大象传媒

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Fryderyk Chopin, often referred to as 鈥渢he poet of the piano鈥�. Today, how Chopin鈥檚 Polish heritage shaped his music.

Chopin鈥檚 precocious musical gifts 鈥� not just as a pianist, but as a composer too 鈥� were apparent very early on. His first composition appeared in print in 1817, in Warsaw, when he was just seven years old. It鈥檚 a 鈥榩olonaise鈥�, the Polish national dance 鈥� a stately, triple-time number danced by aristocracy and country folk alike 鈥� a form Chopin continued to explore throughout his life. Even more so the mazurka; Chopin didn鈥檛 invent the genre, but he became its major exponent, producing almost 60 mazurkas, from his teens right through to his very last composition. The mazurka originated in a Polish folk dance called the mazurek, itself derived from the slow kujawiak and the fast oberek 鈥� both of which Chopin experienced 鈥榠n the field鈥� when he spent two summers in his mid-teens in a village called Szafarnia, in the province of Mazovia, 125 miles northwest of Warsaw. This childhood experience left a deep mark, and it鈥檚 in his mazurkas that some of Chopin鈥檚 most adventurous and innovative music is to be found. The heroic ballads of the Polish nationalist poet Adam Mickiewicz left a more subtle imprint on Chopin鈥檚 consciousness 鈥� one that subsequently emerged in his wonderful sequence of Ballades, which, while they aren鈥檛 programmatically related to individual poems of Mickiewicz, draw their powerful narrative drive from his work as a whole. All of which suggests that though you may take the Pole out of Poland 鈥� Chopin left the country when he was 20, never to return 鈥� you can鈥檛 take Poland out of the Pole.

鈥樑粂czenie鈥� (The maiden鈥檚 wish), Op 74 No 1
Eugenia Zareska, mezzo soprano
Giorgio Favaretto, piano

Piano Concerto No 2 in F minor, Op 21 (3rd mvt, Allegro vivace)
Murray Perahia, piano
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Zubin Mehta, conductor

4 Mazurkas, Op 17
(No 1 in B flat; No 2 in E minor; No 3 in A flat; No 4 in A minor)

Polonaise No 5 in C minor, Op 40 No 2
Polonaise No 6 in A flat, Op 53 (鈥楬eroic鈥�)
Emil Gilels, piano

Ballade No 4 in F minor, Op 52
Krystian Zimerman, piano

Produced by Chris Barstow for 大象传媒 Wales