Chopin love story. Love Story: Georges Sand and Frederic Chopin. Not a honeymoon at all

Hello, friends! The picturesque Balearic Islands have attracted many creative people and inspired them to create talented works. So, Frederic Chopin in Mallorca (or Mallorca) wrote at least three dozen preludes and other musical works.

Although he stayed on the island with his companion George Sand for a short time - just one winter. Left his mark on Mallorca and another genius - Antonio ...

This post dedicated famous couple. Chopin and George Sand stopped in a small town on the west coast of the island in the Carthusian monastery, where the corresponding museum is now open. The museum occupies the former cell number 4, which was rented by a pianist and writer.

As exhibits of the museum, you can see not only personal items, but also gifts given by the descendants of Chopin and George Sand. Now about everything in order:

1. George Sand and Chopin in Mallorca
2. Museum in the monastery

George Sand and Frederic Chopin at Valldemossa

This famous couple arrived in Mallorca in November 1838. Chopin was in poor health, and it was assumed that the resort island climate would favorably affect the composer's well-being.

The choice fell on the town, located north of Palma de Mallorca in a beautiful mountainous area. Looking ahead, look at what landscapes opened from the windows of the cell in which Chopin and his companion George Sand stayed with their teenage children:

The relationship of this couple can hardly be classified as "pure and bright love." George Sand - passionate woman, who survived several novels, was surprised at herself why she was so carried away by a melancholy and sickly young man, 6 years younger than her, and who had just turned 27 years old.

This union, or rather the absence of an official union, was also warily accepted in Mallorca. The Puritan Society refused to provide George Sand and Chopin with private apartments, and they were forced to apply for shelter in the Carthusian monastery. In 1835, the monastery was abolished, and the state leased the monastic cells to wealthy residents of Mallorca and visitors.

Paradoxically, a stay in Mallorca, which we perceive exclusively as a fertile resort, did not benefit the composer at all. Chopin and George Sand spent the winter on the island, and at that time the composer's health problems only worsened.

He was skeptical about monastic housing and suffered greatly from the island winter. The room was damp and cold. Even those medieval devices that were at the disposal of the inhabitants of the former monastery could not cope with heating. Just such a device is depicted in the center of the photo - it stands at the entrance from the courtyard to Chopin's cell:

Chopin lamented the incompetence of local doctors. During the period of his stay on the island, the pianist was examined by three doctors and they issued a conclusion, one sadder than the other. As Chopin joked sadly, the first of the doctors said that the patient was already dead, the second that he was already dying, and the third said that the composer was going to die.

As a result, in February, Chopin and George Sand left the island for France. But, despite the unfavorable conditions, the Mallorcan period became quite fruitful for the composer. In Mallorca, he created a number of works that later became world heritage. For decades, Valldemossa has been hosting an annual music Festival dedicated to the composer.

Chopin and George Sand Museum at the Carthusian Monastery

It is open in the Carthusian monastery. Cell No. 4 became a museum thanks to the active work of George Sand's granddaughter, who collected a collection of materials about the life and work of the writer. In 1969, the exposition was supplemented with materials about Frederic Chopin. Along with the Warsaw one, this is the most complete collection illustrating the life and work of the composer and pianist.

Before entering the museum, visitors will see wax figures of two talented individuals. I remember how, at school age, I could not tear myself away from Consuelo, perhaps the most popular work of George Sand. And someone, perhaps, could not live without Chopin's music...

What does a cell that has become a museum look like? This is a kind of apartment with a miniature patio around which the rooms are located, and one of the sides continues with a balcony.

I think that in the summer time Chopin would have liked his place of residence. Because the nature in this corner is unspeakably beautiful.

And from the height of the balcony, those magnificent landscapes that are shown in the second photo of this post open up.

The rooms exhibit items that were once used by the famous guests of the cell. The most impressive is the 15th-century Gothic chair - almost a throne on which George Sand liked to sit:

When Chopin and George Sand settled in Valldemossa, the composer purchased a piano. But he was used to the instruments made by Pleyel. As a result, in December, a small Pleyel piano was delivered from Paris to Mallorca. And in January, Chopin sent his friend and the owner of the company several pages of notes with new preludes, saying that he was able to complete the works on his favorite instrument. But the exposition of the museum still exhibits another instrument acquired during the international festival Chopin in Valldemossa:

One of the rooms of the museum resembles a living room. This room probably served a similar role. On the walls of the room are portraits of Frederic Chopin and George Sand. And there are more than a hundred watercolor works by the eldest son of the writer.

The greatest value of the museum is the scores written by the composer's hand. By the way, the hand and death mask are also attached:

The Chopin Museum is small, but the short life of the composer has left so little material evidence that the collection in Mallorca has the most impressive list. Even the portraits remain no more than one or two ...

But the greatest wealth and heritage of the composer's life is his music. For true connoisseurs of classical music, I suggest listening to the Scherzo performed by the talented pianist Kate Liu. The incredible immersion and perfected technique of the performer cannot leave indifferent:

Friends, I foresee the question: who visited Mallorca and provided photos for this article? I still only dream about the Balearic Islands))) And my friend Katya goes to Mallorca with a pleasant frequency. And since she stayed in several cities on the island, she had already visited many interesting places. Together with Katya, we will try to talk about it on the blog pages.

Your euro guide Tatiana

Frederic Chopin and George Sand

Fryderyk Chopin was in his early twenties when, in 1831, he left Warsaw for the capital of the arts.

The Parisian public was immediately captivated by his polonaises, waltzes, mazurkas, which retained the traditional dance form, but filled with new content - true poetry and drama.

In addition, Fryderyk was an excellent pianist, he impressed the audience not only with technical perfection, but also with the depth and sincerity of his performance.

Fryderyk Chopin

Chopin and outwardly corresponded to the music that he composed.

He has developed a reputation as a heartthrob that the most beautiful women cannot resist. His strength was in grace, lightness, brilliant wit, not to mention the most important thing - music, which was heard and admired.

No less noisy fame fell to the conqueror of male hearts, Aurora Dupin, a writer who signed her novels with the pseudonym George Sand.

Long before meeting her, Chopin had heard a lot about her talent, her love affairs and shocking manners: she defiantly wore trousers and a tailcoat, smoked cigars.

They met at one of the secular receptions, and in the first moments of the conversation, Chopin was fascinated: this woman was not spoiled by either men's clothing or low voice with a wheeze. On the contrary, all this made her mysterious, alluring.

But as soon as she stepped aside, the charm dissipated: in the role of a careless dandy with a cigar in her mouth, she looked almost caricatured from a distance.

Nevertheless, he was very upset when the next day he did not find her in the house of mutual acquaintances ...

Soon the news spread throughout Paris that Chopin and George Sand went on a joint journey. Both were too prominent for this news not to cause a storm in society. The students of the conservatory had a heated discussion new novel his maestro, some baroness had a seizure, and one well-known writer did not leave the tavern for three days ...

The Parisian journalist Jules Dufour wrote: “What reasonable person would argue that the love of two statues, two monuments can last longer than a day? On a common pedestal, they will be bored to death. And in bed, the monuments are simply ridiculous ... "

Honore Balzac, when asked what he thinks of this sensational novel, replied: “Madame Sand's previous failures in love lie in her unshakable faith in happy love. She believes in her and waits like a woman. And he achieves it like a man ... "

From the outside it was difficult to understand what united them - they seemed so different. However, they also had a lot in common.

Before meeting George Sand, Chopin's muses succeeded each other, bringing him inspiration: Constance, Maryla, Delfina Potocka, Maria Vodzinska... Each of them was beautiful in her own way, but something always interfered with a strong union: sometimes a different social status, sometimes a struggle of vanities, then a disease, or, finally, just a combination of circumstances ...

Park around George Sand castle

The new novel was not like any previous one. With George Sand, he was connected not only by passion, but also by deep affection and true friendship. Fryderyk was so frank with no one, with no one did he discuss his professional problems.

He became a member of the George Sand family, took to heart everything that concerned her children - Maurice and Solange.

But they were different in nature. George Sand never complained of being tired. She knew how not only to work around the clock, but also to have fun without restraint. Chopin, sickly from his youth, was sometimes burdened by this.

At the same time, both were absorbed in their work, which required great effort. Both were characterized by creative throwing and even neurasthenic attacks, but George Sand overcame them much easier than Fryderyk.

Georges Sand family castle

For almost ten years, from 1838 to 1847, Chopin was a regular visitor to the Dupin family castle. Castle Nohant was famous for its hospitality. As in a home, many friends, relatives, acquaintances of the hostess and her lover, who was affectionately called Chopinetto, came here in the summer.

At George Sand's, he met Balzac, Louis Blanc, Pierre Leroux... All of them became big fans of Chopin, but George Sand still reigned here, and Fryderyk sometimes could not overcome his stiffness.

He was a man of the world, but a noisy life Parisian bohemia often bored him. In the depths of his soul, he remained a Varsovian, who until the end of his days did not get rid of longing for his homeland.

A test of feelings was presented to them by a winter spent in Mallorca in the abandoned Carthusian monastery of Valldemosa.

In this fantastically beautiful place, they both felt a special surge of inspiration.

Chopin's cycle of twenty-four preludes was born there, reflecting different moods, different impulses of the soul, but imbued with one passionate desire to live and love.

Unfortunately, in the midst of Chopin's work, blood began to bleed in his throat, a severe exacerbation of consumption began. George Sand, having abandoned writing, did not leave him day or night ...

Contrary to malicious gossip, the experienced test not only did not shake their union, but, on the contrary, made it stronger.

Their mutual friend Louis Henault, who often visited George Sand and Chopin in Paris, said that they perfectly understood and complemented each other and they were very good together.

Once, when the three of them were sitting in front of a burning fireplace, George Sand began to remember her favorite village in Berry. She told so poetically and figuratively that the touched Chopin could not remain indifferent. “If this inspired you so much, maybe you could set my words to music?” George Sand suggested.

And this happened more than once: one infected the other with his inspiration.

George Sand, who loved to play with her little dog, once remarked to Chopin: “If I were you, I would certainly compose some piece of music in honor of my dog ​​...” Chopin, according to the memoirs of Louis Eno, immediately went to the piano and played a melodic waltz, which his students and acquaintances later called just that - “Waltz of a small dog” ...

Very musical by nature, George Sand subtly felt and understood Chopin's music and admired his talent.

Chopin, who stood aside from the literary process, had little interest in the work of his beloved.

It was rumored that he had not even read all of her novels.

It was difficult to reconcile George Sand with such indifference. Resentments accumulated.

The discord came to light after the publication of George Sand's novel Lucrezia Floriani.

Love story, underlying it, was very reminiscent of the novel of the writer herself with Chopin. No matter how much George Sand denied this, Fryderyk recognized her in the actress Lucrezia, who had three children from different husbands, and himself in the pampered, capricious Prince Carol.

Chopin's first reaction was shock: the story of their life, their love, was submitted to the general court. Moreover, George Sand strengthened Chopin's narcissistic features in the novel, creating not a reliable portrait, but rather a caricature, a caricature.

Chopin believed that George Sand betrayed their love, which actually enriched them both. On the pages of the book, Carole and Lucretia, having experienced the tragedy of failed hopes, part.

The blow to pride was fatal, and yet Chopin swallowed this bitter pill. However, their relationship gave such a crack that any insignificant reason could provoke a break.

And the reason soon appeared. George Sand's relationship with her daughter went wrong because of her marriage, and she insisted that Chopin stop communicating with Solange and her husband.

Chopin considered such a requirement unfair. This was the reason for the breakup.

George Sand later said that they never quarreled or reproached each other, and that their first spat was the last. They never reconciled until Chopin's death.

Love relationship- a secret behind seven seals. From the outside, it is impossible to understand whose fault the union is failing. You can only analyze what is on the surface.

Many friends and acquaintances of Chopin, speaking of his romance with George Sand, often portrayed him as a sufferer, to whom this union brought only torment.

But there are other memories that indicate that the accusations against George Sand are greatly exaggerated. The years spent with her proved to be the most fruitful of his life. During his short life (Chopin lived only 39 years old), he wrote two concertos and many piano pieces - sonatas, nocturnes, scherzos, etudes, fantasies, impromptu, songs ...

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, George Sand after the break was still energetic, sociable and efficient, and Chopin seemed to have lost his breath, he could no longer compose music, he only performed it.

But even these observations do not give grounds to blame George Sand for everything. Was it not this woman, accustomed to noisy success and worship, who spent whole nights at Chopin's bedside when he was ill?

While their union nourished her imagination and gave a powerful impetus to creativity, she was inexhaustible in devotion to him and was not at all upset that she gave more than she received.

Chopin demanded a lot of attention and care, but he himself did not show the dedication that she bestowed on him. But they were both very talented, and creativity has always remained the main thing in everyone's life.

After parting with Fryderyk, George Sand seemed to be freed from a heavy burden, which she took upon herself and meekly carried for nine whole years.

Perhaps neither he nor she imagined what the gap would turn out for them. George Sand had no idea that she would endure the separation from Chopin so easily, and Chopin that he would not be able to live and work without George Sand. He suffered, rushed about and did not believe that she would never return to him.

Soon Chopin left for England. “It can’t be harder for me than now, and I haven’t experienced real joy for a long time ... I just vegetate and wait for the end ...” he wrote from there to a friend. “I feel weaker, I can’t compose ... I never cursed, but now I’m almost ready to curse Lucrezia.”

Chopin was going to give several concerts in London, but his health did not allow it. I managed to perform only twice in a private house with my friends.

In Paris, the disease worsened, and in recent months Chopin was so weak that he could not speak, he explained himself with gestures.

When George Sand found out about his illness, she tried to go to him, but her friends did not allow it, fearing that strong excitement would worsen his condition.

And Chopin, a few days before his death, said to his friend Franchom: “She said that she would not let me die without her, that I would die in her arms ...”

Original entry and comments on

The history of this love has its own secret, an incredible veil of conjectures and omissions. A fusion of divine masculine beauty and feminine carnal imperfection. The unity of a romantic beginning and a feminist challenge to classical values, which gave rise to a phantasmagoria of HIS tender waltzes, piano improvisations that remained unrepeated, and HER frank novels about love that make you wipe away a tear when reading even in today's pragmatic time.

So, 1847, Paris. The era of the Napoleonic wars is in the past, Europe has managed without conflicts for three decades and is gradually getting used to life without tyrants. In the secular salons that flooded the city, they unanimously discuss the new novel by the famous writer George Sand, Lucrezia Floriani. Has this brawler gone so far as to annoy readers with details from her own bedroom?! They say that suspicious and capricious Prince Karol is none other than the great Chopin, abandoned by this fury? And Lucrezia, who constantly changes lovers and at the same time treats her men like little children, is Sand herself? Well, there is no need to be surprised. If you start compiling a list of her lovers, an impressive manuscript will come out. And she chooses men, as a rule, much younger than herself. It is not surprising that they all appear to her as innocent babies - with her rich experience! But Chopin... Is everything that this woman writes about him really true?

ACQUAINTANCE

They recognized each other in 1836 at a social evening in the mansion of the Countess d'Agout. 26-year-old Frederic Chopin was already known throughout Paris. His brilliant performance of his own musical works made the pianist, born near Warsaw and brought up by German music teachers, a welcome guest in the best French houses. And the external attractiveness of the young musician attracted women's hearts to him. Fine features of an eternally pensive face, blue eyes covered with thoughtfulness, ash-blond hair, a gentle voice. It seems that this is a sad prince who cannot find his princess in any way. “Surely the cause of this melancholy is a love drama,” the Parisian gossips whispered.
After the composer played several of his studies for the guests of the evening, the hostess of the house approached him and introduced him to a strange-looking woman dressed in a black men's suit, which was complemented by high boots and a cigar in her mouth. A strange person with red henna-dyed hair, a sharp smell of column water, turned out to be the well-known Parisian salon writer George Sand: “Your waltz alone is worth all my novels!” she said in a low voice, turning to Chopin.
After a short conversation, which clarified some details of the love for tobacco and the masculine “au de colon”, Chopin remarked to the hostess: “What an unsympathetic woman this Dupin is. And is she a woman, I am ready to doubt it!
However, Chopin was far from the only one who found George Sand's appearance extremely, even extremely unattractive. She herself openly ranked herself among the antipodes. female beauty, proving that she has no grace, which, as you know, replaces this very beauty. Contemporaries described her as a woman of short stature, a dense build, with a gloomy expression, big eyes bulging and parchment from smoking skin color.
However, with all this, quite a few considered Aurora Dupin a beauty. One of her admirers described the writer as follows: "When I first saw her, she was in a women's crinoline, and not in a man's tuxedo, with which she so often disgraced herself." And she also behaved with a truly feminine grace, inherited from her noble grandmother, a noblewoman.
“I met a great celebrity,” Chopin writes to his relatives, “Madam Dudevant, known as George Sand; her face is unsympathetic and I didn't like her at all. There is even something repulsive about her.”

GERMAN TEACHER AND GERMAN FRIENDS

Already in childhood, Chopin showed extraordinary musical abilities. Being surrounded special attention and care, the child, like the child prodigy Mozart, struck with musical “obsession”, inexhaustible imagination in improvisations, inborn pianism. His susceptibility and musical impressionability manifested themselves violently and unusually. He could cry while listening to music, jump up at night to pick up a memorable melody or chord on the piano.
One of the first performances of the seven-year-old Frederick was a home concert at the residence of the Grand Duke Konstantin Romanov, the Polish governor of the Russian Emperor Alexander I. The musician was introduced to the public by his first piano teacher, Wojciech Zhivny. An experienced teacher, discharged from Bohemia, instilled in his student a love for the music of the German classics and especially for the great Beethoven. At the same concert, among the guests was the composer Josef Elsner, who would later become Chopin's main guide to the world of musical composition. After Beethoven, classicism gave way to romanticism, and Chopin, thanks to Elsner, became one of the main representatives of this trend in music. A brief description of the student has been preserved: “Amazing abilities. musical genius.
Studies at Elsner and his letters of recommendation turned Chopin into the best pianist of his time. He was received as a virtuoso of the first rank, put next to Moscheles, Hertz, Kalkbrenner - the most popular pianists of the first decades of the 19th century. Before our eyes, he turned into a recognized romantic composer.
He would never see Warsaw again. Vienna was replaced by Munich, then Paris and the first years there for Chopin - the time of acquaintance and assimilation of the multilateral phenomena of European musical culture. Here, Italian opera and outstanding vocal art, the achievements of improvisational pianism. A great spiritual influence was exerted by communication with prominent people era - representatives of art, literature. Under the influence of vivid meetings, Chopin's intellect grows stronger, his skill matures, the depth and variety of musical ideas increase.
At first time creative work consisted in finishing works written before Paris, over the completion of those begun or the embodiment of early ideas. The middle of the 1930s was significant for a number of creatively interesting and joyful meetings, strong, but ultimately sad experiences. In the spring of 1834, Chopin accepted the invitation of his friend, the German pianist and composer Ferdinand Hiller, and arrived at the Aachen Music Festival. There he met with Felix Mendelssohn, and then they made a joint trip along the Rhine, visited Düsseldorf. Chopin arrived in Carlsbad to improve his health and to see his parents. This first and only meeting in a foreign land brought mutual, hard to describe joy.
Then, on the way back to Paris, Chopin in Leipzig first personally met Robert Schumann, and in the following autumn, 1836, he visited Schumann in Leipzig for the second time, played him a lot, and introduced him to new compositions. Schumann wrote about this memorable day in the New Musical Newspaper: “Chopin was one day in Leipzig. He brought with him divine etudes, nocturnes, mazurkas, a new ballad, etc. He played a lot and unforgettably.”

DRESDEN ROMANCE WITH MARIA

In Dresden, where Chopin stopped on his way to Paris, he met Countess Wodzińska and her daughter. From the time they met in Warsaw, Maria Wodzinska, once an "ugly duckling", turned into an attractive, flirtatious lady, who turned her fans' heads. She was not devoid of intelligence and abilities, and within the framework of secular amateurism, she was engaged in painting, singing and playing, composing small piano scenes.
The feeling that flared up deeply captured Chopin. Apparently, his love did not remain unrequited, and their enthusiasm soon ceased to be a secret for relatives. In the summer of 1836, Chopin made a special trip to Dresden to see Maria and propose to her. But when Chopin returned to Paris, the tone of the letters from the Wodzinskis changed noticeably. Then letters began to arrive less and less often, and by the end of 1837 Chopin himself stopped this correspondence.
Among the reasons that upset the marriage Chopin desired, researchers consider the most likely class prejudices of the Polish nobility: the gentry refused to marry their daughter to the son of a French teacher, who has nothing Polish in his family, some peasants from Lorraine ... In addition, a blush on the cheeks of a handsome young man aroused suspicion of consumption - one of the most terrible and incurable diseases of the 19th century.
In the epistolary heritage of Chopin there is no data by which one could judge his attitude to this event. Only a bundle with the letters of the Wodzińskis found after the composer's death and the inscription “my grief” made on it by Chopin's hand speaks of the depth of experiences.

AURORA WITH SAXON ROOT

By the time she met Chopin, the hereditary noblewoman Amandine Aurora Lucile Dupin was already 32 years old. Having a relationship in the family tree with the Elector of Saxony Augustus the Strong, she herself wanted to be strong and independent. The pupil of the Augustinian monastery school had managed to survive the marriage and acquire two children - a daughter, Solange, and a son, Maurice. Perhaps it was this not entirely successful marriage that turned Aurora Dupin into the writer George Sand.
At the age of 18, Aurora married artillery lieutenant Casimir Dudevant. The young settled in the estate of Aurora near Paris. Casimir Dudevant was by no means distinguished by the subtlety of nature. He paid no more attention to his young wife than to an armchair in the living room, and he remembered his wife only when he went to the bedroom. However, Aurora shared a place in his bed with numerous maids and maids. Such marital relations increasingly forced to think about the injustice of the "male world".
Constant quarrels between the spouses also did their job, even despite the presence of two children, the marriage fell apart and 9 years after the wedding, Aurora Dudevant left for Paris with the children. The husband did not oppose her decision, since the marriage was formally preserved.
To make a living (like married woman, she lost the right to dispose of her inheritance - her husband remained the owner of the estate in Noan), Aurora decided to start writing. Thinking up a pseudonym for the publication of her first novel Rose and Blanche, Madame Dudevant chooses a popular male name and shortens the surname of one of her lovers.
In 1832, under the pseudonym George Sand, the novel Indiana was published, which immediately brought fame to the writer. The personality of the author contributed a lot to popularity: having arrived in Paris, Aurora began to walk the streets in a men's suit, shocking the public with feminist statements. The men in her bedroom succeeded each other, and at the same time, George Sand admitted that most of them cause her maternal feelings. The story of her love affairs was very quickly conveyed to the ears of Chopin.

WINTER IN MALLORCA

In the course of further meetings with Madame Dudevant, Chopin was surprised to find that this woman no longer seemed unattractive to him. However, there was no talk of any love. But George Sand had a different opinion on this matter. She was literally fascinated by the young composer, tried to visit all those salons where Chopin played. It took Frederic Chopin a year and a half to understand that he cannot imagine life without this woman. He, a "citizen of the world" who had lost his homeland, needed her barbs, a deep and critical look at a society that had lost its moral guidelines and was degrading. And a trembling sensuality that pervades all her movements.
Apart from the age difference, they were indeed quite different. Intelligent, somewhere even timid, shy Chopin and quick-tempered, prone to outrageous George Sand. He hated her men's suit - but in the company of her Frederic, Georgette "descended from feminist heaven" and squeezed into her seemingly ugly dresses.
She, the lady of the Parisian demi-monde, tried to rebel against his provincial conservatism and indecision. Allowed even minor quarrels. Chopin was indeed sometimes unbearably capricious - his health left much to be desired and no improvement was planned. But sometimes non-male suspiciousness crossed all boundaries. He could lie on the bed for days on end in a warm women's night cap and with terrible leeches around his neck.
However, in spite of everything, the lovers were happy with each other. And the spark of love that once slipped between them was not going to be extinguished.
In the autumn of 1838, George Sand and her new family - daughter Solange, son Maurice and beloved Frederic Chopin - sail from Marseille to Mallorca by ship and settle on the outskirts of Palma to take a break from Parisian bustle and social gossip. Doctors determined the salubrious climate of Mallorca to be beneficial for the lungs. At first, the life of this unusual family on the Spanish island resembles an idyll - a muse named George Sand goes for raw fish to the village, prepares dinner, takes care of the children, takes care of Chopin, while not forgetting to fill the pages with the texts of future novels in neat handwriting. In Mallorca, she wrote the novel Spiridon, the essay Winter in the South of Europe. Some of Chopin's most famous sonatas, scherzos, preludes and opuses also appear here.
However, the winter Mallorca met the heroes of salon Paris, carried away by each other, with heavy rains. Chopin felt very bad, and his beloved George Sand turned into a nurse. All night long she is at the bedside of the patient, she herself prepares healing decoctions and herbal mixtures. As soon as the owner of the house, which was rented by a couple in love, found out about Chopin's illness. he demanded that Chopin move out immediately. At the same time, it was required to pay for furniture, dishes, linen and whitewashing of the walls - the law ordered all things used by a contagious patient to be burned immediately.
It was almost impossible to find new housing - the news of the composer's illness spread throughout the city and the locals shied away from strangers. Only in a remote Carthusian monastery were they given shelter. At the same time, Chopin was unable to part with his piano, and George Sand had to hire a whole company of soldiers to drag the instrument along the mountain path to one of the cells. Monastic life did not add health.
George Sand tried not to leave him alone for a minute, but even the most careful care did not help. The disease progressed and it was decided to return. A new misfortune arose: not a single ship on the mainland wanted to take on board a sick passenger. Georges rushed around the port, begging the captains to take pity on the unfortunate and offered any money. In the end, one ship owner agreed. True, Chopin and Sand were given the most disgusting cabin with terrible furniture - it's expensive to burn good things. The other passengers on the ship were a hundred pigs. At the same time, Chopin complained that the captain provided the pigs with Better conditions than him.
In the stormy open sea, Chopin was overtaken by "seasickness".

MOZART WAS SEEING IT AWAY

Since the autumn of 1830, George Sand and Frederic Chopin are back in Paris. More often than others, Heinrich Heine visits their house on Pigalle Street, there are Balzac, Delacroix, Liszt, Berlioz, Meyerbeer. Chopin revels in refined society, and Sand is proud of his Choupette, or Chopinski, as she jokingly calls him. Their feeling seems to flare up with new force. In winter, the lovers live in Paris, in the summer they leave for the village of Noan. George Sand writes the novel "Consuelo" with the main character the singer, and Chopin helps his beloved as a musical consultant. During their romance, Chopin wrote his best works.
They put on home performances, parodying the mannerisms and speech of their famous guests. Once Chopin writes a playful play - a musical arrangement of the tricks of his beloved dog George Sand. And the melody - "Dog Waltz" - becomes the favorite work of all novice musicians. In the family estate, Georges Sand Chopin composes a lot and sells his works at a profit. Sand sometimes said that she lived with her three children - she called Chopin the third child. They were often seen on walks - the writer ran across the fields in a race with children, and Chopin followed them on a donkey, dressed as a dinner party.
But more and more often consumption reminds of itself. slightest exercise stress, excitement - and the composer simply suffocates. In the spring of 1844, he had to be carried by hand to the stairs of the house. Frederic is a very capricious patient, and George Sand is not a saint or even a sister of mercy. She sincerely cares about Chopin, but there is a limit to everything. After all, she is not ready to sacrifice herself and her creativity, even for love. The already fragile world in this strange family finally collapses.
Chopin leaves quietly, without scandals. He just falls silent and moves away from the muse with a cigar, which devoted almost 10 years of his life to him. However, evil tongues said that the lover was simply tired of the writer - she repeatedly admitted that Frederick behaves in bed like an old sick woman.
A year after the separation, they met in one of the salons. Ready to utter words of repentance, George Sand approached her former lover and held out her hand to him. But Chopin did not take the gesture to attention and left the hall without saying a word...
Returning home, he sat down at the instrument and from the first touch of the keys composed his world-famous funeral march...
In the autumn of 1847, Frederic Chopin was received in London music salons. He is brought to Albion by a new admirer and patroness, the wealthy Scottish baroness Jane Sterling. Wanting to take the place of George Sand in the heart of the already terminally ill Chopin, the energetic aristocrat intercepts Sand's letters addressed to Chopin, as well as his letters to France.
Terrible disease Chopin escalates in the damp English climate, the tour is canceled and his friends barely have time to transport him to Paris. At three o'clock in the morning on November 17, 1849, the heart of the brilliant composer stops beating. His last words were: "She promised me that I would die in her arms." George Sand did not even send a wreath to his grave. She learned about Chopin's death from the newspapers. At the funeral, Mozart's "Requiem" was performed - a composer whom Chopin put above all others.
Madame Sand survived Chopin by 27 years and died in 1876 at the age of 72. She remained true to herself even in her declining years: in her 60s, she gave Paris a reason to discuss her relationship with the 39-year-old artist Charles Marshal, whom she called only “my fat late child.” She was always cheerful and sociable. The only thing that could make this woman cry was the sound of Chopin's waltzes.
Frederic Schopen is the only one of the great people whose remains are in different places According to the will, Chopin's heart in a solution of the strongest French cognac was delivered to Warsaw and imprisoned in the crypt of the Church of the Holy Cross.

Frederic Francois Chopin is a great romantic composer, the founder of the Polish pianistic school. Throughout his life, he did not create a single piece for a symphony orchestra, but his compositions for piano are the unsurpassed pinnacle of world pianistic art.

The future musician was born in 1810 in the family of a Polish teacher and tutor Nicolas Chopin and Tekla Justina Krzyzanowska, a noblewoman by birth. In the town of Zhelyazova Wola, near Warsaw, the name Chopinov was considered a respected intelligent family.

Parents raised their children in love for music and poetry. Mother was a good pianist and singer, she spoke excellent French. In addition to little Frederick, three more daughters were brought up in the family, but only the boy showed a truly great ability to play the piano.

The only surviving photo of Frederic Chopin

Possessing great mental sensitivity, little Frederick could sit for hours at the instrument, picking up or learning the pieces he liked. Already at an early age, he impressed those around him with his musical abilities and love of music. The boy began to perform concerts at almost 5 years old, and at the age of 7 he already entered the class of the famous Polish pianist of that time, Wojciech Zhivny. Five years later, Frederick turned into a real virtuoso pianist, who was not inferior to adults in terms of technical and musical skills.

In parallel with his piano lessons, Frederic Chopin began taking composition lessons from the well-known Warsaw musician Jozef Elsner. In addition to education, the young man travels a lot around Europe, visiting the opera houses of Prague, Dresden, Berlin.

Thanks to the patronage of Prince Anton Radziwill, the young musician became a member of the high society. The talented young man also visited Russia. His game was marked by Emperor Alexander I. As a reward, the young performer was presented with a diamond ring.

Music

Having gained impressions and the first composer's experience, at the age of 19 Chopin begins his pianistic career. The concerts that the musician holds in his native Warsaw and Krakow bring him great popularity. But the very first European tour, which Frederick undertook a year later, turned out to be a parting for the musician from his homeland.

While in Germany with performances, Chopin learns about the suppression of the Polish uprising in Warsaw, of which he was one of the supporters. After such news, the young musician was forced to stay abroad in Paris. In memory of this event, the composer wrote the first opus of etudes, the pearl of which was the famous Revolutionary etude.

In France, Frederic Chopin mainly performed at the homes of his patrons and high-ranking acquaintances. At this time, he composes his first piano concertos, which he successfully performs on the stages of Vienna and Paris.

An interesting fact of Chopin's biography is his meeting in Leipzig with the German romantic composer Robert Schumann. After listening to the performance of a young Polish pianist and composer, the German exclaimed: "Gentlemen, take off your hats, this is a genius." In addition to Schumann, his Hungarian follower Franz Liszt became a fan of Frederic Chopin. He admired the work of the Polish musician and even wrote a large research work on the life and work of his idol.

The heyday of creativity

The thirties of the XIX century become the heyday of the composer's work. Impressed by the poetry of the Polish writer Adam Mickiewicz, Fryderyk Chopin creates four ballads dedicated to his native Poland and his feelings about her fate.

The melody of these works is filled with elements of Polish folk songs, dances and recitative cues. These are original lyrical-tragic pictures from the life of the people of Poland, refracted through the prism of the author's experiences. In addition to ballads, 4 scherzos, waltzes, mazurkas, polonaises and nocturnes appear at this time.

If the waltz in Chopin's work becomes the most autobiographical genre, closely connected with the events of his personal life, then mazurkas and polonaises can rightly be called a treasure chest of national images. Mazurkas are represented in Chopin's works not only by famous lyrical works, but also by aristocratic or, conversely, folk dances.

The composer, in accordance with the concept of romanticism, which appeals primarily to the national identity of the people, uses the sounds and intonations characteristic of Polish folk music to create his musical compositions. This is the famous bourdon, which imitates the sounds of folk instruments, this is the sharp syncopation, which is skillfully combined with the dotted rhythm inherent in Polish music.

Frederic Chopin opens the genre of nocturne in a new way. If before him the name of the nocturne primarily corresponded to the translation “night song”, then in the work of the Polish composer this genre turns into a lyrical and dramatic sketch. And if the first opuses of his nocturnes sound like a lyrical description of nature, then the last works go deeper and deeper into the sphere of tragic experiences.

One of the peaks of the mature master's work is considered to be his cycle, consisting of 24 preludes. It was written in the crucial years for Frederick of his first love and breakup with his beloved. The choice of the genre was influenced by Chopin's passion for the work of J.S. Bach at that time.

Studying the immortal cycle of preludes and fugues of the German master, the young Polish composer decided to write a similar work. But in the romanticism, such works received a personal coloring of sound. Chopin's preludes are, first of all, small but deep sketches of a person's inner experiences. They are written in the manner of a musical diary popular in those years.

Chopin teacher

Chopin's fame is due not only to his composing and concert activities. The talented Polish musician also showed himself as a brilliant teacher. Frederic Chopin is the creator of a unique pianistic technique that has helped many pianists gain true professionalism.

In addition to talented students, Chopin taught many young ladies from aristocratic circles. But of all the wards of the composer, only Adolf Gutman became truly famous, who later became a pianist and music editor.

Portraits of Chopin

Among Chopin's friends one could meet not only musicians and composers. He was interested in the work of writers, romantic artists, fashionable beginner photographers at that time. Thanks to the versatile connections of Chopin, many portraits were left painted by different masters, the most famous of which is the work of Eugene Delacroix.

The portrait of the composer, painted in an unusual for that time romantic manner, is now kept in the Louvre Museum. At the moment, photos of the Polish musician are also known. Historians count at least three daguerreotypes, which, according to research, depict Frederic Chopin.

Personal life

The personal life of Frederic Chopin was tragic. Despite his sensitivity and tenderness, the composer did not really experience a feeling of full happiness from family life. The first chosen one of Frederick was his compatriot, the young Maria Wodzinskaya.

After the engagement of the young people, the bride's parents demanded that the wedding be held no earlier than a year later. During this time, they hoped to get to know the composer better and make sure of his financial solvency. But Frederick did not justify their hopes, and the engagement was broken off.

The musician experienced the moment of parting with his beloved very sharply. This was reflected in the music he wrote that year. In particular, at this time, the famous second sonata appears from under his pen, the slow part of which was called the “Funeral March”.

A year later, he was fascinated by an emancipated person whom all of Paris knew. The Baroness's name was Aurora Dudevant. She was a fan of emerging feminism. Aurora, not embarrassed, wore a men's suit, she was not married, but was fond of open relationship. With a refined mind, the young lady wrote and published novels under the pseudonym George Sand.

The love story of 27-year-old Chopin and 33-year-old Aurora developed rapidly, but the couple did not advertise their relationship for a long time. None of his portraits shows Frederic Chopin with his women. The only painting depicting the composer and George Sand was found torn in two after his death.

The lovers spent a lot of time in the private property of Aurora Dudevant in Mallorca, where Chopin developed an illness that later led to a sudden death. The humid island climate, tense relationships with his beloved and their frequent quarrels provoked tuberculosis in the musician.

Many acquaintances who watched the unusual couple noted that the strong-willed countess had a special influence on the weak-willed Frederick. However, this did not prevent him from creating his immortal piano works.

Death

Chopin's health, which was deteriorating every year, was finally undermined by a break with his beloved George Sand in 1847. After this event, broken mentally and physically, the pianist begins his last tour of the UK, which he went on with his student Jane Stirling. Returning to Paris, he gave concerts for some time, but soon fell ill and never got up again.

Close people who were next to the composer all the last days were his beloved younger sister Ludwika and French friends. Frederic Chopin died in mid-October 1849. The cause of his death was complicated pulmonary tuberculosis.

According to the composer's will, his heart was taken out of his chest and taken to his homeland, and his body was buried in a grave in the French cemetery of Pere Lachaise. The goblet with the composer's heart is still immured in one of the Catholic churches of the Polish capital.

The Poles love Chopin so much and are proud of him that they rightly consider his work national treasure. In honor of the composer, many museums have been opened, in every city there are monuments to the great musician. The death mask of Frederic and a cast of his hands can be seen in the Chopin Museum in Zhelyazova Wola.

In memory of the composer, many musical educational institutions, including the Warsaw Conservatory. Since 2001, Chopin's name has been borne by the Polish airport, which is located on the territory of Warsaw. It is interesting that one of the terminals is called "Etudes" in memory of the immortal creation of the composer.

The name of the Polish genius is so popular among music connoisseurs and ordinary listeners that some modern musical groups take advantage of this and create lyrical compositions stylistically reminiscent of Chopin's works and attribute his authorship to them. So in the public domain you can find musical plays called "Autumn Waltz", "Rain Waltz", "Garden of Eden", the real authors of which are the Secret Garden group and composers Paul de Senneville and Oliver Toussaint.

Artworks

• Piano Concertos - (1829-1830)
• Mazurkas - (1830-1849)
• Polonaise - (1829-1846)
• Nocturnes - (1829-1846)
• Waltzes - (1831-1847)
• Sonatas - (1828-1844)
• Preludes - (1836-1841)
• Etudes - (1828-1839)
• Scherzo - (1831-1842)
• Ballads - (1831-1842)

Fryderyk Chopin was in his early twenties when, in 1831, he left Warsaw for the capital of the arts.

The Parisian public was immediately captivated by his polonaises, waltzes, mazurkas, which retained the traditional dance form, but filled with new content - true poetry and drama.

In addition, Fryderyk was an excellent pianist, he impressed the audience not only with technical perfection, but also with the depth and sincerity of his performance.

Fryderyk Chopin

Chopin and outwardly corresponded to the music that he composed.

He has developed a reputation as a heartthrob that the most beautiful women cannot resist. His strength was in grace, lightness, brilliant wit, not to mention the most important thing - music, which was heard and admired.

No less noisy fame fell to the conqueror of male hearts Aurora Dupin - a writer who signed her novels with the pseudonym George Sand.

Long before meeting her, Chopin had heard a lot about her talent, her love affairs and shocking manners: she defiantly wore trousers and a tailcoat, smoked cigars.

They met at one of the secular receptions, and in the first moments of the conversation, Chopin was fascinated: this woman was not spoiled by either men's clothes or a low voice with a hoarseness. On the contrary, all this made her mysterious, alluring.

But as soon as she stepped aside, the charm dissipated: in the role of a careless dandy with a cigar in her mouth, she looked almost caricatured from a distance.

Nevertheless, he was very upset when the next day he did not find her in the house of mutual acquaintances ...

Soon the news spread throughout Paris that Chopin and George Sand went on a joint journey. Both were too prominent for this news not to cause a storm in society. The students of the conservatory were hotly discussing the new novel of their maestro, some baroness had a seizure, and one well-known writer did not leave the tavern for three days ...

The Parisian journalist Jules Dufour wrote: “What reasonable person would argue that the love of two statues, two monuments can last longer than a day? On a common pedestal, they will be bored to death. And in bed, the monuments are simply ridiculous ... "

Honore Balzac, when asked what he thinks of this sensational novel, replied: “Madame Sand's previous failures in love lie in her unshakable faith in happy love. She believes in her and waits like a woman. And he achieves it like a man ... "

From the side it was difficult to understand what united them - they seemed so different. However, they also had a lot in common.

Before meeting George Sand, Chopin's muses succeeded each other, bringing him inspiration: Constance, Maryla, Delfina Potocka, Maria Vodzinska... Each of them was beautiful in her own way, but something always interfered with a strong union: sometimes a different social status, sometimes a struggle of vanities, then a disease, or, finally, just a combination of circumstances ...

Park around George Sand castle

The new novel was not like any previous one. With George Sand, he was connected not only by passion, but also by deep affection and true friendship. Fryderyk was not so frank with anyone, with no one did he discuss his professional problems so deeply.

He became a member of the George Sand family, took to heart everything that concerned her children - Maurice and Solange.

But they were different in nature. George Sand never complained about. She knew how not only to work around the clock, but also to have fun without restraint. Chopin, sickly from his youth, was sometimes burdened by this.

At the same time, both were absorbed in their work, which required great effort. Both were characterized by creative throwing and even neurasthenic attacks, but George Sand overcame them much easier than Fryderyk.

Georges Sand family castle

For almost ten years, from 1838 to 1847, Chopin was a regular visitor to the Dupin family castle. Castle Nohant was famous for its hospitality. As in a home, many friends, relatives, acquaintances of the hostess and her lover, who was affectionately called Chopinetto, came here in the summer.

At George Sand's, he met Balzac, Louis Blanc, Pierre Leroux... All of them became big fans of Chopin, but George Sand still reigned here, and Fryderyk sometimes could not overcome his stiffness.

He was a man of the world, but the noisy life of the Parisian bohemia often tired him. In the depths of his soul, he remained a Varsovian, who until the end of his days did not get rid of longing for his homeland.

A test of feelings was presented to them by a winter spent in Mallorca in the abandoned Carthusian monastery of Valldemosa.

In this fantastically beautiful place, they both felt a special surge of inspiration.

Chopin's cycle of twenty-four preludes was born there, reflecting different moods, different impulses of the soul, but imbued with one passionate desire to live and love.

Unfortunately, in the midst of Chopin's work, blood began to bleed in his throat, a severe exacerbation of consumption began. George Sand, having abandoned writing, did not leave him day or night ...

Contrary to malicious gossip, the experienced test not only did not shake their union, but, on the contrary, made it stronger.

Their mutual friend Louis Henault, who often visited George Sand and Chopin in Paris, said that they perfectly understood and complemented each other and they were very good together.

Once, when the three of them were sitting in front of a burning fireplace, George Sand began to remember her favorite village in Berry. She told so poetically and figuratively that the touched Chopin could not remain indifferent. “If this inspired you so much, maybe you could set my words to music?” George Sand suggested.

And this happened more than once: one infected the other with his inspiration.

George Sand, who loved to play with her little dog, once remarked to Chopin: “If I were you, I would certainly compose some piece of music in honor of my dog ​​...” Chopin, according to the memoirs of Louis Eno, immediately went to the piano and played a melodic waltz, which his students and acquaintances later called just that - “Waltz of a small dog” ...

Very musical by nature, George Sand subtly felt and understood Chopin's music and admired his talent.

Chopin, who stood aside from the literary process, had little interest in the work of his beloved.

It was rumored that he had not even read all of her novels.

It was difficult to reconcile George Sand with such indifference. Resentments accumulated.

The discord came to light after the publication of George Sand's novel Lucrezia Floriani.

The love story underlying it was very reminiscent of the novel of the writer herself with Chopin. No matter how much George Sand denied this, Fryderyk recognized her in the actress Lucrezia, who had three children from different husbands, and himself in the pampered, capricious Prince Carol.

Chopin's first reaction was shock: the story of their life, their love, was submitted to the general court. Moreover, George Sand strengthened Chopin's narcissistic features in the novel, creating not a reliable portrait, but rather a caricature, a caricature.

Chopin believed that George Sand betrayed their love, which actually enriched them both. On the pages of the book, Carole and Lucretia, having experienced the tragedy of failed hopes, part.

The blow to pride was fatal, and yet Chopin swallowed this bitter pill. However, their relationship gave such a crack that any insignificant reason could provoke a break.

And the reason soon appeared. George Sand's relationship with her daughter went wrong because of her marriage, and she insisted that Chopin stop communicating with Solange and her husband.

Chopin considered such a requirement unfair. This was the reason for the breakup.

George Sand later said that they never quarreled or reproached each other, and that their first spat was the last. They never reconciled until Chopin's death.

Love relationships are a mystery behind seven seals. From the outside, it is impossible to understand whose fault the union is failing. You can only analyze what is on the surface.

Many friends and acquaintances of Chopin, speaking of his romance with George Sand, often portrayed him as a sufferer, to whom this union brought only torment.

But there are other memories that indicate that the accusations against George Sand are greatly exaggerated. The years spent with her proved to be the most fruitful of his life. During his short life (Chopin lived only 39 years old), he wrote two concertos and many piano pieces - sonatas, nocturnes, scherzos, etudes, fantasies, impromptu, songs ...

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, George Sand after the break was still energetic, sociable and efficient, and Chopin seemed to have lost his breath, he could no longer compose music, he only performed it.

But even these observations do not give grounds to blame George Sand for everything. Was it not this woman, accustomed to noisy success and worship, who spent whole nights at Chopin's bedside when he was ill?

While their union nourished her imagination and gave a powerful impetus to creativity, she was inexhaustible in devotion to him and was not at all upset that she gave more than she received.

Chopin demanded a lot of attention and care, but he himself did not show the dedication that she bestowed on him. But they were both very talented, and creativity has always remained the main thing in everyone's life.

After parting with Fryderyk, George Sand seemed to be freed from a heavy burden, which she took upon herself and meekly carried for nine whole years.

Perhaps neither he nor she imagined what the gap would turn out for them. George Sand had no idea that she would endure separation from Chopin so easily, and Chopin - that he would not be able to live and work without George Sand. He suffered, rushed about and did not believe that she would never return to him.

Soon Chopin left for England. “It can’t be harder for me than now, and I haven’t experienced real joy for a long time ... I just vegetate and wait for the end ... - he wrote from there to a friend. “I feel weaker, I can’t compose… I never cursed, but now I’m almost ready to curse Lucrezia.”

Chopin was going to give several concerts in London, but his health did not allow it. I managed to perform only twice in a private house with my friends.

In Paris, the disease worsened, and in recent months Chopin was so weak that he could not speak, he explained himself with gestures.

When George Sand found out about his illness, she tried to go to him, but her friends did not allow it, fearing that strong excitement would worsen his condition.

And Chopin, a few days before his death, said to his friend Franchom: “She said that she would not let me die without her, that I would die in her arms ...”