Customer Reviews

Chopin Through His Contemporaries: Friends, Lovers, and Rivals (Contributions to the Study of Music and Dance)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fans of Chopin will welcome this well-written and thoroughly-researched volume. It is a detailed treatment of Chopin's relationships to some of his closest friends and associates as revealed in the extant correspondence, some of which appears here in English for the first time. Of the ten chapters, the first four concern Chopin's involvement with family, early friends, and education in Warsaw (1810-1830), while the remaining six describe his associations during his Paris years (1831-1849). Included are chapters that take up Chopin's relationships to his teacher Josef Elsner, the woman he almost married, Maria Wodzinska, his friends August Franchomme and Woyciech Grzymala, his fellow pianist and composer Franz Liszt, the singer Pauline Viardort, and George Sand's daughter, Solange. Chopin's complex relationship to George Sand, as formed and modified through the other persons that entered their lives, is dealt with throughout the last four chapters and is undoubtedly one of the more revealing aspects of the book. The last chapter closes with a passage from a letter written by Solange in 1896, that gives a very sensitive and touching description of Chopin's character and impact upon her own life.

The narrative presupposes some acquaintance with Chopin's life and music, so those who are uninformed about the basic details might wish to consult a standard biography before turning to this volume. A superb bibliography and index are included, and Azoury gives ample information in his introduction and extensive notes about further sources to turn to. While one does not learn about Chopin's music from this volume, Azoury indicates that the book concerns Chopin's life, not his music, and that the compositions "are not, as sometimes suggested, a chronicle of his life." Chopin's work, career, and associations are rich enough to warrant still further treatments of these matters; we can be thankful that this volume takes us far as it does.

Starting from an earlier love of Music coupled with personal initiative to bring about Chopin's friends , lovers and rivals at an historic point in their impressive account . There are few prople I have met and known who could approach the subject of this most beloved of Composers from a unique perspective . Doctor Azoury's research and knowledge enabled him to produce this entirely new portrait of the Musician , revealing much of what was previously concealed.