dlwTUto Murk Cintre CTùnrs Square 18 October 7, 1949 Mr. Artur Rubinstein c/o Hurok Attractions Inc. 711 Fifth Avenue New York 22, New York Dear Mr. Rubinstein: I am sorry to say that we cannot use your piece on Chopin. It is my understanding that your review of the Gide book will appear on page one of the Book Review on October 16. And as I told Mr. Hyams when he sent proofs of your intro­ duction to the new book on Chopin, we feel that we should not have an article on the same subject by the same man in both our Book Review and our Magazine sections of the same day. We debated whether to use your article in our Magazine section the following Sunday, but then decided that so much would be published about Chopin on the anniversary of his death that our piece would seem to be late. I explained all this to Mr. Hyams. I don’t know whether he communicated our sentiments to you. I hope that we’ll be able to get another article from you on some other occasion. I should like to take this opportunity, too, to tell you how much I have enjoyed your concerts. I am one of your most ardent fans. Sincerely yours Daniel Schwarz Sunday Department DS: far enc. October 17, 1949 is a memorable date for millions of people all over the world; Frederic Chopin, Poland’s greatest composer, died on this day, a hundred years ago, at the premature age of 39, a sick man during most of his life. Yet his star shines brighter from year to year. Chopin left to humanity an imperishable gift, a treasure of music which places him among the immortals. The hundredth anniversary of his death is being commemorated in many countries with great solemnity. His music will be heard everywhere; 1949 is Chopin’s yearI I shall attempt to explain the unique phenomenon of the Polish master’s ever growing popularity by analyzing his place in music and his contribution to the piano literature. Chopin’s outstanding quality is, . I would say, his absolute originality. Ilis music from the first note to the last has a stamp of its own. One oan easily mistake Bach for Handel, or Mozart for Haydn, it is possible to interchange Lfendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms - practically all composers follow at first -Hie traces of their masters. Chopin was himself from the start. The secret of his originality lies in the novelty of his harmonies, in.his daring modulations, in his free use of dissonance whioh he employed solely for obtaining the desired effect and chiefly in the sensibility of his melodic lino. There is something else in his must _ I mean the source of his inspiration Hie found it entirely in the soil of his native country. The exhuberant and nostalgic character of Polish songs end dances went deeply into his blood and its essence runs throi^h all his works. educated in Jarsaw, ho received his musical training at an early age from Adalbert Zywny, a Czech emigrV and a good all-round musician; later ho studied harmony and counterpoint with Joseph Elsner, director of - 1 - the Warsaw conservatory and operatic composer of the old Italian style. These two men, his only masters, taught him all they knew, especially, as Liszt said, "these things which are the most difficult to learn; to be exacting to one *s self and to value patience and labor.” Chopin, like Mozart, began to improvise at the piano and to compose at the age of 5; his first appearance in public as a pianist in 1818, was a sensation. vJhen in 1825 the fifteen year old youth played his first com­ positions in a concert at ¿arsaw, Poland realized that it ovmed an authentic musicial genius. Two years later Chopin had written already various mazourkas, polonaises, a trio for piano and strings, a sonata and other pieces. His first printed work was the Rondo in C-Mnor op. 1 and shortly after came of the variations the publication/on "la ci darem la mano" as his opus 2, the work which inspired Schumann to open an article on Chopin with the words: "Hats off gentlemenl A genius! " In ihe beginning of the 19th century opera was considered the highest expression of musical thought and the best road to success for striving composers. Symphonic and choral works had to fight for their survival. The capitals of Europe were overrun by child prodigies, pianists, violinists, and singers. Liszt and Paganini were on top of the world. It takes an artistic integrity of very high order to recognize the limitations of one's own creative powers. Chftpin fortunately possessed this virtue. As a young student he was continuously urged by both Zywny and Elsner to follow the example of the great masters by creating works in larger forms. Later on, when Chopin's fame as a composer was well established, family and friends tried to induce him to write an opera which Poland expected of him. Such an undertaking, they said, might bring him great moral and material gain. Although it was not an easy matter to dismiss such advantages and underrate their - 2 - importance, Chopin never submitted to the pressure of his friends. He knew he had to compose for the piano, and for this instrument alone. With the exception of a few early compositions for piano and orchestra (where the part of the latter is negligible), a trio, a cello sonata and some songs, his musical production was devoted in its entirety to the keyboard. Besides character, Chopin possessed high idealsj in a letter to his parents, describing a meeting in Paris with the famous pianist Kalkbrenner, he writes: "I shall never become a Kalkbrenner; he will not be able to alter my perhaps daring but noble resolve - to create a new era in art,” This "new era in art" was obviously meant to in­ clude both composition aid interpretation. This brings us to Chopin, the pianist. Thanks to reports of such unquestionable authorities, as Liszt, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Moscheles, to quote only these four, we can an form/almost exact idea of his playing, A synthesis of their impressions shows that he was endowed with exceptionally fleet aid flexible fingers; a free, but strong sense of rhythm and a tone.'tie quality of a sirging voice. They all agree that he was unequaled in the use of the pedal, producing, with its help, sonorities of unsurpassed beauty. The interpreter bore the same stamp of originality as the composer; they were in some sort interdependent. Solely a composer who is at the same time a great pianist could have invented the intricate technical problem of the Etudes, the diffe-rent passages of the Scherzi, 1/ or the elegant^ fioriture of the nocturnes. Chopin wished to mate a career as a virtuoso, he had no rival to fear, not even Liszt; but according to -the sources mentioned above, his tone was insufficient for large halls, his dynamic scale never - 3 - reachlfi^ a real ’’forte”. Increasingly poor health and the resulting physical weakness, in addition to a paralyzing stage fright with which Chopin was afflicted, forced him to abandon his pianistic ambitions. Looking back on his life after a century, I feel inclined to thank God for this fact. The hardships of travel might have been detrimental to his creative powers and to his artistic self control. ,7e have a good example for the advance of this theory in the career of Liszt, who had the gift for writing great music and in some instances succeeded in doing so - yet most of his works, due to his movemented life, lacked the unity of style indispensable for the making of a work of art. I cannot denounce strongly enough the oountless biographers, critics, novelists and, quite recently, cinema producers, who consistently and perniciously misrepresent Chopin’s personality, both as an artist and as a man. They portray him as a romantic, neurotic, and morbid character, to quote only a few adjectives? they insinuate that his works express nothing more than his moral and physical sufferings aid sentimental deceptions» In their opinion his music should be heard in intimate surroundings, played in soft tones, an imaginary moonlight shining cm- proee-dings.' All this Hohsdn^; iiScStdiStaiy, shSSd* its bad effect on quite a few of Chopin's interpreters, though mostly amateurs. Their sugary( nauseating sentimentality exaggerated use of pedal, and wrongly applied "rubato" are the complete contradiction of the master's intentions. The worst of it is that they claim this kind of interpretation to be the image of Chopin's own playing, thus pre­ senting it as a sort of tradition. It is true that Chopin himself had to play with a subdued sonority due to his lack of strength, but his piano’ was sufficiently varied so as to allow him to produce all 0 4- the contrasts. He was weak, but not a weakling. Quite to the contrary; possessed of a dynamic, but well controlled moral power, he created many works of the most heroic and passionate character. To play them well requires more physical strength than most pieces of other composers. His Concert!, Sonatas, great Polonaises, Scherzi, Balladas, and Etudes present technical difficulties which only a few pianists can master. Chapin expressed in many occasions his admiration for Liszt’s playing of his Etudes arid he is supposed to have kissed the hand of his athletic pupil Guttman, after the latter's particularly powerful performance of the Scherzo in C Sharp.