Jim Samson

This if one of the Master Musicians series from Oxford University Press.

This biography takes an interesting approach. The chapters alternate between history and musical analysis. So a chapter will detail Chopin’s early life, and the next chapter will discuss his early compositions during that period. I think that’s an effective approach – those readers who are not interested in detailed musical analysis can skip those chapters, and those readers who are interested in the music can use it as a reference.

Of course, no book on Chopin can succeed without dealing with the elephant in the room – his relationship with George Sand. I think this book does an excellent job of reporting the facts that can be verified about their life together without vilifying Sand or even placing blame. It’s much better to report the facts and let the readers reach their own conclusion.

Now that I have read it I’ll weigh in with my opinion, for what’s it worth. Obviously they would not have stayed together as long as they did (9 years?) if each had not gotten something of value from the relationship. The fact that they were probably platonic after the second year means that it wasn’t sex that keep them together. Sand mothered Chopin, and he let her. She provided stability and a place of refuge for him. She nursed him back to health several times. She also reinvented her past to suit her own purposes, probably to justify her own actions. Chopin seemed easily manipulated by Sand’s daughter, who at least provided the immediate reason for the breakup.

But I don’t think the facts, as presented in this book, support the idea that Chopin would have lived much longer and written more and better music if he had not lived with Sand. In my opinion the opposite is probably true. She provided some stability in his life during his most productive periods.

So read this biography and make up your own mind already!… (mais)

The Polish composer Karol Szymanowskiwas born in the Ukraine, once part of the kingdom of Poland, but studied in Warsaw, much influenced by Chopin and then by Wagner, Richard Strauss, Brahms and Reger. From a well-to-do and cultured family, he read widely, particularly during the years of war, from 1914 to 1917, when he remained on the family estate in the Ukraine, a property destroyed in the civil war. The breadth of his cultural knowledge is reflected in his music and in particular in his settings of literary texts of one kind or another. Musically he is able at times to draw on specifically Polish material, coupled with his own perceptions of Arabic and Persian culture.

Asked about Szymanowski's music, Simon Rattle said:
"I cannot talk objectively about Szymanowski, for you cannot expect objectivity or reasonability from someone in love. And reasonability is out of place when this music is concerned, anyway. My first meeting with Szymanowski took place some fifteen years ago. I was having lunch with my friend Paul Crossley, the English pianist. Paul was a man whose advice I used unscrupulously. We would often meet, and he would put a score in front of me and say, 'You should have a look'. But that night he said, 'I've got something special for you', then sat at the piano and played a bit of some piece. I had no idea what it was, but it got me very excited after just a few strokes and I knew it was love from first sight. It was the last part of the 'Stabat Mater' that Paul had played.

The 'Stabat Mater' was in the programme of one of my first concerts with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. I must admit with shame that the choir sang in Latin. We knew, though, that a Polish language version would need to be prepared. And we struggled with that difficult language. Only Finnish and Hungarian are said to be more difficult, and there is not too much similarity between the Birmingham dialect and the Polish language. Only ten letters are pronounced the same in English and in Polish. So it was a character building experience for us on all counts. It took a year to work with the choir, but apparently sopranos can now be understood. I suppose that if Poles tried to sing in Welsh, they would understand our problems. We reached a point where language started to impact the sound of music, its rhythm. For instance, the holding out of the vowels and the proper start of the consonants has lent this music a specific puls. The choir was no longer a group of English singers feeling aloof about a strange, obscure composition. They began to penetrate the music. It was an extraordinary trip. Szymanowski's music bought the ensemble, the choir and the orchestra. We played the 'Stabat Mater' many times, then moved on to 'Symphony No. 3'...

I think we got our timing right with this music. The world was not ready to take it until now. Szymanowski's religious works, such as the 'Stabat Mater' or the 'Litany to the Virgin Mary', respond to the ever more pronounced need for spirituality. Moreover, this music is so splendidly colourful and extremely emotional. The English were at first unable to accept its highly intense and direct emotionality, they had to grow up to it. Now we are ready for it. It has always amazed me why the violinists of the world do not play at least one of Szymanowski's concertos and why the pianists do not play his 'Symphony concertante'. These compositions could have enriched the global repertoire a long time ago. Nowadays it is very important not to limit yourself to twenty or thirty compositions recorded by Toscanini. The public is open to new repertoire. Witness the success of Gorecki. Gorecki has been successful not only with the traditional philharmonic audience. He has a new audience in England, one that did not listen to serious music before. I believe it could be the same with Szymanowski.

I owe the discovery of Szymanowski's 'Symphony No. 3' to Witold Lutoslawski. He said that he had lived in something like a trance for several weeks after he had heard it. It was this music which prompted Lutoslawski to decide he wanted to be a composer. 'Symphony No. 3' is a wonderful, mystical work revealing fascination with the Orient. Its climate meets the needs of contemporary listeners. Yet I believe that it is Szymanowski's later works, when he addresses the Polish heritage, reaches down to the Slavonic roots, makes a sort of reference to Musorgski, is even more valuable for our culture at present. At the end of the twentieth century the rest of the world should discover what you have always known: that Szymanowski is one of the greatest composers of this century".… (mais)

Examines the life and work of composer Fryderyk Chopin, alternating chapters of biographical narrative with original commentary. Investigates the influence on Chopin of family, teachers, and the eventful political and cultural climate of Warsaw in his youth. Surveys Chopin's repertory piece by piece.

From Frederic Chopin's birth in Poland and eventful flight in the wake of the Polish rebellion against the Russians, through his life in Paris and his ill-fated love affair with George Sand, until his eventual death of tuberculosis, this latest entry in the popular Master Musician Series examines the life and work of the great pianist and composer. 16 photos. 47 music examples.… (mais)