LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Frederic Chopin: Paris Chopin
built 623 days ago
The day after his first Paris concert in February 1832, Chopin was approached by the music publisher Aristide Farrenc (1794-1865). He signed a contract selling Farrenc copyright for a group of five works, including the right to negotiate their publication outside of France. However, Farrenc withdrew from the deal later that same year in frustration over what he considered Chopin's laziness and the excessive technical difficulty of his music. By November, Chopin had made a new arrangement with Maurice Schlesinger (1798-1871), who was to remain his principal French publisher. German by birth, Schlesinger learned the publishing trade from his father in Berlin and established his own music business at Paris in 1821. His house organ, the Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, became the leading music journal in France, and Chopin benefited considerably from its sympathetic reviews of his music.
Source:
The Frederick Chopin Museum at the Frederick Chopin Society in Warsaw was established in the 1930s. Already in 1935, the Frederick Chopin Institute, established a year earlier by 32 outstanding representatives of the world of culture and politics, headed by Karol Szymanowski, Emil Mlynarski, Stanislaw Niewiadomski, Jozef Beck and August Zaleski, had begun amassing a collection. At that time, thirteen extremely valuable manuscripts were purchased from Ludwika Ciechomska, granddaughter of Ludwika Jedrzejewiczowa, Chopin`s sister, and Boguslaw Kraszewski from Stary Kuplin. The manuscripts included: a complete autograph of the G minor Trio op. 8 for piano, violin and cello by Chopin, seven letters written at Szafarnia by the young composer to his family in 1824 (including four examples of the famous "Szafarnia Courier") and at Kowalewo [6 July 1827] as well as to his school friend Julian Fontana in Paris [1835], three special greetings addressed by Chopin to his father (6 December 1816 and 1818) and mother (16 June 1817) upon their name days as well as two dedications of 6 and 9 June 1833 for Jozef Nowakowski, a friend from the Warsaw Conservatory. These autographs of the Polish artist were the start of the collection for the future Chopin Museum which after the Second World War became much more active. The creation of a Collection of Photographs, Recordings and a Library was started prior to 1939.
Source:
In many ways Chopin was the 19th century's poet of the piano. Inspired melodies, subtlety, restraint, and exquisite delicacy are to be found in virtually all of his music. Composing as an exile in Paris, his mazurkas and polonaises, while strongly reflecting the composer's nationalistic roots, were not meant for the dance (although Jerome Robbins and countless others have choreographed them). These works combine dance rhythms with drama and pianistic brilliance - the hallmarks of Chopin's keyboard writing. Like Bach in an earlier century, he turned the elegant music of small social gatherings into the new "art music" of the concert platform. Chopin's larger scale works are the essence of 19th century Romantic music - stormy, emotional, and intense.
Source:
In July, 1835, Chopin met his parents at Carlsbad, where his father had been sent by the Warsaw physicians to take the cure. The young musician, now famous, had not seen his parents in nearly five years, and the reunion must have been a happy one. From here he went to Dresden and Leipsic, meeting Schumann and Mendelssohn. Schumann admired the young Pole greatly and wrote much about him in his musical magazine. Mendelssohn considered him a "really perfect virtuoso, whose piano playing was both original and masterly," but he was not sure whether his compositions were right or wrong. Chopin ... stopped in Heidelberg on the way to Paris, visiting the father of his pupil Adolph Gutman.
Source:
In 1835 Chopin arranged to meet his family in Karlsbad. There he made the acquaintance of Count Franz von Thun-Hohenstein, whose daughters Chopin had taught in Paris. The Count invited Chopin and his parents to stay at his family castle on the Elbe at Děčín. Afterwards Chopin's parents returned to Warsaw; he never saw them again. He returned to Paris via Dresden, where he stayed for some weeks, and then Leipzig where he met up with Mendelssohn, Schumann and Clara Wieck. On the return journey he had a bronchial attack, so severe that some Polish newspapers reported that he had died.
Source:
Chopin recognized that he did not have the stamina (strength) to compete in public against such talents as Franz Liszt (1811–1886) and Sigismund Thalberg (1812–1871). So long as he was able to earn enough by teaching, Chopin preferred composition to playing concerts. His musical tastes were public knowledge. Friendly with Hector Berlioz (1803–1869) and Mendelssohn, he was not impressed with their music. Nor, for that matter, did he appreciate Robert Schumann's (1810–1856) work, despite Schumann's warm welcome written for the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik when Chopin first arrived in Paris. Schumann introduced Clara Wieck to Chopin's work, and eventually her performances of Chopin's pieces made favorable impressions on many audiences.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Paris Chopin