Fryderyk Chopin
Polacche

Prodigy. Grace. Talent. Sensitivity. Humility. Beauty. Perfection. Poetry. Fragility. Uniqueness. These are all synonyms for one man: Chopin.

A man who left a deep mark on anyone who met or listened to him. A child born a master, because the things he has inside, in his soul, are already culture. Culture that only needs a medium to be expressed. And the man finds the matter to show his wonderful soul: The piano. 

Chopin is the ultimate representative of "Romanticism" and he doesn't need anything else but a single instrument to prove it. A child prodigy capable of performing miracles granted only to those with superior, almost otherworldly, virtue.

There is an episode that left a strong impression on me while reading his biography. An episode told by himself. A prodigy narrated with disarming naivety and humility.

Commander Costantintino of the Polish army was a man of unheard-of violence. He humiliated his soldiers publicly and slapped them, driving them to such a point of dishonor that it led them to suicide! He beat his wife and his horses. A true Demon. Chopin was ten years old at the time and was already considered a child prodigy. The Chopins were invited one Sunday to the Commander’s residence, and Chopin played for the guests, improvising almost the entire time. Costantino was so fascinated and struck that he ended up using him as a human tranquilizer! When he went into rages and started destroying and bashing things, animals or people, someone would run to fetch little Fryderyk and escort him to ease his inner demon.

Chopin recounts: <<There was this large man who would sit on a chair behind me with a glass in hand. I knew he was bad, but somehow, I didn't know why, I didn’t fear him. He looked at me the entire time enchanted, and I played without thinking about anything. I was there just to make my parents happy. It was my habit to play with my gaze lost in emptiness and one day he approached me and asked: "What are you looking at?" I replied truthfully "The music".

This was the man. A man who also possessed conscious humility. He refused to make "Variations on Bach," because Bach is perfect," he said. Perfection shouldn't be touched. He refused to write an opera because he knew it was a field that did not belong to him. "Not everyone can do everything. There is only one Mozart" he responded to his teacher who wanted to take him to the Opéra of Paris. Simply unique. 

I chose to review "the Polonaises" because they are micro-works that accompanied the great composer throughout his life. In this genre, which belongs to him perhaps more than any other, for reasons that are also purely ethnic, cultural, and sentimental, Chopin rises above any scheme, any form, and any formal inhibition. He lets his essence melt through the composition and show itself bare and sincere. Clear music, danceable, melancholic, sublime, sad, with lyrical love that knows no intrusion. In almost all his works Chopin emerges clean and without formal and academic restraints. Here we are even at the pure chemical state. A man with his soul in hand, showing it to anyone who wants to come closer.

I recommend the "Deutsche Grammophon" version, which also includes the études and preludes (Other unattainable music) played by the great master "Maurizio Pollini". Simply immense in diving into and blending with sheet music that combines the utmost technical difficulty and the utmost interpretative difficulty.

Chopin: a soul that transcends the body.