Fryderyk Chopin

A Life and Times

Alan Walker

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN:
  9780571348572
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

A landmark biography of the Polish composer by one of the world's leading authorities 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, 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. Walker sets out 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 Walker's 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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Landing Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• 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
• Index
• About the Author
• Also by the Author
• Copyright