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Spring 2019 26 PAN PIPES FRYDERYK CHOPIN by Alan Walker A lthough I am a devotee of Chopin's music, I knew little about this composer's short tragic life (1810-1849) until reading Alan Walker's extraordinary Fryderyk Chopin. This 2018 biography published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in New York is more than 700 pages. In spite of the length of the book, however, the writing is so compelling that it was difficult to put it down until I finished the last page. I am in awe of Walker's dedicated devotion during the decade it took to complete this mammoth endeavor. The author is both a top-notch musicologist and a scholar who researched all sources thoroughly, clearly, and objectively. While this impressive volume touched my heart, details therein about Chopin's poor health, broken engagements, missing manuscripts, and destroyed correspondence saddened me. The tome is divided chronologically into almost two dozen subtitled chapters, including Childhood and Youth in Warsaw (1810-1824); The Decembrist Revolt (1825- 1826); Konstancja Gladkowska: The Distant Beloved (1829-1830); and Chopin and the Keyboard: The Raphael of the Piano. Chapters focus on different themes, for example: Chopin's daily life, relationships (both personal and professional), his piano playing, and historical political events. Within the book there are illustrations, including some by the gifted composer himself who also had a talent in art. Before the list of sources and index at the end of the book, there is a general alphabetized catalogue of Chopin's works with one column that specifies dedicatees. Born near Warsaw, Poland, Chopin stopped taking piano lessons when he was only twelve because his teacher recognized Fryderyk had nothing more to learn as a student; henceforth, he was self-taught and on his own: "Everything he knew about piano playing he had discovered for himself " (pg 241). And, of course, that was a lot! After Fryderyk completed high school, the Polish government turned down his travel grant to perform: "Public funds should not be wasted [last word crossed out and replaced with 'assigned'] for the encouragement of this type of artist" (pg 133). Tucked away in a footnote on this page is a description of Fryderyk's later incredible kindness to the very government minister who had denied the grant and subsequently fled to Paris with his family: his daughter became a student of Chopin, and he dedicated four of his 60 mazurkas to her. His first international success was in Vienna in 1829. It is regrettable that he could never return to his beloved country after he left the following year. Eight years later, because of his extreme patriotism, he declined the invitation of Tsar Nicholas to become "Pianist of the Imperial Russian Court." For nine years, he had a relationship—first torrid and then platonic—with eccentric female novelist George Sand. His main residence was in Paris. Teaching supplemented his income from composing and concertizing. Although he gave many private recitals in salons both in his hometown and in Paris during his career, he performed fewer than twenty times in concert halls for the paying public. Since there were no sound recordings at the time, we must rely on words that create visual images to capture the essence of his playing. His touch was exquisite and his improvisation skills extraordinary. His incredible keyboard technique was non-acrobatic. His body remained relatively immobile when he played. In a letter to his sister, Fanny, Felix Mendelssohn expresses the essence: "There is something so profoundly original and at the same time so very masterly in his piano playing that he may be called an absolutely perfect virtuoso" (pg 290). Chopin's oeuvre was shaped by his formidable command and understanding of the piano, so it's not surprising that he wrote no music without this instrument. String players (who like fingering options with open strings to play musical passages) will be particularly fascinated to learn why he liked to compose in keys with many sharps or flats. Chopin understood that the best hand position for "his" instrument is not C major but rather key signatures that conform to the hands' natural shape. Chopin believed each finger had a different personality and advocated finger sliding, a practice he had learned when he played the organ long ago. And when playing four-handed piano pieces, he always controlled the pedal. With equal ability, the author shares trivia and facts — scholarly, fascinating, historical — about Chopin and also expertly analyzes the composer's music. Convincingly, he portrays Chopin as a perfectionist. Fortunately, even though he requested it, his sister, Ludwika, refused to destroy his unfinished manuscripts. With his own finesse as a writer, Alan Walker is at his best in Chopin's defense, rationally dispelling some long-held rumors about the composer for readers to discover in this masterpiece. — Jayne I. Hanlin PAN PIPES welcomes reviews of newly published music related books and recordings by SAI members and our readers. Please contact Editor Christine Bruns at SAIPanPipesEditor@gmail.com to submit a work for review or to share press release information of your work. CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS ) ) ) ) ) ) REVIEWS

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