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Here's a new version of our hero. I'm ordering this one.

I'm going broke. This has to be it.

Kathleen

I just wanted to report that the show, "Monsieur Chopin," written and performed by Hershey Felder, is well worth seeing and hearing. We enjoyed it very much, even though we had to stand the entire time, and it was over two hours without intermission! There is a CD available, BTW.

It looks like you might be able to order it here:

http://www.monsieurchopin.com/

I'm now curious about his Gershwin show. He's also working on another one about Beethoven.

Thank you so much, Pianoagain, for giving us a critique of M. Chopin. Over 2 hours...that must have been hard on your feet, but heaven for your ears.

Frycek and I researched and found out about the CD. We both ordered it.

Also you can order the CD of Gershwin by going to the site you gave and clicking on the order form in the upper-right hand corner. This will bring up sheet where you can specify what CD's you want. The M. Chopin was only $30, which I consider quite bargain.

I wrote to ask them if there were plans on making a DVD, but they said it was too costly and that they would need $$$ from some backers.

Kathleen

To the Chopinphiles:

(Forgive me if this has been asked before)

Which selection / style of Chopin pieces do you listen to the most? (i.e. Ballades, Valses, Polonaises etc). Or do you mix them up?

- I listen to the Ballades the most, followed by some of the Etudes.
- Have just started to listen to the Nocturnes.
- Haven't really listened to the Polonaises yet (exceptions being the Grande and the Heroic)

I think I've listened to the etudes most of all followed by the nocturnes and the scherzi. (Probably because I happen to be working on an etude 10/12 forever and a scherzo, started this summer, and have worked on a few noctures including the present one.

Just as an aside, how are you getting on with the Revolutionary?

OK. The first of the five pages sounds pretty much the way it should. The next two are getting there. I've yet to begin the last two. A lot is repeated in those last two pages so they should go pretty fast. Right now I'm consolidating what I've got.

I listen to the Mazurkas most.

Can anyone tell me how to send a picture to this forum? When I pressed the picture button on the reply form, it asked for a url, but the pic's on my computer not on the web.

Untechnical of Milton Keynes.

maryrose,

I use a site called http://imageshack.us/ - you upload the photo to there from your computer, and get given a url for it.

Copy/paste the 'direct link', and the picture appears here.

Euan - thank you so much for your help.

Chopin fans - here's another one with sideburns (or should that be sideburn) but was there every any sitter whose portraits varied so extremely much?

http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/1290/chopinrohrbachix0.jpg


Love to all.. Mary-Rose

mayrose,

if you want the picture to appear rather than the link, you can use the 'image' button on the 'full-reply form'.

If you paste the link there, the picture appears on the page

So it does! Thanks ever so, Euan.

Folks, here is Chopin with sideburns again. I have to say I prefer it to the "chubby" portrait.

Another "plump" and very bad portrait with sideburns. Kathleen hates this one.

"Kathleen hates this one"

So do I! Let's face it, it's not really our Chopin, is it!

May I say at this point a big thank you to Kathleen for starting this super thread. I spent nearly an hour reading it all the way through this morning and wished I had been on the forum weeks ago!

Dear Mary Rose:

Thank you for giving me credit for starting this thread, but it would have died very early if it weren't for all of you who are determined to keep it going. And I am grateful to all of you.


Welcome to the Chopin Fan Club...our numbers are legion, but it's so good to find a person who is not ashamed to admit it.

I used your quote from the other thread because it was so appropriate here. You are not the only one has received the "moans" and the deep sighs of "here she goes again" from others when we get on the subject of Chopin. I've given up trying to get others to realize the unique genius of Chopin and his music. When I play a certain recording of a nocturne or etude and tell them to really listen to the counterpoint, harmony and soaring majesty of sound, they stare at me as if I came from another planet. They just don't hear it.

Because his music has been played so often (and always the same three or four compositions) in the background of so many B-movies that are sapping with sentamentality, and so many of his easiest preludes are the recital pieces of young children, most people don't have a clue or even a care to to listen to any to any of his other magnificient pieces.

Afterall, how great can he be if an 8 year-old can play his music?? Funny they don't say this about Beethoven...Fur Elise, as an example.

And because he wrote almost exclusively for the piano, his genius is considered second-rate. His two wonderful piano concertos are rarely heard in the concert halls, and although the orchestration might be considered weak (by some), the piano portion is perhaps the most beautiful music ever written. The second movement of his Concerto in F sends shivers up my spine every time I listen to it. That I happen to know when and why for whom he wrote it, makes it even more powerful and poignant. He made the piano KING and brought out the poetry that this instrument is capable of producing.

Chopin knew his strength and he made the piano sing as no other composer has been able to do. This is not just my opinion but held by thousands of "experts."

Luckily, I don't have any classical music lovers as friends (just one who loves the opera). Just a few days ago he said he hated (really, hated!!) music that didn't have any words. When I said that while songs with words are wonderful (hey, I'm a big Frank Sinatra fan), music without words can evoke more emotions and touch your inner-being more deeply. He didn't agree...so discussion over.

Again, welcome. Please write on this thread as often as you can.

Kathleen

"...although the orchestration might be considered weak (by some)" wrote Kathleen.

Actually I heard his 1st (really 2nd) piano concerto performed in London this summer (soloist was Lang Lang, whom I went expecting to dislike but got converted! - orchestra was Pittsburgh Symphony). It was the first time I had seen rather than just heard it and "live" I could appreciate better that the orchestration serves in the same way that a handsome frame serves a masterpiece in oils; secondary but essential. Although the orchestra wasn't a "full partner" it was always beautiful and sometimes rather original; especially when you consider he was little more than a teenager when he wrote it. He could have learned to orchestrate and impress people - he had time on his side at that point - but luckily for us pianists and would-be pianists he followed the voice of his genius.

And anyway, who needs an orchestra when you can make the piano sound as Chopin does?

I love this picture because (from what I've read) it really captures the richness of the salons where Chopin was asked to play. In this case, it was the salon of Prince Radziwell (remember Jackie Kennedy's sister? She was married to a Radziwell...a Polish count).

It may be a little overdone but lovely just the same.

Kathleen

If you want to laugh at absurdities, and can control yourself from going to strangle the author (about whom I can tell you more if you want) - have you seen this "essay"?

http://www.musicweb.uk.net/classrev/2002/Dec02/Chopin_Wright.htm

Mary Rose:

You are a

I couldn't agree with you more about the orchestra in Chopin's concertos. I love your similie around it being a frame.

And, yes, considering that Chopin was so young when he wrote it, it does "blow one's mind" to think he had such depth of passion, and even more importantly, that he was able to express it so eloquently.

Kathleen

Well, I'm speechless (or wordless).

Who is this man?

Yes, I would like to know about him simply because I can't believe that anyone would give credence to his opinions and to actually print them.

Kathleen