB myth has been repeated ad infinitum from one erroneous source.

Wow...Playadom. I just finished reading the first few paragraphs of the essay, and I must say this man is extremely intriguing. That he went into seculsion for 25 years after Chopin's death is astounding. It sounds as if they were two peas in the same pod, both possessing some of the same characteristics. AND once again, we can present their friendship as an arugument to those comments that Chopin was anti-Jewish.

It's late now where I am, but I plan on finishing the article and most definitely watching the you-tube sites you have suggested. If he was so highly thought of by Chopin, I am very anxious to get to know more about him and his music.

Why haven't I heard more of this man? It's a shame.

Thank you both for your posts.

Kathleen

You can't really understand Alkan without Chopin or vice-versa, they had significant influences on each other.

What do you mean it's late, it's an hour later over here...

The actual stuff and substance of his music … is of such startling oddity, such intensely personal and individual quality, shot through with an eerie, uncanny feeling that makes it of irresistible fascination.
—Kaikhosru Sorabji

playadom, I too find Alkan fascinating and I love some of his music (especially his Barcarolle - do you know that piece?) I recently read a book about his life. He was very strange and interesting and shared his home with an ape, amongst other things. I think the fact that Chopin counted him as a friend shows that Chopin was open to all kinds of people, not just smart fashionable types, which Alkan was not, being an eccentric near-recluse.

Alkan, although a virtuoso performer, was even more averse to playing in public than was Chopin.

I'm not too keen on the way he always has to give his works pictorial titles though.

Good morning all:

Regarding Alkan, I found this article to be very interesting also. Playadom...so your avatar is of Alkan. I must say he was a handsome man. Such contrasting and divergent opinions about him and his life and cause of death, and the difficulty of his music!

Aside from his extreme shyness, which can't be a real consideration, it is stated that his being a Jew did not help his cause. How truly sad and utter nonsense (i.e. Hiller, Kalkbrenner [Chopin dedicated his first piano concerto to him, btw], Mendelssohn.) Also that he was home-grown, again...very unbelievable (i.e. Berlioz, Gounod, Ravel and Debussy).

I look forward to listening to the you-tube sites today and thank you for bringing to my attention this wonderfully talented and extremely misunderstood, sympathetic and soulful composer/pianist.

In our film, it is you who will play the part. Please be thinking of some scenes and possible dialogue, perhaps including Chopin and Hiller and Liszt, etc.

Frycek: I did catch that error about the cause of Filtsch's death in Nicholas's book. Now I am wondering what other fallacies are within those pages.

MaryRose: It appears that it was Alkan's son who might have lived with that ape...or not.

I was watching a film last night and in one scene there was a young girl playing the piano. Something by Chopin, I knew, but I couldn't quite place the title. After about 2 minutes, and some humming, I realized it was the wonderful A minor waltz that I learned just a year ago. It's terrible getting old...the memory is such a fleeting thing. :rolleyes:

Peace...
Kathleen

Kathleen--I've been meaning to tell you this for two weeks--the shirt I thought I ruined from the Prelude recital came out okay once it was washed. The transfer showed up after all, even though it was nearly invisible after ironing it on. My husband did the wash and washed it for some unknown reason, and he was very excited to dash up the stairs and show me the transfer had reappeared!

Thanks for doing this. I am really proud of my shirt.

Nancy

Read something interesting this morning:

"Chopin, who died at age 39, suffered from what was then called melancholy but is now known as bipolar disease and lived much of his life in extreme emotional isolation from others."

That's a bit debatable. We'll probably get some argument here. I happen to agree with the diagnosis if not the observation. I have bipolar disorder myself and recognize the pattern in Chopin. But - - - He also has a great sense of humor and a very affectionate nature. I doubt very seriously if he felt in extreme emotional isolation except at the darkest parts of his illness - such as his breakdown in Stuttgart or after his father died when he literally isolated himself in his room for weeks. In other words I think he was bipolar, but coped extremely well because of his innate humor and warmth. (As does another individual we know. )

Dear Frycek, can you point out what in Chopin's life makes you think he was bipolar?

Dear Frycek, can you point out what in Chopin's life makes you think he was bipolar? Please be as specific as you can.

DOUBLE POST!


Perhaps we can touch on Chopin's 'other sides' in this movie.