A Song to Remember

Biography of Frederic Chopin. Professor Joseph Elsner guides his protégé Frydryk Chopin through his formative years to early adulthood in Poland. At a recital in a duke's home Chopin insults the new Russian-installed governor, and must flee the country. The professor takes him to Paris, where he eventually comes under the wing and influence of novelist George Sand and rises to prominence in the music world, to the exclusion of his old friends and patriotic feelings towards Poland. —Ron Kerrigan <mvg@whidbey.com> Under the tutelage of Professor Joseph Elsner, Frydryk Chopin showed great promise as a pianist from an early age. Even at age eleven, Chopin also dabbled in composing. At that age, Chopin was also very patriotic about his homeland, Poland, especially against the ruling Russian authority of the Czar. As a young man, Chopin indeed has become an excellent pianist and composer, playing for the Polish royal house. But he is a man frail in health. An incident at age twenty-two forces Chopin to take immediate leave of Poland. He and Elser decide to go to Paris to take up the offer of the famed publisher and promoter Louis Pleyel from eleven years earlier to perform in concert. Despite his brilliance, Chopin's rise to prominence as a concert pianist and composer is not a smooth one, but one assisted by the equally brilliant pianist/composer, the already famous Franz Liszt, who is a great admirer, and writer, the forthright and strong willed George Sand, whose interest in Chopin is more than in his music. Sand begins to take control of Chopin's life, which is against the direction seen by Elsner, in terms of what Chopin does professionally, how he carries out his work, but perhaps most importantly how his patriotism to a troubled Poland seems to be waning, as witnessed in part by putting off completion of his polonaise, which was to be a tribute to his homeland. —Huggo