Fryderyk Chopin : a life and times / Alan Walker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Walker, Alan, 1930- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Chopin, Frédéric, 1810-1849.

Chopin, Frédéric.

Composers--Biography.

Composers.

Genre:

Biographies.

Nonfiction.

Physical Description:

xxix, 727 pages : illustrations, portraits, music ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018.

Summary:

"Alan Walker's monumental Fryderk Chopin: A Life and Times is the most comprehensive biography of the great Polish composer to appear in English in more than a century. 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., it is a corrective work intended to dispel the many myths and legends that continue to surround Chopin, and 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; his oftentimes troubled romantic life with George Sand, with whom he lived for nine years; and his untimely death at age thirty-nine, which inspired three thousand people to flock to the Madeleine Church in Paris for his funeral. Thorough and engaging, and written in highly readable prose, Fryderyk Chopin 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 Franz Liszt, Walker illuminated his subject with unprecedented clarity. This magisterial work brings to life one of the nineteenth century's most confounding, beloved, and legendary artists"--Dust jacket flap.

Contents:

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

Appendices. Liszt's questionnaire concerning his Life of Chopin ; General catalogue of Chopin's works.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780374159061

0374159068

OCLC:

1005818033