Essential Chopin
Born in Warsaw in 1810, Frédéric Chopin gained an early reputation as a virtuoso. Desperately unhappy with the political situation in Poland, he moved to Paris in 1831. There he performed – rarely – in salons and his works gained enormous popularity. A relationship with the novelist George Sand (the nom de plume of Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin) lasted from 1838-47, and coincided with one of the most productive periods of his life; he died two years later, having long suffered from Tuberculosis. His output is unique for concentrating almost entirely on the piano, and in raising the small-scale forms beloved of the salon – the nocturne, the waltz, the mazurka, the polonaise – to unprecedented levels of sophistication. His gift for languid musical lines and haunting melody, however, should not mask the mastery of the traditional larger-scale forms of this remarkable musical genius.