Dr. Alan WalkerFryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times

This magnificent book is a worthy successor to Alan Walker’s 3-volume masterpiece on Liszt. In his Prologue, Walker says how Chopin stood apart from the Romantics with whom he shared Europe’s musical stage. He disdained programme music (Berlioz, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Schumann), and disliked the pianism of the ever-generous Liszt. “It is almost as if his life and music unfolded along parallel planes, with no point of intersection”, and “…we could almost describe Chopin as a displaced person of musical history – a classical composer in word and deed, condemned to walk in silence among the chattering romantics”. He was a reluctant performer and gave fewer than 20 public concerts in his lifetime (though a great many recitals in drawing rooms and salons) – the polar opposite of his great contemporary Liszt – and only one of those was a purely solo effort without the help of support acts or collaborators. He also left no significant pupils – although teaching provided him with an income, most of his pupils were of little consequence and many were society ladies. The one undoubted genius amongst his pupils, Carl Filtsch, died aged 13.The contemporary accounts of his pianism leave one in no doubt that he would be bewildered by many subsequent interpreters of his work, on later instruments (again, the polar opposite of Liszt, whose compositions constantly challenged piano design, with manufacturers scrambling to keep up).His life was short – dead at 39, the shadow of tuberculosis present almost from the start (the statistics on the prevalence of TB are startling). He did not expect, when he went to Paris, never to see his homeland again. Polite, refined, self-contained, it was his lack of response and seeming rejection that seemingly drove Sand in her pursuit of him. In everything to do with his musical and professional life he was possessed of the highest standards of perfectionism. The account of Chopin’s life is interspersed with analysis of individual works and his approach to the keyboard and technique, and it is to these sections I expect to return most often whilst listening anew to Chopin’s works.George Sand makes her notorious appearance half way through the book. Having set her cap at Chopin, challenged by his initial reluctance, she dragged him to Mallorca in December 1838. Their sojourn there was a mere 59 days – I’d always imagined it to be longer – and was a disaster. As usual, at the time and after they’d returned to France, Sand – whose idea it had been – blamed everyone except herself for the debacle. We presumably have her dubious ornithological skills to blame for the following: "When the downpour ceased, a thick mist sometimes rolled down the mountainside, enveloping the monastery in a wintry shroud. Under its cover the eagles and vultures that circled overhead would swoop down and snatch the sparrows perched on the branches of the pomegranate tree just outside Sand's window". This would have been worthy of one of Walker's ever-illuminating footnotes: obviously Sand lacked binoculars and a good field guide. Mallorca has a small resident population of black vultures, which eat carrion, and (in winter – the island’s booted eagles are summer visitors) Bonelli's eagle - known in Spanish as the partridge eagle (Aguila perdicera). (As it happens, these are currently being reintroduced to the island.) But snatching sparrows - those would have been sparrowhawks.Their physical relationship lasted barely a year. After their return to Nohant, Sand, doubtless to Chopin’s chagrin, decided that their relationship would be a platonic one (perhaps because she did not enjoy his coughing during sex, according to Curtis Cate whom Walker cites). The story of the end of their relationship is a harrowing one, and Chopin’s attempts to speak for her errant daughter Solange underline his basic decency. This is a tragic tale.Chopin was someone to whom things happened. He taught, composed and occasionally performed, but with his poor health and dependence on others he was often at the mercy of events, and other people. After Sand, there was Jane Stirling, the well-intentioned Scottish aristocrat who took Chopin under her wing during his exhausting 1848 tour of England and Scotland. She loved him but this was unrequited. She could not see that all he wanted was a warm room and somewhere to practise, not to be dragged round innumerable stately homes.In his final chapter, Walker discusses the often bizarre history of Chopin biography, which includes a wholly fictitious and forged correspondence between Chopin and an alleged lover, Delfina Potocka, and even a forged journal, which the author (one Gaston Knosp) admitted in 1909 to be fraudulent. Throughout, the book is marked by Walker’s meticulous scholarship. It is an enthralling read.

Another excellent biography from Alan Walker to add to his superb Liszt books. He has the happy knack of balancing story with just enough technical details of the music. I found it difficult to put down once I'd started it, which is always a good sign.

excellent biography! Alan Walker writes beautifully and manages to pack in so much information in a very readable and elegant style that is never dry. highly recommendable!

Love this book. Chopin was obviously important as a composer and muscian. He also lived in a time of significant European history.

Very easy read and full of interesting detail