“It is rarely played.  Its absolute simplicity of texture may lead performers to experiment with ornamentation, but I believe that it is an expression of Chopin’s new direction, in the difficult few years at the end of his life, towards a directness and purity of expression.  The Polonaise-Fantasy has somewhat the same mood, although it is much more elaborate.  The little nocturne is a tragic whisper.”

Chopin Biographer Arthur Hedley once wrote: “From the great Italian singers of the age [Chopin] learned the art of ’singing’ on the piano, and his nocturnes reveal the perfection of his cantabile style and delicate charm of ornamentation.”

Recent scholarship by some musicologists hear the song of a sorrowful Venetian gondolier (borrowed from Italian opera composer Giaocchino Rossini, whom Chopin greatly admired) in the undulating Nocturne in C minor, the 21st and final essay in the genre that Chopin perfected. It dates from 1847, just two years before Chopin’s death, but was not published until decades later.

• Listen to Nocturne in C Minor, KK 1233-5 by Fryderyk Chopin
  performed by Arthur Greene recorded live at the University of Michigan’s Britton Recital Hall
• Download sheetmusic for Nocturne in C Minor, KK 1233-5 by Fryderyk Chopin

Sejm declares 2010 Year of Chopin
Thenews.pl – Warsaw,Poland

The Polish Parliment makes an Official Proclamation, preceded by “lively debate.” And just what DID happen to the Piano in the House?

The Sejm, Polish lower chamber of parliament, has unanimously passed a bill declaring 2010 the Year of Frederic Chopin.

The vote on the bill was preceded by a lively debate. Minister of Culture Bogdan Zdrojewski stated that the primary objective would be to celebrate and popularize the work of Chopin, adding that the celebrations around the Year of Frederic Chopin, which also marks his 200th birthday anniversary, will require a certain amount of organized effort.

Zrojewski concluded in saying that some work is already in progress, like renovating the seat of the Frederic Chopin Association (TFIC) in Warsaw.

Wide-ranging preparations for the Chopin Year also include a thorough refurbishment of the manor house in Zelazowa Wola near Warsaw, the composer’s birthplace, and the opening of a Chopin Centre in Warsaw.

MP Tadeusz Cymanski from the Law and Justice (PiS) opposition reminded his colleagues that there was a piano on display in the parliament’s building since 1989 but it was sold last year in what could be regarded as rather unclear circumstances. Cymanski expressed hope that the instrument will return to the Sejm.

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Chopin: 10 steps to greatness
Telegraph.co.uk – United Kingdom

Coinciding with the launch of the BBC Radio 3 Chopin broadcast extravaganza – a Top Ten-type list of reasons of what makes Fryderyk so distinct:

4 Conquering the world

Chafing in Warsaw, the 21-year-old Chopin set off round Europe, pitching up in 1831 in Paris. Within a few months he was friendly with writers such as Victor Hugo, painters such as Delacroix and of course musicians including Liszt and Berlioz. All these arts were becoming more “poetic”, but what Paris lacked was a “poet of the piano”. Chopin was attractively melancholy, always à la mode, and had impeccable manners.

5 Being the perfect romantic

In 1832 Chopin gave his first concert in Paris. He hated the experience, and in all his life gave no more than 30. But those were enough to make him the perfect image of the romantic pianist. One critic said: “Nothing equals the lightness, the sweetness with which this artist preludes on the piano.” Chopin’s Nocturnes and Waltzes are the perfection of the Romantic miniature – but small doesn’t mean negligible. “Guns buried in flowers” is how Schumann described them.

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Whatever Happened to Michal Baranski?
All About Jazz – Philadelphia,PA,USA

A check-in on the careers of a trio of teen prodigies from Poland, including jazz/classical pianist Mateusz Kolakowski:

Nine years ago, the clarinetist, improvisational whistler and musical educator Brad Terry hosted in the United States three young musicians he had worked with in Poland. I mean young.

Mateusz Kolakowski, the pianist, was thirteen. In this picture from that period, we see him with Terry. Bassist Michal Baranski and drummer Tomek Torres were fifteen. Terry toured the country with them in his old Dodge van, overnighting in RV parks and driveways and playing whenever they could, sometimes in paying gigs.
[...]

As for Baranski’s former trio mates, Kolakowski is still pursuing Chopin, Paderewski and jazz. Torres, though he is Polish, is exploring his Latin heritage.

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Pianist Hamelin sets high bar
Denver Post – Denver,CO,USA

A preview to a Denver recital appearance by pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin, where he reveals his Chopin-inspired composing ambitions:

In addition to a couple of Haydn sonatas, two Chopin works and Leopold Godowsky’s Symphonic Metamorphoses on Johann Strauss’ “Wine, Women and Song,” Hamelin will perform two of his recently composed etudes.

“They are part of my soon-to-be-completed project to compose an etude in every minor key,” said the virtuoso, who began his piano studies at age 5 on the urging of his pharmacist father. “I was much younger when I started the project, but then, composing was never the preponderance of my work. I think of myself as a pianist who writes, not the other way around.”

Hamelin describes his compositional style as “tonal with lots of chromaticism.”

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A Bay Area reviewer isn’t quite ready to hand the Chopin crown to the hot young Polish pianist….

His performance May 4 at Le Petit Trianon in San Jose, which concluded with the Preludes, the full two dozen, was very, very good: Blechacz has an awesome command of the keyboard, plays with a stunning ease.

But he also seems to realize – I’m projecting here – that he needs to transcend his mechanics, to plumb the depths. So, at least on Sunday, amid the stream of jaw-dropping technique, he kept making these stabs at introspection. They didn’t exactly seem premeditated; in fact, they were charming. But they didn’t reach their marks.

He needs seasoning, in other words. And it will be interesting to follow him the next few years, to see where his huge gifts and his intuition lead him. [...]

After intermission came Chopin’s Preludes, exquisite and familiar.

In the first dozen, comprising Book I, Blechacz didn’t get past what we already know about them. For instance, No. 4, the famous E minor “Largo,” was all cliche: earnest melancholy.

But before beginning Book II, he drew out a handkerchief and wiped off the keys. It wasn’t meant as a symbolic gesture, yet, from that point on, his performance gained traction: pointillist bursts in No. 18, the F minor; anvil chords and brokenhearted lyricism in No. 20, the C minor; scary agitation in No. 22, the G minor.

No. 24 in D minor, the closer, ran out of drama; Blechacz seemed tired. But he recovered for the last encore, Moszkowski’s “La Jongleuse” (“The Lady Juggler”), a crazily difficult piece through which he flew with the greatest of ease. The amazing young man may as well have been pulling taffy.

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Magnetic Poles
guardian.co.uk – UK

Another glowing review for a journey through modern Poland by Australian author Michael Moran, who “had no links with Poland, other than a death bed pledge to his uncle to try to understand the patriotic roots of Chopin’s music.”

When Moran escapes the crumbling school, the book is lifted on to another plane. By following the course of the Vistula – one of the last great natural rivers in Europe – and then criss-crossing the country during the first international car rally in generations, he begins to fill the absences in our knowledge. On the road he relates – for example — the history of Partition, when thousands of intellectuals were forced to walk to Siberia – an 18-month journey – where they were chained to wheelbarrows night and day and worked to death. He considers our debt to the 8,500 Polish airmen whose élan and tactics helped to win the Battle of Britain. He details the iniquity of the Katyn massacre and betrayal of the Warsaw Uprising. He celebrates Chopin and the “frisson of close Polish dancing”. His breadth of knowledge is profound, his views opinionated, his writing passionate and heart-felt. The result is the best contemporary travel book on Poland, reminiscent in its finest moments of Patrick Leigh Fermor’s masterful Time of Gifts

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Gilmore Festival performer Stephen Hough masterfully executes …
Kalamazoo Gazette – MLive.com – Kalamazoo,MI,USA

The British pianist (recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant) writes the notes, then plays the program, to memorable effect…

The printed program notes, written by Hough himself, explained the first half of the concert centered on “Variations,” the second on the Waltz. He opened with Mendelssohn’s “Variations Serieuses,” Op. 54, comprised of two dozen very different variations. Quickly evident were Hough’s incredible hands and touch. Master of pianissimo and presto, he also commanded double fortes and andante passages; meanwhile his octave runs were unfailingly prodigious. [...]

Wed to his sensitive insights was extraordinary keyboard technique, evidenced further in the remainder of the program featuring Weber, Saint-Saens, Chabrier, Debussy and, fortunately for all, Chopin and Liszt.

Two familiar Chopin Waltzes –the C-sharp Minor, Op. 64, No. 2, and the A-flat Major, Op. 34, No. 1 — were gorgeously played. Each note was given full attention, as though never heard before. In the A-flat Major waltz, Hough showed uncanny ability to sound different melodic lines, played by a single hand. The effect was astonishing.

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Recital shows pianist Ohlsson at top of his game
Akron Beacon Journal – Akron,OH,USA

Whenever Garrick Ohlsson plays, Chopin is never very far away. First line says it all: “Garrick Ohlsson makes a virtue of middle age.”

Continuing in the key of C-sharp minor, Ohlsson knocked out a thrillingly fast and accurate version of the Chopin Etude Op. 10, No. 4. It was a wild ride that could only make you smile.

”One more?” Ohlsson silently mouthed to someone at the front of the audience, grinning as he asked. He proceeded with the Chopin Waltz in C-sharp minor, Op. 64, No. 2. Here, he dazzled with the delicacy and lightness of his playing.

Oh, yes, there was more before the encores. [...]

Finishing the first half with Chopin’s Sonata No. 3, Op. 58 was a move well calculated to get everyone buzzing with oohs and aahs. This was not the Chopin of a delicate aesthete but of a full-blooded romantic, with jaw-dropping fast runs and a galloping rhythmic drive in the finale.

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Ohlsson’s performance (above) also inspires a video posting on the blog below:

Chopin Prelude Op 45 Prelude No.16 Op.25 Garrick Ohlsson
By Cheryl and Janet Snell(Cheryl and Janet Snell)

Janet took our mom to see this pianist last night. He played three encores after a finger-crunching program. The Chopin was a sonata, not this Prelude, but you get the idea.
Scattered Light – http://snellsisters.blogspot.com/

Wagner without the words
The Star-Ledger – NJ.com – Newark,NJ,USA

Emanuel Ax plays “a concerto by a composer who never wrote an opera but was deeply influenced by bel canto vocalism (Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2).”

For the Chopin concerto, the soloist is Emanuel Ax, always welcome.

With his avuncular presence belying an acute touch, Ax knows the Chopin concertos inside out, having even recorded them both on a period instrument. Orchestral writing wasn’t this composer’s thing, but Ax made the keyboard lines shine like a buffed pearl. In the melodic Larghetto, he coaxed sighs without ever being fey, the minute hesitations seeming like dramatic inflections in an unspooling aria.

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Pianist flexes mastery with daunting program
San Jose Mercury News – CA, USA

Cult-figure pianist Konstantin Lifshitz plays an ambitious program that starts with Bach. “He then tackled all 12 of Chopin’s Op. 25 Études – and when was the last time you heard a pianist play the full dozen, and from memory? before conjuring the dread of midnight with some Schoenberg and wrapping up with Brahms’ gargantuan Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel.…”

The dozen Chopin studies, each demanding mastery of a particular technical concern, began with racing arpeggios, butterfly-soft, and ended with more racing arpeggios, stamped with a murderous clout. In between came galloping tempos and visits to windswept, desolate landscapes – and, except for a few short instances of over-pedaling, all of it was super-clear, voiced and colored to tell stories.

How the pianists in the audience felt listening to Lifschitz, it’s hard to imagine. Because he was not only whizzing through Chopin’s impossible sequences of parallel thirds (Étude No. 6 in G-sharp minor), hand-splitting sixths (No. 8 in D-flat major) and octaves (No. 10 in B minor), he was journeying through emotional worlds.

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Chopin in the Blogosphere:

Microphone Exhaustion
By GN

Pianist Grace Nikae blogs about her recording session….

Recording of the Schumann G- minor sonata was completed in the past two days, and due to scheduling conflicts for all the parties involved, recording of the Chopin third sonata will take place next month. If all goes well, …

Smack-dab in the middle of Chopin’s Op. 25 Etudes lies this unique and memorable piece that is unlike any other Chopin creation. And one that has generated a considerable amount of ink over the decades.

Sometimes it’s called the “‘Cello Etude,” because the prominent melody is in the left hand, approximating the range of a cello. Others have called it “A Duet between a He and a She.” Or perhaps you prefer “Morbidly Elegaic?” Ballade-like? A Missing Nocturne?

Another school of thought says plainly: It’s an Etude. It’s supposed to help you with perfecting you piano technique. And the technique here is an exquisitely difficult phrasing and balance question – making the left hand carry the melody without being overpowered by the right — when the natural tendency is to go the other way.

Oh, and just to mess you up a little further, the left and right hand are playing quite independent musical lines that need to coincide at key moments.

So, for the final word, let’s transport you back to G.C. Ashton Jonson, author of the 1905 tome A Handbook to Chopin’s Works: (For the Use of Concert-Goers, Pianists, and Pianola Players):

Hear Chopin Project Artistic Director Arthur Greene perform Chopin’s unique Etude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 25, No. 7.

Read the Wikipedia entry here.

Read the Chopinmusic.net entry here.

• Download sheetmusic for Etude in C-sharp minor, Op. 25 No. 7 by Fryderyk Chopin

ISO hands pianist Chen the keys to Chopin piece
Springfield State Journal Register – Springfield,IL,USA

Preview of Illinois Symphony Orchestra performance featuring Chinese pianist (and “Crystal Award” winner (3rd prize) at the 2005 Van Cliburn Competition) Sa Chen:

With the ISO, she will perform Frederic Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor. Chen sees what’s often called a light orchestral accompaniment as a dialogue between soloist and ensemble.

“It’s sentimental, dramatic and operatic, and it’s, in many ways, like a conversation with a lot of musically folksy elements,” Chen says of the Polish composer’s work.

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Warsaw city Chopin piano stunt
Thenews.pl – Warsaw,Poland

Could this be a late-breaking April 1 story?

The PR department at Warsaw city council is thinking of throwing pianos out of windows as a public relations exercise to publicise the capital.

During the anti-Tsarist Uprising of 1863, Chopin’s piano was thrown out of the window of his sister’s apartment by the soldiers of the Tsar and smashed on the street below.

The PR Department in the Warsaw City council has come up with an idea of drawing on that historical episode in the promotion of Warsaw to tourists.

Vienna has its Mozart, London has its Sherlock Holmes, why not throw replicas of grand pianos out of the window as a promotion gimmick, Warsaw PR people say….

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Celebrated pianist Lifschitz draws inspiration from natural forces
San Jose Mercury News – CA, USA

Preview and profile of pianist Konstantin Lifshitz, as a prelude to his April 10 performances and masterclasses in San Jose…

He’s including the 12 Études of Chopin’s Opus 25 in preparation for a week of master classes at Aix-en-Provence, and concludes the recital with Brahms’ Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel. In between he’s slipping in Schoenberg’s Three Piano Pieces, Op. 11, the composer’s early, bracing venture into atonality. While he commits most of the music he performs to memory, he’ll have the Schoenberg sheet music on hand. Lifschitz may be a genius, but he’s not foolhardy.

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Pianist prepares for weekend of favorites with PSO
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review – Pittsburgh,PA,USA

Emanuel Ax comes to Steel City to play and share some thoughts about his “musical first love:”

Ax recalls that he began playing Chopin when he was 7 or 8. “I’m Polish by birth. All Polish pianists play Chopin, quite apart from him being a large part of every pianist’s life, really.

“I certainly love Chopin as much as any composer. He was probably my first love in the sense that I also grew up with (Arthur) Rubinstein, who was known to me as ‘the Chopin pianist.’ He played a lot else marvelously, too.”

Ax’s family moved to Canada in 1959 and settled in New York City in 1961. After studying at the Juilliard School of Music and Columbia University, he began winning piano competitions. But his career really took off after winning first prize in the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in 1974.

“After I won, he was very kindly. When he came to New York several times a year, he always found a little time for me. We had a few lessons, among them the Chopin F minor Concerto. He had a lot of stuff to say, unbelievably exact and instructive. I got to have dinner with him a few times, too. I was moving in high circles,” says the modest pianist.

Chopin and Debussy “are the most astonishingly original composers I know, Ax says. “With Beethoven, you see it’s incredible music, but you can trace connections to Mozart and Haydn writing at the time. Chopin comes from Warsaw and explodes on the scene. It’s a pretty revolutionary way of hearing music.”

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‘Forever’ Celebrates Life
OhmyNews International – South Korea

Glowing review of director Heddy Honigmann’s documentary “Forever”

Shot at the world famous Pere-Lachaise cemetery, the largest in Paris, the film explores the thoughts and feelings of those who have come to the gravesites to pay tribute to famous people such as Chopin, Modigliani, Apollonaire, Balzac, Proust and Oscar Wilde as well as ordinary folk who lived and loved and have been remembered. It is a moving experience that engages both the mind and the heart.

The film opens with the story of pianist Yoshino Kimura, a young Asian woman who performs the work of Frederic Chopin as a means of connecting with her deceased father who loved his music. Scenes of Kimura playing the pensive melodies of Chopin’s Nocturnes in concert are shown as the camera offers loving close ups of the pianist, the emotion revealed in her eyes.

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Prestigious Gilmore Music Festival brings pianist to Albion
Battle Creek Enquirer – Battle Creek,MI,USA

Preview of April 26th concert featuring Gilmore Young Artist (and multiple Chopin award-winner) Naomi Kudo:

Although she’s only 20 years old, the Asian-American Kudo is a veteran of numerous international competitions. During the past three years alone, Kudo is the 2007 winner of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, too second prize at the 2005 U.S. National Chopin and was the only American finalist at the 2005 Chopin Piano Competition in Poland. She has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Fukui Symphony Orchestra and numerous other U.S. ensembles.

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Chopin in the Blogosphere:

SPOTLIGHT: Marjorie Vincent, “Fantasie-Impromptu” by Frédéric …

By Ike(Ike)

From the “Fly Funky Diva” blog, memories of a Miss America with some major Chopin mojo….

Marjorie’s piano rendition of this Chopin masterpiece went down as one of the most brilliant talent performances in Miss America history. She also looked incredible! Marjorie Vincent was crowned Miss America this year making her the fourth african-american woman to hold the title.

Fly Funky Diva – http://flyfunkydiva.blogspot.com/

Project Launch to host Autism Benefit Concert
Woodlands Online, LLC – The Woodlands,TX,USA

A preview of a benefit concert by Dariusz Pawlas for Project Launch – a Texas-based organization that While the April concert centers on Autism, the overall target population of Project Launch includes children and adults with myriad conditions that significantly impair their ability to learn fully, encompassing those with ADD/ADHD; Dyslexia; Autism; Aspergers; Depression; Bipolar Disorder; Tourette’s Syndrome; Mental Retardation; Cerebral Palsy, etc.;

Now a teacher of piano at both Rice University and the University of Texas in Austin, Dr. Pawlas is famous for performing in Frederyk Chopin’s home at the Poland International Festival. Dr. Pawlas has performed in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Greece, Holland, Italy, and Chopin’s birthplace in Zelazowa Wola, as well as the Polish Embassy in Washington, D.C. He is the winner of the prestigious Estrada Mlodych Polish Piano Festival and recipient of the Frederyk Chopin Society of Warsaw scholarship.

Dr. Pawlas was born in Poland in the Silesian city of Rybnik, where he began his musical studies at age five. He graduated with the highest honors from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, and Rice University in Houston. Earning recognition internationally for his extraordinary talent, Dr. Pawlas has played with the Silesian Philharmonic of Katowice and Artur Rubenstein Philharmonic in Lodz.

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Art Talk: Ax, von Stade show why live music is better than recorded
The Capital Times – Madison,WI,USA

More praise for Emanuel Ax’s performance of the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Madison Symphony Orchestra….

But the heart of the MSO concert for me, a avowed piano fan, was Ax (whose picture by J. Henry Fairfax is at the top). The quicksilver fleetness of the notes, the delicacy of the articulation and lightness of the touch, the rich tone, the lyrical legato – it all made for an experience that was memorable and nothing short of extraordinary.

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Participant extols virtues of festival; Amanda Salvati returns to …
Orillia Packet & Times – Orillia,Ontario,Canada
“My parents can attest to the fact they have woken up to Beethoven and been lulled to sleep by Chopin on more than one occasion.” She’ll never forget being …
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Lang Lang: Subtlety in absentia
Dallas Morning News – Dallas,TX,USA

L.L. Flails in Fort Worth, to the dismay of a Dallas critic…

Subtlety isn’t Mr. Lang’s forte. With Liszt’s chattering and booming octaves sometimes pounded within inches of the Steinway’s life, with the simple little tune so pushed and pulled that it was sometimes barely identifiable as such, this was vulgarity in excelsis.

In the Chopin E major Etude, [Op. 10 No. 3] played as an encore, excessive rubato distorted the main tune, and the middle section was crudely banged. It sounded like a parody of Liszt parodying Chopin.

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Chopin in the Blogosphere:

Étude in E Opus 10 [No. 3]: Frédéric Chopin
By Ralph(Ralph)

Speaking of Lang Lang’s encore…

The main theme to this work, popularized as “No Other Love,” and the one translated into “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows,” are the two most well-known of Chopin’s melodies. If you’ve never heard the lovely real thing, here it is. There was a time when I could play this thing, except for the middle part. Most avocational pianists will say the same thing.

Days of Transition – http://daysoftransition.blogspot.com/

Pastor: Homenaje A Chopin for Guitar
By guitartuitionbooksdvds

Fresh posting of a piece by Spanish guitar composer Segundo Pastor.….

click here to learn more.
Guitar Tuition Books Dvds – http://guitartuitionbooksdvds.com/

Review of a CD compendium of two recitals (in 1984 and 1987) given by the venerable Polish pianist at the Aldeburgh Festival:

If ever a musician could be “venerated,” it would have to be Mieczyslaw Horszowski (1892-1993), the Polish virtuoso who excelled as solo pianist, teacher, and accompanist, and whose “staying power“ at his chosen instrument lasted 80 years. A pupil of Theodor Leschetizky, Horszowski mastered every degree of nuanced keyboard playing without percussiveness, and the entire Slavic-German repertory lay under his command. [...]

Horszowski opens with an homage to his dear friend, Pablo Casals – an extensive Prelude that plays like a nocturne, dramatic in parts with touches of what sound like Rachmaninov’s famed C-sharp Minor effort. Horszowski takes a broad tempo for the first movement of the Chopin B Minor, allowing Chopin’s modal counterpoint to shine through as well as the second subject to bask in burnished space. The development becomes thick without succumbing to metrical sag or emotional pretentiousness. Horszowski has a few finger slips in the gnarly Scherzo, which he takes rather gingerly. Despite the flaws, the music enjoys the contours of a water-piece, Debussy not far away. The third movement Largo seeks a balance of nocturne and barcarolle, in which Horszowski imbues the repeated arpeggios and colored chords with timeless, singing reverie. Herculean efforts move the Presto movement forward, Horszowski’s attacking the galloping figures with the audacity of one two generations younger than he. At the last chord, the audience whoops its appreciation for the gallant efforts.

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‘Chaos’ comes to Beirut for the first time
Daily Star – Lebanon – Beirut,Lebanon

Review of a Beirut recital by Lebanese composer-pianist Rami Khalifé:

Khalifé began Wednesday’s concert with a selection of Chopin “Etudes.” Presumably he wanted to shake off the nerves and warm up his hands. Having the contemporary centerpiece prefaced by the work of one of the best-loved composers of the romantic period also satisfied those especially fond of a better established repertoire – indeed, the audience erupted with applause after each etude.

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For piano lovers in Madison, this is a week to savor
The Capital Times – Madison,WI,USA

Emanuel Ax comes to the Wisconsin capital, Chopin in tow….

It starts with three performances by the Madison Symphony Orchestra with Emanuel Ax soloing in Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor. (Actually it was Chopin’s first concerto, but was published second.) The first might be more virtuosic and sophisticated in its composition, but the second has tender beauty to behold, nowhere more so than in the opening of the slow second movement, a love song by the 20-year-old composer.

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Vivid tribute show transforms theater into old Paris salon
San Jose Mercury News – CA, USA

Another glowing review for the San Francisco production of “Pauline Viardot and Friends,” with special praise for soprano Melody Moore…

“Pauline Viardot and Friends” traced the outline of her life, from her early training under her strict father, Spanish tenor and voice teacher Manuel García, to her friendships with Chopin and George Sand. As her fame grew, so did her circle; she often entertained friends such as Charles Dickens, Henry James and Ivan Turgenev.

Despite her marriage to a much older man, Turgenev, explained Horne, became her lifelong amour.

“He became part of the family,” Horne said. “It’s hard to say which part, exactly – there’s probably a word for it in French.”

[...]

Moore, who has sung capably in small roles with the San Francisco Opera, gave a performance suggesting she is ready for center stage. After the big vocal leaps of “Coquette,” Viardot’s arrangement of a Chopin mazurka, Moore finessed the composer’s “The Oak and the Reed” and “Hermione,” and returned with a powerhouse performance of “Gods of the Styx” from Gluck’s “Alceste.”See all stories on this topic

A night of solo Chopin with Louis Lortie
Ottawa Citizen – Ontario, Canada

Preview of Canadian pianist’s April 1 performance of the complete Etudes:

“Better Chopin playing than this is not to be heard, not anywhere,” wrote a Financial Times critic after star Canadian pianist Louis Lortie performed Chopin …

Chopin’s complete Études are made up of the Twelve Études, Op. 10; the Trois nouvelles Études and the Twelve Études, Op. 25. Lortie’s recording of the Études was cited in a special piano issue of BBC Music Magazine as one of “50 Recordings by Superlative Pianists.”

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Chopin Videos:

Road Songs (Richter plays Chopin Revolutionary Etude)
By CubanInLondon(CubanInLondon)

From the “CubaninLondon” blog, a breathtaking Sviatoslav Richter performance:

When in 1831, Chopin’s étude opus 10, number 12, saw the light, Russian troops were about to crush the ‘November Uprising’ in Poland, The musician, unable to assist his fellow countrypeople, resorted to the only weapon he had, his piano. To me this piece is representative of a feeling that encompasses not just the love for one’s homeland, but disdain for those who try to keep it down. Intoxicating.

CubanInLondon – http://cubaninlondon.blogspot.com/

Chopin in the Blogosphere:

On Chopin, Vanguard, and Bosomy Winged Avengers
By Adam Tiler

The importance of good music in gamecraft…

I appreciated the Chopin in Hellfire Peninsula, and wish Blizzard would do more like that, but the rest is B quality at best. Vanguard, for all its faults, had beautiful music (under Media). Todd Masten is a master of thematic music to …

Mahogany Finish – http://www.mahoganyfinish.org

my heart aches
By alyson.(alyson.)

Piano memories from a Portland blogger…

I fell in love with Debussy, twisted my fingers learning Brahms, and wanted to learn every Chopin waltz written. every year, I competed in a local and state level for piano. each year I played in the solo competition, …

unruly.things – http://unruly-things.blogspot.com/

Rubinstein Piano Competition / The heat that shuffled the deck
Ha’aretz – Tel Aviv,Israel

Bravos for the competitors, brickbats for the orchestra, in the latest dispatch from Tel Aviv:

Contestant Irina Zahharenkova, for instance, chose Chopin’s Concerto No. 2. Based on her interpretation of the slow movement of Mozart’s Concerto no. 23, a tender and unconventionally expressive performance which attempted to transcended plain technique, her interpretation of Chopin is likely to be more skillful and interesting.

[...]

The one participant that no one feels like hearing at this stage any more, is conductor Uri Segal and the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. Listening to Segal lead the solos was a nerve wracking experience as it sounded as if the musicians were walking on thin ice: Will they fall due to the incorrect balance? Can they get passed the missed entries, unstable tempo and lack of rhythm?

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Ferdinand Hiller: Piano Concertos Nos. 1, 2 & 3
Musical Criticism – London,UK

Review of a new CD of piano concertos by Chopin contemporary Ferdinand Hiller, featuring pianist Howard Shelley and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra:

Once again, Hyperion uncovers the work of yet anther ‘unknown’ composer who possessed deep ties with the great and the good of nineteenth-century music. Indeed, a highly curtailed biography of Ferdinand Hiller (1811-1885) proves to be nothing more than a gross exercise in name-dropping: pupil of Hummel, protégé of Cherubini, acquaintance of Rossini and Berlioz, friend of Liszt and Chopin, deputy conductor of Mendelssohn’s Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and composition teacher of Max Bruch (amongst others). He was a vaunted pianist in an age of burgeoning virtuosity and a composer of great potential, though his creative legacy has now been largely forgotten.

[...]

Even the early, bravura F-minor concerto is full of deft wit and charm, its finale a magnificent and forward-looking crossbreed of waltzes by Chopin and Johann Strauss that allows Shelley to exploit his magnificent pianism to the full.
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Chopin Videos:

Chopin FTW
By djsunkid(djsunkid)

More Chopin for Math geeks….

Hey, I think I like chopin! Check out these awesome reasons why! Mostly this is just a reminder to myself to get more Chopin. Woo!
raHr! – http://djsunkid.livejournal.com/

Valentina Lisitsa Chopin 24 Etude Op. 25 No. 6
By www.japanvideogames.com(www.japanvideogames.com)

Embedded Video. This piece is soooo hard to play at that speed, if you’ve ever seen the notes on sheetmusicarchive.net, it’s a straight killer, major SKILLS, insta-watch when DONE. Blogged with the Flock Browser.
Interesting Things For you Late @ Night – http://yayyuh.blogspot.com/

Lang Lang plays Chopin with an Orange!

Citrus-flavored performance of the “Black Keys” (Op. 10 No. 5) Etude…

The best musicians in the world have great sense of humor and tend to be pretty easy going. Here’s an example.
Amore is in the Aire – http://prplppleater.multiply.com/

Today’s Yundi Li Installment:

Yundi Li, pianist
Financial Times – London,England,UK

From the Financial Times, Yundi Li shares his fashion faves:

I wore this today because it’s comfortable but tonight (in Hong Kong to accept the South China Morning Post and Harper’s Bazaar Style Award for Performing Arts) I will wear a Gucci suit. I like Gucci because it’s fashionable and modern. I also buy Dior Homme because it has a unique and special look that I love. A classical musician has no choice but to wear a traditional outfit when performing. Armani sponsors the tailcoat I wear for performances….

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Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews (Besides Yundi Li):

Frederica von Stade sings Pauline Viardot
San Francisco Chronicle – CA, USA

After all of the advance stories, a bona fide review of the Pauline Viardot program:

After performances in London and Paris, “Pauline Viardot and Friends” had its U.S. premiere Thursday at Herbst Theatre. With Marilyn Horne serving as armchair narrator and host, a la Alistair Cooke, the program unfolded as a genial, if sometimes labored, introduction to a figure who is surely new to most listeners. The emphasis landed where it belonged – on the variety of sweet-natured, charming, sometimes melodramatic and occasionally gripping music Viardot wrote.

Mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, soprano Melody Moore and baritone Vladimir Chernov performed 14 selections by Viardot, and three by other composers. The Viardot pieces ranged from airy meditations on nature and a winsome Chopin mazurka transcription to a feverish “Incantation” and a love duet from her operetta “Cendrillon.

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Canadian piano virtuoso Louis Lortie performs Chopin Etudes on the …
Ottawa Start (press release) – Ottawa,ON,Canada

Preview of the Canadian pianist’s March 31 appearance in Ottawa…

Following a recital by Canadian pianist Louis Lortie of Chopin Etudes in London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Financial Times wrote: “Better Chopin playing than this is not to be heard, not anywhere….”

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Chopin in the Blogosphere:

Review: Chopin Vodka

By cnull

From “The Essential Blog for the Discriminating Drinker:”

You’re a famous 19th century composer. What are the odds that someone is going to take your good name and turn it into a vodka 150 years later?

The connection is Poland, where Chopin lived and vodka was (allegedly) born. Chopin is a traditional potato vodka, from Polish potatoes. Despite the fancy, frosted glass bottle, it has a very traditional flavor for potato vodkas, too. …

Drinkhacker.com – http://www.drinkhacker.com

eternal sonata

By david carlton

Another review of the video game…

I pretty much decided I had to play it as soon as I heard that it took place in the imagination of a dying Frederic Chopin; they didn’t do as much with that theme as they could have, but there were other compensating virtues. …

malvasia bianca – http://malvasiabianca.org

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

Lauded opera legend Viardot honored in tailor-made show
Examiner.com – USA

Rave review for theatrical/music program dedicated to Chopin amie Pauline Viardot (see previous entry):

Their combined brilliance is astounding. Two of America’s greatest living mezzos, Frederica von Stade and Marilyn Horne, are about to join forces with superb Verdi baritone Vladimir Chernov, stage director and former San Francisco Opera General Manager Lofti Mansouri, fast-rising gifted soprano Melody Moore and San Francisco Symphony’s own Peter Grunberg to present two evenings of “Pauline Viardot and Friends.” These will be nights to remember.

So great was her artistry that Chopin, Liszt, Berlioz, Gounod, Meyerbeer, Saint-Saëns, Schumann and Fauré all composed or dedicated works for her. …
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Li builds slowly, dazzles fans in Troy
Schenectady Gazette – Schenectady,NY,USA

More of the Yundi Li – Lang Lang traveling road show. First, Yundi Li at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall:

“Chopin’s famous Nocturne in E-flat Major, known to every pupil who’s played Chopin, was interesting in his softer tone, blurred images and introspective mood. Rather than knock out the final page as most pianists do, Li spun out the notes with a fluid nonchalance but kept the dynamic within the pensive range. It was a rather lovely choice.”

In four of Chopin’s Mazurkas from his Op. 33, his tone had a hard edge, but his pacing, technical cleanness, emphasis of the inner voices and pedaling were …
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Subtleties to Showmanship: Pianistic Duality on Display
New York Times – United States

….and Lang Lang plays Manhattan:

A particularly telling example of this duality was Mr. Lang’s single encore, Chopin’s Étude in E (Op. 10, No. 3). He played its outer sections with a …
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Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

Chinese pianist hits all right notes in concert
Colorado Springs Gazette – Colorado Springs,CO,USA

Glowing review of pianist Joyce Yang’s appearance with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic…

But it was her performance of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 that proved that she’s also an assured and original interpreter. Above all, she’s a master of …
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MEET VIARDOT
San Francisco Chronicle – CA, USA

Preview of “Pauline Viardot and Friends,” a full-length theatrical celebration of Viardot’s life and art presented by San Francisco Performances and hosted by Marilyn Horne:

“…Pauline Viardot, the brilliant and charismatic mezzo-soprano who conquered the stages – and boudoirs – of 19th century Europe over the course of a long and varied career. Who knows of her today?

Her intellectual gifts – she spoke six languages fluently – brought her the friendship of many of the leading cultural figures of the day, including Chopin, …
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Chopin a la Midi:

Etude #1 (Chopin) revised

MIDI version of Chopin’s Op. 10 No. 1 Etude:

One more pass on this one, this time with an enhanced bass part. I don’t know how I would percuss. this one, but I may revisit this in the future. Trying to work out the EQ and compression, but I am still new at the FL Studio controls. …
bandamp – http://forum.bandamp.com/

Kicking against convention: a scene from The Concert, a clever and …
This is London – London,England,UK

Another one of Jerome Robbins’ famous interpretations of Chopin, from the New York City Ballet performance at the London Coliseum….(be sure to read the Comments for an opposing viewpoint)

The Concert, for example, is a clever and poignant take on Chopin that gently mocks the absurdities of ballet and the suggestibility of music. …
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‘I Think of Us as a Musical Species’
Spiegel Online – Berlin,Germany

Chopin is on the mind of noted neurologist and author (“Musicophilia”) Dr. Oliver Sacks...

Oliver Sacks: A Chopin mazurka is coming to me. It is one in B flat major, and I feel an itch in my hands to play it. I can sort of see the keyboard in …
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Chopin in the Blogosphere:

Lang Lang @ Kennedy Center
ionarts by Charles T. Downey | Thursday, March 13, 2008

D.C.-area arts & culture blog weighs in on Lang Lang’s Monday night recital: Praise for Bartok; horror for Chopin:

With the final work, Chopin’s A-flat polonaise (op. 53), and the encores, Lang seemed to be making up for lost time, trying to inject a whole evening’s virtuosity into the space of a few minutes. The Chopin came across like a Duchamp-esque rewrite of a familiar masterpiece, played so fast that all of Chopin’s operatic relish of bel canto flourishes was simply steamrollered over in the process. The first encore, a Chopin étude (op. 10, no. 3), was calm and sad, with a blindingly fast middle section.

Martha Argerich Plays Chopin: The Legendary 1965 Recording
By admin0

Superlatives for a long-suppressed recording out on CD:

Lost is Found, finally
This Argerich Chopin performance, recorded by EMI in 1965 while she was actually under contract to DG is formidable for an artist so early in her career. Both the artistry and sound are superb and it’s a shame we fans had to wait so long for this recording to appear. These Chopin performances completely justify the competition judges decision to award her the grand prize at the 1965 Warsaw International Chopin Competition. It’s a collection must have!

Chopin himself would have gone into ecstasy listening to Martha Argerich play his music. It is impossible to find anyone else with such incredible, awesome, impossible ability to impart such emotional energy to a piano. …
Seek & Buy Audio CD – http://vinylrecords.890m.com/wordpress

♯Four
By Frederic Francois Chopin(Frederic Francois Chopin)

Another “journal entry” from our favorite poet of the piano….(note: must be 14 to enter site…)

So it would seem I have been using my days to find inspiration for my music, and have yet to come across any such inspiration on my part. It is rather down hearting to not be able to find anything I can use as inspiration for my music; …
The piano is his way of life – http://pianopoet.livejournal.com/

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

Music and ‘the Man’

In-depth profile of pianist Byron Janis, who describes his affinity for Chopin:

But it was a Polish composer who may have had the greatest influence: Chopin was always a favorite, and Janis returned the favor, credited with discovering two once-lost Chopin waltzes, a find called “the most dramatic musical discovery of our age.”

At 80, Janis reflects: “It was a defining moment of my life; I felt like I was being led to them.”

He has taken the lead since that 1967 discovery of the 1832 waltz works, which Chopin had written “for a lady friend; how he loved the women.”
Jewish Exponent – Philadelphia,PA,USA
And Chopin has touched his lively life in many ways. The McKeesport, Pa., kid of Russian-Jewish heritage who was born Byron Yanks is a Yankee Doodle Dandy …
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Two-Part Tribute to Byron Janis Begins March 8

More on Byron Janis….

Playbill.com – New York,NY,USA
At 6 PM March 10, “An Evening of Song with Pianist as Composer with a Touch of Chopin” will be offered. The concert will feature a host of theatre …
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Chopin in the Blogosphere:

Room for improvement

Fascinating discussion on a music-instruction blogsite using a Chopin Etude to illustrate the teaching of harmony…

By Alan Coady
It’s of Chopin’s Etude Op 10 No 1. There are more professional performances of this on YouTube but many are so fast that it’s difficult to hear the detail. This one, although not entirely error-free does have a certain tenderness about …
Alan Coady’s Musical Blog – http://edubuzz.org/blogs/alancoady

Chopin
By That Canadian Guy(That Canadian Guy)
So apparently there is a videogame based loosely on Chopin’s life. It’s called ‘Eternal Sonata’. Chopin is actually a playable character, and his music is found throughout. The character looks like Chopin as well. …
Life, Love, and Everything In Between – http://madman-ramblings.blogspot.com/

Chopin in the Videosphere:

YouTube – Yundi Li plays Chopin Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2

Ignore the incorrectly-embedded title of it being “Op. 66″

Yundi Plays Chopin! … Related Videos. Maurizio Pollini plays Chopin Nocturne no. 8 op. 27 no. 2. 04:43 From: joynes89. Views: 366648 …

Chopin News, Previews, Rants, and Reviews:

Live: Lang Lang

Yesterday we brought you two views of Yundi Li; today it’s the “other” superstar Chinese pianist’s turn. Mark Swed of the LA Times is both impressed and appalled:

Tuesday night, he [Lang Lang] returned to Walt Disney Concert Hall for a recital. The place was, inevitably, packed. The audience was antsy, wanting fireworks, and Lang Lang eventually delivered. First, though, he had to prove he was a poet.

“He is a poet. But he is an immature poet with a nuclear arsenal, and that makes him a very dangerous poet. The nuclear part of the weaponry is a killer technique. The threat is in the delivery system. He has the charisma to hold an audience in his power. Responsibility, though, is another matter….

“Lang Lang has inherited Liberace’s curse. Once the audience knows what he can do, he must give it what it wants. And each time, he must outdo himself. In the single encore, Chopin’s Etude, Opus 10, No. 3, he outdid himself….

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Flashy pianist Lang startlingly graceful in Houston show

The headlines says it all…Houston Chronicle reviewer Everett Evans on the hand is pleasantly surprised…

“Lang Lang is renowned for flash as well as artistry — and he didn’t disappoint fans on either count in his performance of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 Thursday night with the Houston Symphony. Yet the predominant quality that distinguished his performance was grace.

“The famous mannerisms, swaying moves and transported expressions — symbols of the artist not only performing but feeling the music — were present, but less frequent and more subdued than in some of his past performances. But then Chopin is not Beethoven nor Rachmaninoff and this work calls for a more quicksilver approach, more moments of delicacy and fewer of bravado.”

Houston Chronicle – United States
By EVERETT EVANS Lang Lang is renowned for flash as well as artistry — and he didn’t disappoint fans on either count in his performance of Chopin’s Piano …
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Renowned pianist next door

A preview of a Baltimore-area recital by Korean-turned-Columbia, MD resident Eun Joo Chung, which includes with a bravura piece of Chopiniana:

Chopin paired the serenely rippling Andante spianato with its extroverted and rousing opposite, the Grande Polonaise Brillante in E flat major, which was originally written for piano and orchestra..

While Sunday’s program certainly requires virtuosity, Chung hopes that the audience will take away something more. “If the performer is able to invite me into the music, I feel that it is a very intimate conversation taking place as opposed to a show or a display,” she says.

Baltimore Sun – United States
With the exception of the Chopin, the music on the program is based on variation; a short musical phrase is repeated and developed, becoming more intricate …
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Chopin: Preludes; etc, Alexandre Tharaud

A more tepid review of the new Harmonia Mundi CD from the UK Guardian. Critic Andrew Clements likes the Chopin all right, but is less taken by the pairings…

He follows the Op 28 set of the 24 Preludes with a curious little sequence that interleaves more of Chopin’s miniatures, including the three posthumous studies and the much more substantial C sharp minor Prelude Op 45, with three pieces by Frederic Mompou. Tharaud describes the Mompou as “a more recent, more intimate echo of the Chopin” and plays it with the same care and sensitivity he lavishes on the more famous works, without ever disguising the fact that it has very little real musical substance.

Guardian – UK
Though his repertory ranges from Couperin right up to Kagel, Chopin seems to be a speciality of Tharaud’s. This disc of the Preludes follows an earlier one …
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CHOPIN: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 11; Piano Concerto No 2…

Nice review of Music & Arts reissue of pianist Paul Badura-Skoda’s recording of the two piano concertos with Artur Rodzinski and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra:

“Badura-Skoda passes off Chopin’s roulades and tricky accents in the manner of an intimate series of etudes, here much closer to the Chopin who dazzled George Sand. Rarely does Badura-Skoda take a repeat in the same manner, always shading the rhythm or the harmony with subtle touches of diaphanous color. Formidable!”

Audiophile Audition – USA

The Viennese tradition in Badura-Skoda pays elegant stylistic homage to Chopin, though we could argue that the performances are more of Hummel than the …
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Popcorn Panel: The Other Boleyn Girl

A trio of Canadian film critics nominate historical films they like a lot better than the current Portman/ScarJo bodice-ripper…”Impromptu” gets the nod from one…. “an emo late-80s movie about the love affair between Chopin and George Sand. Hugh Grant is appropriately floppy-haired as Chopin, and Judy David is an extremely overwrought George Sand. And Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin are in it for no apparent reason.”

National Post – Toronto,Ontario,Canada

Almost as much as I loved Impromptu, an emo late-80s movie about the love affair between Chopin and George Sand. Hugh Grant is appropriately floppy-haired …
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Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

Review: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra at Auckland Town Hall

Lithuanian pianist Mûza Rubackyté getting some nice attention from the Kiwis: “The opening pages of Chopin’s E minor Piano Concerto can be worryingly stolid, but not on this occasion, with the tonal finesse that conductor Christian Knapp brought to them. The themes having been given out, pianist Muza Rubackyte proved the ideal muse to realise their poetry. Totally at one with Knapp’s orchestral blend, the Lithuanian came up with matchless octaves, glittering passagework and, above all, the most soulful of rubato….”

New Zealand Herald – New Zealand
The opening pages of Chopin’s E minor Piano Concerto can be worryingly stolid, but not on this occasion, with the tonal finesse that conductor Christian …
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Simon Trpceski, Perth Concert Hall

Another rave review for the much-buzzed-about Macedonian pianist. “His performance of Chopin’s Sonata No2 in B-flat minor was breathtaking – fresh, beautiful and simple.”

The Herald – Glasgow,Scotland,UK
Performing the works of Chopin, Debussy, Prokofiev and Rachmaninov, Trpceski’s technical ability was inspiring while his slower, sensitive playing was …
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Swedish pianist to perform in Istanbul

Peter Jablonski has got Chopin on the bill for a March 20th recital in Istanbul’s Lutfi Kirdar Convention Hall…

New Anatolian – Ankara,Turkey
Jablonski will play a selected repertoire from Haydn, Grieg, Szymanowski and Chopin at Istanbul’s Lutfi Kirdar Convention Hall. Jablonski is recognised as …
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Chopin in the Wired Weird Web:

chopin-op-25-01-a4

From the document-sharing site Docstoc, free downloads of Chopin sheet music. Latest installment is the Etude in A-flat, Op. 25, No. 1
By whitefang
1 13 Et ude As DurFrederic Chopin 1810 1849 Opus 25 Nr 1 3333 3333 4 5 33 2 333 3 4 104 sostenuto Allegro p3 33333 3333 2 4 2 2 3 2.
Docstoc feed for: creative – http://www.docstoc.com/documents/most-recent/

Thomas Pandolfi gives piano recital of Liszt, Scriabin, Chopin …

DC blogger reviews concert featuring several Chopin works, including the Etude Op, 10 #8 in F “sounding almost unplayable on white keys…”
By Bill Boushka(Bill Boushka)
The pianist offers several CDs, one of which (“Polish Masters”) includes the Paderewski Piano Concerto, and Chopin’s variations on the march theme from Bellini’s “The Puritans” which I had discussed on this blog Sept. 4, 2007.
Bill’s Drama and Music News and Reviews – http://billsdramareviews.blogspot.com/

Chopin: Prelude 15 Opus 28 “Raindrop”

Sonoma State flutist music student and blogger discovers Chopin via a video game….
By Emily(Emily)
I first heard Chopin’s “Raindrop” prelude in the Halo 3 “Believe” trailer for the game. As you know, I am learning piano this year, and although this piece is much too difficult for me to play right now, I would like to be able to play …
– http://tunethepiccolo.blogspot.com/

The world of music had never before known any etudes as original, as musical, or as difficult. — Frank Cooper

This is one of the best-known (and arguably, the most difficult!) of the set of twelve etudes Chopin dedicated to Franz Liszt. The Etudes were published in a single volume in 1833, when Chopin was 23, although four of them are supposed to have been completed as early as 1829.

“Etude” literally means “study” or “exercise,” which is especially apparent in this particular work, which is designed to strengthen the “weaker” (that is, the third, fourth, and fifth) fingers of the right hand. But Chopin doesn’t stop there: the thumb and index fingers have to play the accompanying chords to the dizzying melody going up and down the keyboard on those “weak” fingers.

Just to underscore the technical nature of this Etude, Chopin even takes a page from the J.S. Bach playbook and indicates the fingering – note by note — of the almost 800 notes in this piece!

Hear pianist Xiaofeng Wu perform Chopin’s tricky Etude in A minor, Op. 10, No.2 in concert.

Some other links to Chopin Etudes, courtesy of Wikipedia:

• The Ultimate Chopin Etudes Discography from Eternal Chopin Etudes Space
• Study Guide, Recordings and Sheet Music from Chopin Music
• Sheet music available in .pdf or LilyPond format, from Mutopia.

• Listen to Etude in A minor, Op. 10, No. 2 by Fryderyk Chopin
• Download sheetmusic for Etude in A minor, Op. 10, No. 2 by Fryderyk Chopin