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Originally posted by maryrose:
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

Chopin is not a great composer. In fact, he is very limited."

Guys, you have to remember what academia is. In order to be taken seriously you have to some up with something different. Right now the fashionable thing is "deconstruction" and it's Chopin's turn. I confess. I'm in the process of researching for a novel on Chopin so I've turned into a bit of an expert on the man if not the musician. The most unfair accusation of him is turning him into a raving antisemite. He wasn't. In that respect he was an average early 19th century Pole. The antisemites of his era were doing nasty things like writing "The Protocol of the Elders of Zion." In his time, Polish Jews were not regarded as Poles, they were regarded as Jews. Being Jewish was considered as more of a nationality than a religion. I don't know about the attitude of today's Poles, but today's Russians take the same attitude. My best friend is a very cultured, highly educated woman (two Phd's and an MD) from St Petersburg whose attitude I have simply learned to ignore. Chopin regarded Jews as sharp but honest businessmen with a certain amount of grudging respect. His publishers were almost all Jewish and he had issues with them (with reason), not so much as Jews but as sharp businessmen. He once remarked to Fontana that if he was going to be dealing with "Jews" please at least deal with REAL ones, as he was more likely to get paid. He also admired Jewish music and played it so well that he was once offered a gig at a Jewish wedding. He did once take issue when someone billed "Jewish" music as "Polish" music as he regarded them as two separate entities with different characteristics and origins. As for the Russians... This was the same guy that was repeatedly dragged out of bed as a boy to go play for the Tsar's brother Konstantine The Madman in the middle of the night. Incredibly enough he managed to develop as certain amount of grudging affection for Konstantine and wrote a march for him. This is also the same man who had a nervous breakdown imaging Russian soldiers trampling his little sister's grave. So you might say he feelings toward the Russians were mixed. He did turn down an offer to become the tsar's court composer. It was made at a time when he could have really used the work. He reply was unequivocal and very dignified. He say that though his health had not permitted him to take part in the November uprising, he was totally in sympathy with the goals of the rebels, considered himself as guilty as any of them, shared their exile, and therefore the acceptance of such an appointment would be inappropriate. Chopin was above all a realist, not an ideologue. He was far more interested in individuals than politics. He was a survivor interested in surviving long enough to be true to his music. He and George Sand had real issues over this. She regard him as far too passive. He regarded himself as a man with one great gift and it wasn't for political activism. Regarding Beethoven, he must not have hated him too much. It was probably more a matter his music not being really to his taste. Chopin did use some Beethoven pieces with his students and he did buy a Beethoven score for his favorite student as a reward after an outstanding performance. AS for lack of orchestral composition... He just wasn't interested. The concerto was literally written as an assignment for the Conservatory. As for disloyalty... He lost the love of his life because he refused to accede to George Sand's demands that he turn his back on her pregnant destitute daughter, whom he regarded as his daughter as well. "She has no one left but me." As for his character, you must remember that those who described him as charming, funny, etc were his contemporaries who actually KNEW him, not distant biographers ready to put a negative construction on the slightest ambiguity in order to gain academic credibility.
Enough of my soapbox - - I'm sure a few of you now have issues with ME. As for Beethoven, I think the guy just needed more loving and a good backrub. [QUOTE]

Right now the fashionable thing is "deconstruction" and it's Chopin's turn.

Originally posted by maryrose:
Wow, I must get a framed enlargement of the second one immediately :-) Actually I have seen these on a poster website some time ago, and wrote to tell them that they had obviously got the wrong information, but to no avail. Couture (artist who painted the first of your two choice images, Frycek) was active in France at the right time so maybe Chopin did sit for him. If so, it would explain why Couture isn't better known today.

Jesus Christ, you have issues.

Originally posted by LisztAddict: