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Frycek,

Just hoping that you are breathing relatively easily.

That $600 a month copay could cause a stroke as well as an asthma attack. Not to mention dying of exhaustion from working extra hours to pay for it.

Elene

Going with that treatment was never an option. It would have exhausted the lifetime benefits of my insurance in a couple of years. I can't understand his even suggesting such a thing. Perhaps he didn't realize. I had to do some digging on the net before I found out the awful truth. The tip off was that he had to have special permission from my insurance company to perscribe it. This is one reason he's my EX pulmonologist - the main reason is that for the last three visits I was seen by an assistant of some kind - the last time the assistant in question didn't even know what I was there for and hadn't bothered to look at my chart. My "general practitioner" who is an exceptionally astute and caring nurse practitioner now looks after me.

Talking of cures and attempts to find cures, Chopin seems to have been quite keen on homeopathy, and stayed with a homeopathic doctor while he was in Scotland. He was also given opium, which of course was legal at the time and whose side-effects were less known than they are today. I should think he must have been somewhat addicted to laudanum by the end, and it can't have helped his frame of mind or other symptoms.

I do wonder how healthy he would be if he lived in the Europe of today? Maybe different treatments and diet in childhood would have made him quite strapping, and very different from the frail but elegant figure we know him to have been.

Opium would have been one of the most powerful and useful medicinal substances available at the time. We are still quite dependent on the medical use of opiates today.

Two modern treatments that would have definitely transformed Chopin's health, had they been available: antibiotics if he had TB, and a replacement of the missing enzyme if he had alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.

I kind of doubt he would have ended up "strapping," but who knows!

Elene

If Chopin had been physically bigger and possessed more "Lisztian" strength at the piano, I wonder if it would have changed or influenced the type of music he wrote? I'd like to think it wouldn't have, as I wouldn't change anything about his music, but I do wonder if he would have written to that kind of strength on occasion.
He seemed to both disdain and admire Liszt's piano technique. Would he have displayed it at times, if he could have?

I don't think it would have made a difference, but I see enormous vigor in Chopin's music already that belies his physical frailty.

People with chronic and progressive health problems tend to have been healthier in their youth than later in life, and Chopin's most technically difficult music (in the sense of what might be called sheer virtuosic display) reveals that. I'm thinking of the concertos, the Op. 2 variations, the Polish Fantasy and the Krakowiak in particular—though they're equally indicative of his need for showpieces with that sort of flash at that stage of his career.

The most virtuosic piece of this sort from Chopin's later period is the Allegro de Concert, and it has its roots in that earlier time of his life. The other biggest, most challenging works of his later period combine musical maturity with technical difficulties of a different order: both strength and stamina are required for the sonatas overall, for the octaves of Op. 53, and for the dense repeated climactic chords of the codas of the Ballade Op. 47, the Polonaise-Fantaisie and the Allegro de Concert.

I believe the Allegro—combining as it does Chopin's youthful brilliance with maturity of form and thematic development—is as difficult as anything he wrote. It spans two periods of his life, distilling the most formidable technical challenges from each.

I realize I haven't really offered evidence to support my original thesis, but I strongly believe that the sort of music composers write has everything to do with artistic vision and taste and little to do with their physical health or vitality.

Steven

I'm with you, Chardonnay. We definitely know that Chopin disdained playing in large venues because he knew his light touch at the keyboard made it impossible for many to hear him. Of course, he also hated the feeling of all those strangers staring at him; therefore, he did feel more comfortable playing in private homes and salons where he was among friends.

I don't think being physically stronger would have changed the type of music he wrote nor would it have changed his technique very much. We all know that he disliked the showy performances that Liszt gave although he did admire his ability to play with force and strength when it was called for.

I borrowed the book A Journey of One Thousand Miles by Lang Lang from the library yesterday. It basically is an autobiography from his very early years to present. As I glanced at the index, I saw a whole chapter called "Chopin." Of course, I read that immediately even though it was about 2/3's into his story.

In this chapter, he is about 12 or 13 and is telling about his recent triumphs in a competition in Germany where he won 1st place. His father is constantly at his side (and I mean that both literally and figuratively). There is an extremely important competition coming up in Japan that he wants to enter, and he wants to play Chopin's second piano concerto. Everyone tells him he does not have the emotional maturity to play this piece with any depth of feeling (after all, he's only a young kid). They are referring, naturally, to the second movement. However, he father believes he can do it and also one of his most respected teachers from his hometown in China. It would be the first time that he would play with an orchestra also. After all the negativity he gets from those at the conservatory, he begins to have his doubts. But his father tells him that the second movement is Chopin telling of lost love and longing, and if Lang Lang woul d think of his mother while playing it, he would find the emotion that is needed. Lang Lang's mother is alive, but she has always stayed behind in their home city, working. It is her salary that the two have to depend for traveling and lessons. He obviously loves his mother very much for her sacrifices and for her undying confidence in him.

So, he goes to Japan to compete with the best of the best young people, and he plays the Chopin concerto, thinking of his mother all time.

He wins! From that point on, he becomes the "super-star" of China, for up until this time (even though he won several competitions elsewhere) he was basically ignored.

So Chopin holds a special place in his heart and undoubtedly helped launched his career, for afterwards, he received numerous invitations to perform and was even invited to audition in America, where he hoped he would get several offers of scholarships there.

Oh, he also mentions that his two heroes are Rubinstein and Horowitz. So this kid is O.K. in my book even though I find it a bit unpleasant watching his performances on youtube.

As I mentioned, I've only read that one chapter so far. But today I will finish the rest of the book, for it isn't very long. Being as young as he was when he wrote it, that would make perfect sense.

One thing does stand out, however, even from the few pages that I have finished. He did have a very healthy ego even at that young age and a confidence in himself that would be difficult to deny. His father had a lot to do with both.

I'll give you the rest of his story later, but I thought you would all find his relationship with Chopin's music an interesting one.

Kathleen

Even in his youth though playing took a lot out of him. When he was courting Maria he actually asked one of her sisters to head off the guests at the soiree at which he was going to play because he just couldn't cope immediately after he'd finished. There were times he had to be helped from the piano after a performance and times he left under his own steam and fainted in the green room immediately afterwards.

Frycek: You bring up a very sad and heart-breakng time in Chopin's life. Some of us believe that the break from Sand was Chopin's final downward spiral. But I now wonder if his break from Maria might not have weaken his spirit in such a way as to be considered the very beginning of this spiral.

Oh, in case there is someone here who hasn't noticed it, there is a very heated debate going on in The Pianist Corner about Chopin and Sand. Great fun!

Kathleen

I think that Chopin's physical delicacy, while it may not have determined what he actually wrote, had a tremendous influence on the development of his technique, specifically causing him to become superbly efficient and to play with the ease and fluidity that was so much a central characteristic of his relationship with the piano.

(God, that was a long sentence, wasn't it?)

I have gotten very stuck while trying to write about this; I cannot seem to describe it adequately. But I can say that, because he had no strength to spare, he learned to make every photon of his energy went straight into the keys with absolute focus.

I have been finding the Chopin/Sand thread intensely painful.

Elene

Now, there is a "Chopin is bipolar" thread over there! Good grief.

Dang. And the Sand thread is nearly 100 posts long despite the wisdom, maturity and insight needed to parse human relationships.

But there are no qualifications at all for armchair psychology! Even though OP in the bipolar thread asks his question of those who've read more Chopin biographies than he, it's a little scary to contemplate how it's going to develop.

Steven

Im a bit of a Chopin newbie (listener) . i do have some cds that i like but for some reason i dont listen that much to Chopin. i have the etudes and preludes by Cortot. But i was wondering which versions to chose, everytime i look at the Chopin cd offers there are so much different performers that i get lost. What should i be getting? I dont mind old recoprdings at all by the way ...

Let me suggest my favourite CD's:

Ballade/Barcarolle --> Zimermann
Nocturnes --> Barenboim
Preludes/Etudes --> Pollini
Sonates/Piano concertos --> Zimermann
Scherzo/Impromptus --> Perrahia

These are obviosuly my likings not at all a tentative to set a fixed scale fo Chopin's best interpretations.

Waltzes - Dinu Lipatti
Also check out Angela Lear's Original Chopin recordings

Thanks very much Chopinet, that s very useful. I ll definitely check those out.

Frycek, that s a coincidence, i just got Lipatti s Waltzes yeterday, and im loving it. Definitely one of my favourite pianists. Thank you.

izaldu,

Many if not most Chopin lovers would agree that you cannot go wrong with Arthur Rubinstein's recordings. The only frustration is that he didn't quite record Chopin's entire output.

Also, FWIW, I offer the above advice enthusiastically and without hesitation as regards Chopin's solo music. I love Rubinstein! But for reasons I can't quite put my finger on, I don't find his performances with an orchestra to be quite as compelling (and he didn't record Chopin's chamber music at all).

Fortunately, there are lots of recordings of the concertos to choose from. The one I listen to most is Abbey Simon; they are bundled with Chopin's other four pieces for piano and orchestra (of which there are not many recordings to choose from) in a convenient 2-CD set budged-priced "Vox Box."

Steven

Thanks Steven, i have seen the 11 cd box of Rubinstein on the net
http://www.amazon.de/Chopin-Collect...mp;s=music&qid=1222344738&sr=8-1

That looks like a deal. I must say i ve never listened to any Chopin orchestral music ...! Thanks, i d never even heard of Abbey Simon or Angela Lear so will look into that too. But with the 11cd set i think i have more than enough for now. Hopefully i ll become addicted soon.

Welcome izaldu: I agree that Rubinstein is arguably the best interpreter of much of Chopin's works. There is a site on youtube where Rubinstein plays one of Chopin's concerti, and he is a joy to watch. So austere and sublime.

However, I also recommend Vladimir Ashkenazy. I purchased a box set of his (13 CD's in all) for a very reasonable price from e-bay. I think I paid $35.00 for it. He's super, and the collection contains all the piano works of Chopin, with the exception of the concerti and chamber music.

Kathleen