Idil Biret - Chopin: Complete Piano Works, Vol.11 [CD]

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Fryderyk Chopin(1810-1849)Complete Piano MusicVol. 11Rondos and VariationsFryderyk Chopin wasborn in 1810 at Zelazowa Wola, near Warsaw. His father Nicolas Chopin wasFrench by birth but had moved to Poland to work as an accounting clerk, laterserving as tutor to the Laczynski family and thereafter to the family of CountSkarbek, one of whose poorer relatives he married. His subsequent career ledhim to the Warsaw Lyceum as a respected teacher of French, and it was therethat his only son, Fryderyk, godson of Count Skarbek, whose Christian name hetook, passed his childhood.Chopin showed an earlytalent for music. He learned the piano from his mother and later with theeccentric Adalbert Zywny, a violinist of Bohemian origin, and as fiercelyPolish as Chopin's father. His later training in music was with Jozef Elsner,director of the Warsaw Conservatory, at first as a private pupil and then as astudent of that institution.In the 1820s Chopinhad already begun to win for himself a considerable local reputation, butWarsaw offered relatively limited opportunities. In 1830 he set out for Vienna,a city where he had aroused interest on a visit in the previous year and wherehe now hoped to make a more lasting impression. The time, however, was ill-suitedto his purpose. Vienna was not short of pianists, and Thalberg, in particular,had out-played the rest of the field. During the months he spent there Chopinattracted little attention, and resolved to move to Paris.The greater part ofChopin's professional career was to be spent in France, and particularly inParis, where he established himself as a fashionable teacher and as a performerin the houses of the rich. His playing in the concert hall was of a style lesslikely to please than that of the more flamboyant Liszt or than the technicalvirtuosity of Kalkbrenner. It was in the more refined ambience of thefashionable salon that his genius as a composer and as a performer, with itsintimacy, elegance and delicacy of nuance, found its place.Chopin could not but admire the ability of Liszt, while not sharing histaste in music. His own background had been severely classical, based on themusic of Bach, Mozart and Haydn, and by these standards Beethoven, the objectof adulation for Liszt and his circle, seemed on occasion uncouth, bycomparison with the classical restraint of Mozart's pupil Hummel. At the sametime he held reservations about the Bohemian way of life that Liszt followed,although he himself was to become involved in a liaison with the novelistGeorge Sand (Aurore Dudevant), which lasted for some ten years, coming to anend two years before his death, while Liszt's more dramatic association with another married woman, a less successfulblue-?\xa1stocking, the Comtesse d'Agoult, forced his withdrawal from Parissociety. Both women were to take literary revenge on their paramours.Paris was to provideChopin with a substantial enough income as a teacher, and there was a readymarket for his compositions, however reluctant he

Rondo, Op.1

Rondo A La Mazurka, Op.5

Rondo, Op.16

Rondo, Op.73

Mazurka in G, BI 16

Mazurka in B flat, BI 16

Mazurka in B flat, BI 73

Mazurka in C, BI 82

Mazurka in A flat, BI 7

Mazurka in D, BI 4

Vars Brillantes, Op.12

Vars On A German Air

Vars On A March From Bellini's I Puritani

Vars 'Souvenir De Paganini'

Vars in D - Idil Biret/Martin Sauer