Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times

Description

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. The Sunday Times (U.K.) Classical Music Book of 2018 and one of The Economist's Best Books of 2018. "A magisterial portrait." --Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, The New York Times Book Review A landmark biography of the Polish composer by a leading authority on Chopin and his time Based on ten years of research and a vast cache of primary sources located in archives in Warsaw, Paris, London, New York, and Washington, D.C., Alan Walker’s monumental Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times is the most comprehensive biography of the great Polish composer to appear in English in more than a century. Walker’s work is a corrective biography, intended to dispel the many myths and legends that continue to surround Chopin. Fryderyk Chopin is an intimate look into a dramatic life; of particular focus are Chopin’s childhood and youth in Poland, which are brought into line with the latest scholarly findings, and Chopin’s romantic life with George Sand, with whom he lived for nine years. Comprehensive and engaging, and written in highly readable prose, the biography wears its scholarship lightly: this is a book suited as much for the professional pianist as it is for the casual music lover. Just as he did in his definitive biography of Liszt, Walker illuminates Chopin and his music with unprecedented clarity in this magisterial biography, bringing to life one of the nineteenth century’s most confounding, beloved, and legendary artists. Title Page Copyright Notice Dedication List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Chopin Family Tree Prologue Chopin’s Family Background Childhood and Youth in Warsaw, 1810–1824 Exploring Poland: Holidays in Szafarnia, 1824–1825 The Decembrist Revolt, 1825–1826 At the Warsaw High School for Music, 1826–1828 First Trips Abroad: Berlin and Vienna, 1828–1829 Konstancja Gładkowska: The Distant Beloved, 1829–1830 The Warsaw Uprising, 1830–1831 An Exile in Paris, 1831–1833 Chopin and the Keyboard: The Raphael of the Piano Maria Wodzińska: “My Misfortune,” 1834–1837 An English Interlude, July 1837 Buffets and Rewards, 1833–1838 Enter George Sand, 1836–1838 A Winter in Majorca, 1838–1839 At Nohant, 1839 Growing Fame, 1839–1843 The Death of Mikołaj Chopin, 1844 A Harvest of Sorrows, 1845–1847 Deepening Shadows, 1847–1848 Twilight in Britain, 1848 The Death of Chopin, 1849 Epilogue Appendix: Liszt’s Questionnaire Concerning His Life of Chopin General Catalogue of Chopin’s Works List of Sources Notes Notes: Prologue Notes 1 Notes 2 Notes 3 Notes 4 Notes 5 Notes 6 Notes 7 Notes 8 Notes 9 Notes 10 Notes 11 Notes 12 Notes 13 Notes 14 Notes 15 Notes 16 Notes 17 Notes 18 Notes 19 Notes 20 Notes 21 Notes 22 Notes: Epilogue Notes: Appendix Notes: General Catalogue of Chopin’s Works Index Also by Alan Walker A Note About the Author Newsletter Sign-up Copyright