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Under the sign of Pisces... Like me!

Goodness, in some places it's already February 22! I'm way looking forward to the mazurka recital. Happy near-birthday to Fryc! And why not celebrate more than once?

I didn't realize that Chopin had at one point identified himself as a Pisces. At least he did formally give his birthdate, so we know which date HE thought was correct.

(By the way, my own mother has a confusion over her own birthdate; her mom and the certificate say different things. But in her immigrant family's case there could possibly have been language issues that caused a problem. We don't know. We go with her mother's date.)

Frycek, I felt honor-bound to join the fray over there at the discussion of the Flint material. Yikes. I was glad you were there. I've spent too much of the day on it, but then, it is a major aspect of the subject I do most of my writing about. And after my profession(s) was disparaged, I couldn't very well shut up. But things have stayed pretty civil, happily.

I don't have any birthday stuff to add right now, but I am going to post the entirety of one of the Flint sessions with the Chopin voice on my blog later tonight. I still haven't thought of anything big to do for March 1.

Elene

I am fond of Arrau's recording of 72/1, as I am of most of Arrau's interpretations of Chopin.

We already said: Andante

P.S. About the B-day: I made sure to check on the time of day.

Looks like it was 6 PM, Zelazowa time.
Which would be noon, New York time, 11 A.M. Chicago time, etc.

This might seem silly since we're not even sure exactly what day it was.

But I'm celebrating on Monday, March 1, at noon.

Oh, I'll have to make some quiet time at 10 am next Monday, then! Thanks, Mark, it never even occurred to me to ask what time of day he was born.

(I think Strings & Wood just meant to give a quote, but forgot the quotation marks. It wasn't meant as a repeat of the question of how 72/1 was marked.)

Elene

I would think the other Jeff would know, if anyone would.

I think the tradition is he was born at night. There's some tale that a local festival was going on (it seems odd to me - in Poland - in March - outside in the snow at night- but what do I know) and that there was there was singing and dancing going on within earshot of the house when he was born.

Looking for clarification on that I just found this horrid little story.
http://teacherbulletin.org/TB_VOL8/dl_pdfs/Chopin.pdf

¡Ay! That story reminds me of Desire for Love. They didn't even get the birth order of the kids right. It did get me trying to remember, though, what was really supposed to have happened with little Frycek and music, when he was very young. Didn't his parents think he hated music at first, because it made him cry? Perhaps because it simply was sad music? Or perhaps because it wasn't up to his standards?

I don't know-- is it dark at 6 pm near Warsaw on March 1? It's still fairly dark here at that time this week. I suppose I could check the time of sunset in Warsaw in a few days. Maybe the hardy Poles didn't mind being out in the snow?

It's said that Aurore Dupin was born while a quadrille was being played, if I remember correctly.

Elene

Looking forward to hearing the mazurka e-cital later today when I am not in a public place.

On the way to the office this morning, I turned on "Performance Today" on public radio. They were playing the Fantaisie-Impromptu. "Dang," I thought, "They got his birthday wrong." But after the piece Fred Child said, "Frederic Chopin's 200th birthday is one week from today." He added that PT is going to do Chopin works, interviews with major players, etc., throughout March. Then he said that the public is invited to submit recordings. "It doesn't have to be note-perfect, just heartfelt."

OK, here's our chance, with our present and former e-cital recordings:

http://performancetoday.publicradio.org/my_performance_today/

Elene

It is up, Elene!

You may need to clear the history on your browser because of a caching problem. That problem is now fixed, but if your browser still has the old page without the command to turn off caching, it won't pick up the changes.

An announcement has been posted.

There's now a simple comment board at chopinrecital.org, too!

Thank you, dear Fryderyk, for the sublime gift you have left us all... Your life spanned but 39 brief years, but in that brief span you left a gift that is timeless.

I'm back from the Chopin Birthday recital and it was AMAZING! I heard a lot of his songs which I had never heard ever before and even though I did not understand most of the lyrics (Polish and Bulgarian are a bit similar), I loved them all!

I also heard all the Op.10 etudes performed by one of the best Polish pianists Robert Marat! His Revolutionary Etude left me speachless!

And I also got to talk to him briefly after the concert and he is a very nice guy, he gave me an autograph:


I'm so happy right now ^_^


Edit: At the end when everyone was getting ready to leave some random kid from the audience (8 year old) was pushed to the stage by his mother, she insisted he met the pianist and the child was "But I don't know Polish, I can't talk to him!"

And after he shook hands with the pianist he played a Chopin Prelude (I think) and that kid was actually pretty good. Robert (the pianist) took a chair and sat in the back and listened as the kid played and then applauded him

Oh, that sounds capital, Teodor! I know how I felt when my wife and I attended Garrick Ohlssen's Chopin performance in January. You'll be on a high for many days.

All of the Opus 10? And SONGS!? It is rare to hear Chopin's songs!

Thank you for the image of the John Hancock. How I wish all of us could have joined you!

Yes, all of the Opus 10 and about 8 of the songs. It was worth it. And the tickets were only 5 euro! I got a seat in the front roll, I was right in front of the grand so I could see him play clearly.

Only €5.00!? That's a bargain!

We paid $37.00USD per ticket to see Garrick.

Yes, tickets are all the same price no matter who is visiting for a recital. I guess the state covers the expenses mostly. That's welcome considering I'm a poor student

Now if I can hear Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata performed live I can die happy...

Well, I didn't get to go to a cool concert today, but the e-cital made up for it.

Elene

What do we think of Benita Eisler's book?

I have it; I read it: ho hum!

Kathleen

I didn't get through Eisler's Chopin's Funeral word for word because it depressed and annoyed me. She emphasized the worst of everything and everyone, and indulged in what seemed to me to be unwarranted speculation. It would be fine if she expressed that sort of thing as her opinion and interpretation, but as far as I remember, she presented it as fact.

The title in itself is inappropriate.

But you still may want to look at that book, because it will give you some perspectives you may not find elsewhere.

It seems like we've lost track of last year's mazurkathon--? Greg said he could only find one other one, but there have been two previous ones, right? The 2009 one isn't up on the current e-cital site, and if it's still around someplace, it would be nice if we could put a link to it for March 1.

Elene