musicians including the author Balzac, the was initially shocked by Sand’s values, the compose. His sister came from Warsaw to nurse Nocturne The Story painter Delacroix and the composers Berlioz unlikely pair eventually began a romance and by him alongside his treasured stepdaughter, Sand’s and Liszt. “Chopin is all sadness,” wrote Liszt 1837 they were living together. Chopin became child Solange. During his final days, Chopin Scripted by Lucy Parham in a letter of 1834, “Furniture is a little more inspired by his new partner and she sacrificed a ignored George Sand’s requests to see him. He expensive than he had thought, so now we’re in great deal to be with him. Six years older than died on October 17th, 1849, aged just 39. for a whole month of worry and nerves.” Chopin, Sand remained a mother figure during Although Chopin’s piano works are among the their relationship and often used to refer to him Chopin lived in constant fear of being buried most distinctive and instantly recognisable music Those nerves, coupled with a dislike of showman- as “my child” or “my chip chip”. alive and so, at his request, his heart was removed ever composed, Chopin the man remains some- ship, caused Chopin’s record of performances to before the burial. Once again at his request, thing of an enigma. Many of his letters have been be very meagre – just thirty concerts in thirty In 1838 Sand persuaded Chopin to travel with Mozart’s Requiem was played at his funeral. destroyed and very few of those that remain give years. However, through his aristocratic Polish her and her two children to Majorca, in search any real insight into his character and beliefs. It friends, Chopin befriended the influential of a warmer climate. In spite of an unwelcoming I have compiled Nocturne with the help of letters, is maybe through the music, with its melodic Rothschilds who enabled him to set up the lucra- reception from the islanders and the composer’s diaries and correspondence written by Chopin, genius and inimitable lyricism, that we can best tive teaching practice which became his main continued ill health, it was here that he wrote George Sand and their contemporaries. The come to know the man. source of financial support and his entrée with some of his finest works, including the 24 featured music is not in chronological order. It the Parisian elite. Preludes. But it was also here that his consump- was chosen more to reflect the mood of the story Fryderyk Chopin was born in Poland in 1810 to tion worsened, his weak lungs responding badly and to enhance the words. a middle-class intellectual family; his father was Until the age of 26, Chopin enjoyed a discreet to the constant rain. The stay in Majorca remains © 2013 Lucy Parham French and his mother Polish. His birth date is and quiet social life. He had been engaged to a the most documented period of his relationship controversial: the town registration of his birth childhood friend, Maria Wodzińzka, but her with Sand. When they returned to Paris they specifies February 22nd, but Chopin always father had broken off their union, citing Chopin’s lived in adjoining houses and spent their sum- gave the date as March 1st. A child prodigy, he ill-health as the reason. Despite his somewhat mers at Sand’s country home in Nohant, where studied at the Warsaw Conservatory and by the effete and fastidious demeanour, with his perfect she continued to nurse the increasingly frail age of 19 had written his F minor piano concerto dress sense and long white gloves, Chopin had composer. Chopin was particularly happy at and many other works. As a pianist, Chopin was a healthy interest in the opposite sex. His life Nohant, and some of his greatest works, such as largely left to develop on his own, as Warsaw had was turned upside down when Liszt’s mistress, the Polonaise Fantasy, 3rd and 4th Ballades and few piano teachers of importance. Marie d’ Agoult introduced him to the renowned cello sonata were all composed there. But the hap- female writer and feminist George Sand. Sand piness was not to last. Complex misunderstand- In 1831 Chopin travelled via Vienna to Paris, was famous not only for her writing, but also for ings connected to Sand’s children precipitated where he was to remain until his death in 1849. wearing men’s clothes, for smoking, and for her their eventual break-up in 1847 and there were At that time, the French capital was the centre numerous affairs and generally unconventional constant recriminations from both sides. After of European culture and Chopin found himself behaviour. In fact, she was probably the most returning from a tour to England and Scotland, surrounded by a group of writers, artists and famous woman in France. Although Chopin Chopin was so weak he could neither teach nor Page 1 Page 2 Inspired by the Irish composer, John Field, Chopin’s with a spirit of dance and contrasts vividly with the Dame Harriet Walter is an award-winning theatre As a reciter, Samuel West has appeared with all 21 Nocturnes have a unique and significant place much more haunting and poignant A minor, Op actress, and an associate artist with the RSC. She the major British orchestras, with the Hong Kong in the history of solo piano music. Influenced by 67 No.4. In total, Chopin wrote 57 mazurkas and has played most of Shakespeare’s leading ladies and Philharmonic, Strasbourg, Luxembourg and Bellini’s bel canto operas, the Nocturne evokes the they remain some of most elusive and musically lately turned her hand to a male role, playing Brutus Dallas Symphony Orchestras and the National mood of a dreamy and sometimes starless night challenging works for the pianist. in the Donmar Theatre’s all-female Julius Caesar. Symphony Orchestra of Washington DC. Last by spinning a long melodic line over a flowing Chopin was said to have been captivated by In a varied career she has happily moved between year he performed Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, bass line. Op.27 No.2 in D flat is one of the most a dog chasing its tail when he wrote the Waltz in Radio, Television (Lord Peter Wimsey, Law and Strauss’s Enoch Arden, Walton’s Façade and Henry popular and its dreamy mood depicts the summer D flat Op.67 No.1. Known in France as the “Petit Order:UK, Downton Abbey and Midsomer Murders) V, the Britten and Auden film scores Night Mail, evenings at Nohant that Chopin so loved. The Chien”, its whirling and dexterous right-hand and Film (Sense and Sensibility, Atonement, the The Way to the Sea, Coal Face, The King’s Stamp and Nocturne in C minor Op.48 No.1 is possibly his figuration have made it a popular encore piece and, Young Victoria, The Wedding Video). God’s Chillun, Graham Fitkin’s Track to Track, finest work in this genre. Dark and foreboding, its despite its other nickname, it was never intended to She is also the author of three books; Other the UK premiere of Jonathan Harvey’s Weltethos opening bars predict a gloom and desperation from be played in one minute! The second waltz of the People’s Shoes, Macbeth (for Faber’s Actors on and the world premiere of The Garden of Earthly which this haunting work never escapes more than pair, the Waltz in C sharp minor, is a far more re- Shakespeare) and a photographic book Facing It. Delights by Simon Bainbridge. He has performed momentarily. flective and wistful piece. Although the Waltz was a As a great music lover, Dame Harriet Walter at the Proms five times and was soloist in Henry V Composed between 1832 and 1836, the popular dance in the nineteenth century, Chopin’s feels privileged to have collaborated with pianist at the 2002 Last Night. He also makes regular Op.25 Études remain some of the most technically Waltzes were never written to be danced to. Lucy Parham on several concert programmes appearances at Wigmore Hall. demanding works in the repertoire. Chopin dedi- Chopin completed his set of 24 Préludes including Nocturne, Odyssey of Love and Beloved Work as an actor includes the title roles in cated this set to Liszt’s mistress, Marie d’Agoult, Op.28 during his time with George Sand in Clara. Hamlet and Richard II for the Royal Shakespeare through whom he met George Sand. No.1 in A Majorca in 1838. Whilst on the island Sand Company, Enron in the West End, the television flat is often known as “Aeolian Harp” because of wrote of them, “many of them are melancholy series Eternal Law its long melodic line surrounded by an arpeggiated and suave and others are of gentle sadness which, and the films accompaniment. while charming your ear, break your heart.” The Howards End, Van Whilst Chopin spent the majority of his adult “Raindrop” is said to depict the raindrops beating Helsing and three life in Paris, his musical soul always remained in on the rooftiles of the monastery that they were for director Roger Poland. And it is in Poland that the two dance living in and Sand says “in his mind and in his Michell: Notting forms of Mazurka and Polonaise originated. The music they had become tears from heaven beating Hill, Persuasion Mazurka is a country dance and it was Chopin on his heart”. and Hyde Park on that introduced it into concert music.