The Playing of Chopin and his Contemporaries

Many music-lovers have a vision of poor Chopin simpering in the fashionable salons of Paris, propped up by pillows and occasionally venturing to play a few pieces on the piano in a delicate and effeminate manner. This image is far from accurate. Chopin was consumptive, and it could not be said that for most of his life his health was strong, but he was not constantly plagued by illness. Chopin first appeared in public when he was eight, playing a concerto by Gyrowetz; he had already written some polonaises by the age of twelve, when he began three years of private study with the composer Jozef Eisner, while attending the High School in Warsaw. At the time of Chopin’s musical development, Europe had just ‘discovered’ the piano and its capacity for brilliance. The most profound influence on Chopin’s compositional style was indubitably Bach.