Chopin (Master Musicians Series)

Rating:
Summary: Good mix of criticism and biography
Review: The primary focus of this book is not biography, although it is structured in alternating chapters with biographical information followed by analysis of the music of a given period. Other books (Tad Szulc's Chopin in Paris, for instance) might give a better impression of Chopin's daily life, but this book does a fine job of relating the life to the music. The musicological passages are fairly sophisticated -- a grounding in music theory is assumed -- but if you have such a grounding, there are fine insights to be found here. I was most pleased, for instance, to note that Sampson had observed the similarities between the Nocturne in F (Opus 15 #1) and the Ballade #2 in A Minor, something I had long been aware of but had not seen addressed in Chopin criticism.

Samson's examination of genre is illuminating too -- he tries to perceive Chopin's music not as an absolute frozen in amber, but rather from the perspective of its own time, an era full of contrasting and overlapping genre conventions.

Rating:
Summary: Good mix of criticism and biography
Review: The primary focus of this book is not biography, although it is structured in alternating chapters with biographical information followed by analysis of the music of a given period. Other books (Tad Szulc's Chopin in Paris, for instance) might give a better impression of Chopin's daily life, but this book does a fine job of relating the life to the music. The musicological passages are fairly sophisticated -- a grounding in music theory is assumed -- but if you have such a grounding, there are fine insights to be found here. I was most pleased, for instance, to note that Sampson had observed the similarities between the Nocturne in F (Opus 15 #1) and the Ballade #2 in A Minor, something I had long been aware of but had not seen addressed in Chopin criticism.

Samson's examination of genre is illuminating too -- he tries to perceive Chopin's music not as an absolute frozen in amber, but rather from the perspective of its own time, an era full of contrasting and overlapping genre conventions.