Why is it that Frédéric Chopins piano music always speaks directly to the heart of anyone who listens to it? I don’t know of any other composer who is always mentioned with so much love and respect in all kinds of different quarters. Whichever country or continent you go to, Chopin is sure to be played in the concert halls, in the radio and in people’s homes.
Even people who aren’t otherwise that interested in classical piano music love and adore Chopin. So what is it about his music that fascinates us and makes us listen so intently? Of course it depends on the performance as well, but almost any competent pianist can move people with a piece by Chopin.
Of course it has to do with the superb way Chopin was able to understand the possibilities of the piano. Nobody before him had made the piano sing quite in the same manner. One of the interesting things in connection with this, is that Chopin was very interested and fascinated by the human singing voice and tried to emulate it when composing for the piano. He went to the opera, listening to works by Bellini, Donizetti, Meyerbeer and others, and studied the amazing technique of the bel canto opera singers of his time. Then he went home and translated what he had heard to the piano.
Something else that has to be mentioned when trying to point out what makes Chopin’s piano music so unique, is the use he made of his Polish heritage. Chopin was born and brought up in Poland, to a Polish mother and French father, but spent most of his grown up life exiled in Paris. He always longed for his homeland and pitied the people there, living under Russian occupation.
The tunes and dancing rhythms that he had heard in Poland as a youth meant a lot to him, and he used them frequently in his own music. Not that he very often cites any particular Polish folk tunes - instead he creates music that somehow evokes a Polish athmospere, a nostalgic longing for the country that Chopin always viewed as his true home. When he died in 1849, his heart was brought home to Warsaw according to his own wish, while the rest of his remains were buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
What an exquisite and sensitive performance! This is a very beautiful video musically and aesthetically, and a what an extraordinarily beautiful lady performer! Such beauty is rare and so gratifying to view. I only wish I could be acquainted with this lady!
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