Fryderyk Chopin

06/28/19 • 63 min

Donald Macleod explores “the poet of the piano”, Fryderyk Chopin.

Donald starts this week’s episode with a look at how Chopin’s Polish heritage shaped his music. Although he left the country at the age of 20, dance forms like the polonaise and mazurka left a strong mark on his writing. Next, we catch fleeting glimpses of the composer through his letters, and his relationship with his instrument, the piano. Chopin’s reticence to perform made his rare appearances extremely lucrative, but he much preferred the more intimate and sociable surroundings of the salon, where his trademark light touch could be appreciated to the full. We hear about Chopin through the eyes of his most illustrious contemporaries – his lover George Sand, and fellow composers Franz Liszt and Robert Schumann. To end, stories of the composer’s ever-feeble health – Berlioz is supposed to have said Chopin was “dying all his life” – which makes the scale of his achievement all the more heroic.

Music featured: ‘Życzenie’ (The maiden’s wish), Op 74 No 1 Piano Concerto No 2 in F minor, Op 21 (3rd mvt, Allegro vivace) 4 Mazurkas, Op 17 Polonaise No 5 in C minor, Op 40 No 2 Polonaise No 6 in A flat, Op 53 (‘Heroic’) Ballade No 4 in F minor, Op 52 2 Mazurkas (Mazurka in G; Mazurka in B flat) Piano Concerto No 1 in E minor, Op 11 (2nd mvt, Romance—Larghetto) Preludes, Op 28 3 Mazurkas, Op 50 (No 1 in G; No 2 in A flat; No 3 in C sharp minor) 2 Nocturnes, Op 55 (No 1 in F minor; No 2 in E flat) Etude in A flat, Op 25 No 1 (‘Aeolian Harp’) ‘Krakowiak’: Grand Concert Rondo in F, Op 14 Mazurka in B minor, Op 33 No 4 Andante spianato, Op 22 No 1 Impromptu No 3 in G flat, Op 51 Nocturne in F sharp minor, Op 48 No 2 Barcarolle, Op 60 Etude in C, Op 10 No 1 Ballade No 2 in F, Op 38 Variations in B flat major on ‘La ci darem la mano’, from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni, Op 2 Scherzo No 4 in E, Op 54 Sonata in G minor for piano and cello, Op 65 (2nd and 3rd movements) Mazurka in G minor, Op 67 No 2 2 Nocturnes, Op 27 (No 1 in C sharp minor, Larghetto; No 2 in D flat, Lento sostento) Scherzo No 3 in C sharp minor, Op 39 Ballade No 3 in A flat, Op 47 Sonata No 3 in B minor, Op 58 (3rd movement, Largo) Waltz in E flat, Op 18 (‘Grande valse brillante’) Berceuse, Op 57

Presented by Donald Macleod Produced by Chris Barstow for BBC Wales

For full tracklistings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for Fryderyk Chopin https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00066mv

And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z

Donald Macleod explores “the poet of the piano”, Fryderyk Chopin.

Presented by Donald Macleod Produced by Chris Barstow for BBC Wales

And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z

Previous Episode

Jacques Offenbach

Donald Macleod on Jacques Offenbach - maestro of the Cancan and much more besides.

Today’s episode we meet Offenbach on the brink of defeat – when he decides to launch his own theatre company, ‘Les Bouffes-Parisiens’ in a tiny wooden shack on the Champs-Elysées. It was an instant and enduring success; over the next quarter-century, more than 50 of Offenbach’s musical comedies were to début there. We get an insight into the character of this driven creative artist – the man who “cannot stop working”. He even had his carriage kitted out with a writing desk, so that he could continue composing, scoring or revising as he travelled between venues. Next, we hear about his A-team librettists, Meilhac and Halévy, and a mysterious stranger makes him an offer he can’t refuse. Offenbach is whisked to the United States on a concert tour, where he is particularly fascinated by the women. Finally, Donald looks at Offenbach’s gout-ridden final years, and the opera he left unfinished on his death (The Tales of Hoffmann).

Music featured: Orphée aux enfers (extracts) Les deux aveugles (Overture) Monsieur Choufleuri restera chez lui (extracts) Valse de Zimmer (Dernier Souvenir) Boléro (from Grande scène espagnole, Op 22) Lischen et Fritzchen (Act 1, ‘Je suis Alsacienne’) Le papillon (extract) Boule de neige (‘L'Hospodar nous invite a luncher avec lui, lunchons!’) Barbe-bleue (Act 1, Couplets de Boulotte: “Y’a des bergers dans le village”) La belle Hélène (extract) La vie Parisienne (Act 3, finale) La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (Act I, finale) La Perichole (extract) La boulangerie à des écus (‘Ce qu’ j’ai?’) Vert-Vert (overture) American Eagle Waltz La vie Parisienne (Act 2, beginning) Les belles Américaines La Belle Hélène (Act 2, ‘On me nomme Hélène le blond’) La jolie parfumeuse (Act 1, ‘Je peins, je crayonne’) Les contes d’Hoffmann (extract)

Presented by Donald Macleod Produced by Chris Barstow for BBC Wales

For full tracklistings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for Jacques Offenbach https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00061hq

And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z

Next Episode

CPE Bach

Donald Macleod tells the story of the loss - and later rediscovery - of CPE Bach’s music

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was many things in his lifetime: composer, virtuoso harpsichord player and improviser extraordinaire, author, businessman – publishing his own music – biographer – of his father and other members of his family, and teacher. This week we look at CPE Bach's music and reputation in the light of the sensational rediscovery of much of his archive in 1999. Throughout the episode we'll hear recent recordings of this 'new' music. We’ll learn about CPE’s musical crowd-funding, his emotive Empfindsamer style, his life in Hamburg, and how the discovery has changed the way Bach and his music is seen in 2019.

Music featured: L'Aly Rupalich, Wq 117 No 27 Keyboard Concerto in D minor, Wq 23 Heilig, Wq 217 Flute concerto in D Major, Wq 13 Solfeggio in C Minor, Wq 117 No 2 Free Fantasie in F sharp minor, Wq 67 Licht der Welt, von Gott gegeben, H 811 (Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe) Rondo II in D Minor, Wq 61 No 4 Flute Sonata in A minor, Wq 132 Solfeggio in C Minor Symphony in D Major, Wq 183 No 1 Fantasia No. 2 in C Major, Wq 59 No 6 Wer ist so würdig als du; Ach, ruft mich einst zu seinen Freuden, H 805 (Nun danket alle Gott) Sonata in C Minor, Wq 78 Morgengesang am Schöpfungsfeste, W 239 Magnificat anima mea Dominum, Et misericordia eius, Gloria Patri et Filio, Sicut erat in principio (Magnificat, Wq 215) Quartet in D Major, Wq 94 Rondo in A minor Wq 56 No 5 Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen, Wq 240 (Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu) Leite mich nach deinem Willen, H 835 Cello Concerto in A major, Wq 172 (2nd mvt) Symphony in B minor, Wq 182 No 5 Sonata in C major, Wq 55 No 1 (Für Kenner und Liebhaber) Double Concerto for harpsichord and fortepiano in E Flat major, Wq 47

Presented by Donald Macleod Produced by Iain Chambers for BBC Wales

For full tracklistings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for CPE Bach https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0006fff

And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z