Chopin’s Letters

Rating:
Summary: a fascinating book
Review: Reading Chopin's letters is a unique privilege we have today. No lover of Chopin should be without this book.

Rating:
Summary: Deeply poignant
Review: Reading the early passages in Chopin's letters, one is almost heartbroken by the youth, the enthusiasm, the childlike good humor evident therein. Chopin at 17 was a wide-eyed kid from Warsaw with unparalleled musical talent and his whole life in front of him, the world apparently his oyster. To read his letters in subsequent years -- after the Russian invasion of Poland that stranded him in Paris; the abortive betrothal to Maria Wodzinska; the complex and finally tragic relationship with George Sand -- is to watch a man reach adulthood step by step. Though they contain only small, tantalizing glimpses of Chopin's opinions on music, the letters make for an effective counterpoint to his immortal compositions. The man who wrote the great Ballades and Scherzi was just a man like any other: he was annoyed at lazy servants, he unconsciously exploited his friends, he wanted to move in the circles of great aristocrats, he had provincial and prejudiced opinions. The lesson is banal, but true, and vividly made clear in these letters.

Rating:
Summary: Deeply poignant
Review: Reading the early passages in Chopin's letters, one is almost heartbroken by the youth, the enthusiasm, the childlike good humor evident therein. Chopin at 17 was a wide-eyed kid from Warsaw with unparalleled musical talent and his whole life in front of him, the world apparently his oyster. To read his letters in subsequent years -- after the Russian invasion of Poland that stranded him in Paris; the abortive betrothal to Maria Wodzinska; the complex and finally tragic relationship with George Sand -- is to watch a man reach adulthood step by step. Though they contain only small, tantalizing glimpses of Chopin's opinions on music, the letters make for an effective counterpoint to his immortal compositions. The man who wrote the great Ballades and Scherzi was just a man like any other: he was annoyed at lazy servants, he unconsciously exploited his friends, he wanted to move in the circles of great aristocrats, he had provincial and prejudiced opinions. The lesson is banal, but true, and vividly made clear in these letters.