How Chopin's Legacy Revolutionized Piano Playing (ft. Emanuel Ax, Seymour Bernstein and more!)

tonebase gives you instant access to knowledge from the world's greatest classical musicians, performers, and educators. Learn more by visiting tonebase.co/piano?...
Why has Chopin achieved such legendary status? Robert Fleitz and Tonebase Artists such as Garrick Ohlsson, Seymour Bernstein, Emanuel Ax, Henry Kramer, and Jarred Dunn go on a journey through Chopin's life and the legends that have emerged around him to find out.
Written, Edited and Hosted by Robert Fleitz / rfleitz
00:00 Who is this person?!
02:30 The Tortured Romantic
05:45 The Idealistic Pianist
08:45 Is Chopin "too listenable"?
10:49 The Spirit of the Nation
13:37 A Legend for All Circumstances
Narration:
Maxwell Foster (@maxfoster6274), Magdalena Stern-Baczewska (@magdalenaNYC), Tom Robak (@trobak) Evan Shinners (@wtfbach), Jakob Schmidt (@tonebase), and Steve Payet
References:
Tonebase Lessons
Emanuel Ax on Interpreting Chopin
Seymour Bernstein on Prelude in E Minor, Op. 28 No. 4
Michelle Cann on Ballade No. 3
Jared Dunn on Etude Op. 25 No. 7
Fei-Fei on Prelude Op. 28 No. 16
Gary Graffman on Ballade No. 2 in F Major, Op. 38
Claire Huangci on Nocturne in B-flat Major, Op. 9 No.1
Claire Huangci on Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 9 No.2
Asiya Korepanova on Ballade No. 4
Henry Kramer on Etude Op. 10 No. 2
Norman Krieger on Etude Op. 25 No. 1
Marina Lomazov on Etude Op. 10 No. 8
Garrick Ohlsson on Chopin and Brahms
Garrick Ohlsson on Barcarolle Op. 60
Garrick Ohlsson on Ballade No. 1, Op. 23
Leann Osterkamp on Fantasie-Impromptu
Rebecca Penneys on Nocturne in D-flat Major, Op. 27 No. 2
Evan Shinners on Bach Prelude and Fugue in C Major
Arie Vardi on Polyphony and Poly-melody in Chopin
Books and Articles:
Ewelina Boczkowska, “Chopin’s Ghosts"
Nicholas Cook “Theorizing Musical Meaning”
Sarah Reichardt Ellis and Michael Lee, “Monsters, Meaning, and the Music of Chopin in American Horror Cinema of the 1930s and ’40s”
Jeffrey Kallberg, “Ballades without Words”
Jeffrey Kallberg, “Hearing Poland: Chopin and Nationalism” in “Piano Music in the Nineteenth Century”
Catherine Kautsky, “Sand and Chopin: The Mysterious Liaison”
Michael Klein, “Chopin’s Fourth Ballade as Musical Narrative”
James Parakilas, “Disrupting the Genre: Unforseen Personifications in Chopin”
Charles Rosen, “The Romantic Generation”
Jim Samson, “The Four Ballades”
Jim Samson, “Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek [Frédéric François]” in Grove Music Online
Jim Samson, “Romanticism” in Grove Music Online
Richard Taruskin, “Self and Other”, Chapter 7 in Music in the Nineteenth Century
Alan Walker, “Chopin: The Voice of the Piano”
Thomas B. Yee, “Narrating Near-Death Experience: Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude as an Interpretive Key in Eternal Sonata”
Dorota Zakrewska, “Alienation and Powerlessness: Adam Mickiewicz’s Ballady and Chopin’s Ballades”
Encyclopedia Britannica, “Adam Mickiewicz”
Encyclopedia Britannica, “November Insurrection”
Films, Video Games and Other Media:
“Dracula’s Daughter” (1936)
“Impromptu” (1991)
“La Note Bleue” (1991)
“Eternal Sonata” (2007)
Hosted by Robert Fleitz / rfleitz
---
tonebase gives you instant access to knowledge from the world's greatest classical musicians, performers, and educators. Learn more by visiting tonebase.co/piano?...
Facebook - / tonebasepiano
Instagram - / tonebasepiano
Questions? Contact us: [e-mail]

[@owenbishop6544]

Even though he mostly only composed for piano, I find it hard to make an argument that Chopin isn’t a top 3 composer of all time. Debussy said it best, “Chopin is the greatest of all, for with the piano alone he discovered everything.”

[@jeffreyjeziorski1480]

Well, if he's good enough for Debussy, I guess I will have to upgrade him....Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin in that order. Bach and Mozartt did so much with the voice and drama! Mozart was the greatest composer known to Hayden, said had taste style, and the most profound knowledge of composition. Said to Papa Mozart, Wolfgang's teacher and supporter. Mozart and Beethoven did so much variety in form, and the Drama! Beethoven changed the course of music with the individual as supreme. Chopin....OMG, so much technique, taste, poetry. Weak piano concertos, incomplete knowledge of the orchestra. Gotta give Brahms a lot of credit for his later, mature works. How do you feel about Duke Ellington, arguably the finest composer of the 20th century?

[@danielroymakesmusic]

For me, I can't disagree. My list would be Bach, Beethoven and Chopin.

[@danielroymakesmusic]

For me, I can't disagree. My list would be Bach, Beethoven and Chopin.

[@ArgoBeats]

Chopin is the greatest, indeed. And I'd add _by far_

[@rubenvaneldik5019]

@@danielroymakesmusic For me, Rachmaninov, Chopin and Debussy

[@heresy7266]

people always forget about his sonatas! specially his third sonata is a masterpiece and one of the greatest works ever written.

[@callmeqt1269]

and it’s funny that his second sonata is even more renowned and - at least in my opinion - just as prolific

[@heresy7266]

@@callmeqt1269 yes I agree but when it comes to pure musicality and innovation third sonata takes it home. no one wrote music like that at that time! and publics reaction to it says it all! everyone at odd/counfused Liszt even remarking that Chopin has gone crazy!

[@quanlethienminh6002]

The 3rd movement of the sonata no 3 is insanely underrated!!! The harmonic progression is so daring yet perfectly and poetically sensible

[@jessevallejo8797]

You're all wrong. The Cello Sonata is by far the best!!!

[@arturkranz-dobrowolski2959]

All four of Chopin's sonatas are works of a composer forging his own paths in this genre. In the first, the work of a student at the Warsaw Conservatory, Chopin abandons thematic dualism, referring to Haydn's early sonatas. In the second, he replaces the dialectical dualism of Beethoven's sonatas with a dualism of the antinomy type. And since any antinomy, including those emulated in music, precludes constructive synthesis, the sonata is brought with an iron consistency to an at least perceptually atonal finale (according to György Ligeti, this finale is simply the first atonal composition in the history of the West). The third sonata, is a grand synthesis of Chopin's entire compositional output, and the fourth, a cello sonata that bridges over Brahms, already leads somewhere in the neighborhood of Rachmaninoff.

[@Chopin-Etudes-Cosplay]

I recently finished reading a 700-page biography on Chopin (by Alan Walker), and one of the most eye-opening things was how much joy Chopin had in his life as well, especially before the revolution. He had the most fun-filled, social childhood one could imagine, and he continued to be very socially active even as an adult - I would venture to say he was an extrovert, and quite the clown! However, I expect these experiences of intense joy are probably what deepened his capacity for sadness as well. Another important takeaway is that because of the continued fervor around him to this day, there is a lot of myth and misinformation around him that spreads like wildfire because people are so eager to fill in the gaps of his life with their romantic imaginations. But I must say, Tonebase did its proper homework in this video. Well done!

[@asherrubenstein2949]

i just finished the same bio!!🥰

[@milessteenvoorden2832]

You're romanticizing him too much. He wasn't saddened because of the political situation in Poland or anything that happened later in his life, he simply had daddy issues and caused his own sadness because he never got approval from his daddy. He was a happy kid, but he didn't become the pessimistic asshole that he could be because of his youth being gone, he had daddy issues. He was simply a fantastic composer, that doesn't mean the rest of his life was that meaningful and special outside of his music

[@milessteenvoorden2832]

The death of his sister and the divided attention at home also couldn't have helped him

[@Chopin-Etudes-Cosplay]

@@milessteenvoorden2832 Not sure where you’re getting your facts from but that isn’t true per the biography I read. The one thing you’re right about is that his sister’s death affected him deeply, but he was already 17 at that point and it was really the one and only sorrow that he experienced, and he had his whole family and friends to lean on. Losing a close one wasn’t that unusual back then because TB was killing lots of people.

[@milessteenvoorden2832]

@@Chopin-Etudes-Cosplay the same biography, a hearing lecture by Thijs Bongers and music history classes. The relationship with his father is mentioned in the biography many times. The fact that his father didn't want him to become a musician? The fact that he never got full approval from the only person he wanted it from? And it's also fact that his 'bonus brothers' took up quite a lot of attention at home. It's not even a question if he had daddy issues. I don't have a psychology major, but from what I know from reading, personal development and people who do study psychology is that a parent-child relationship can be the basis of your complete development. From what we know the same dynamic he had with his father even appears to come back in the weird indirect way of communication we knew George and Chopin to have. Also, although common back then, losing a loved one like that can definitely cause trauma, especially with the closed up "I'll just go and sit behind the piano" way of coping that he had. His whole adulthood was him being unhappy and self sabotaging to stay in that state, he blamed it on the political situation in Poland, he may have believed it was the case, but I think any psychologist who has expertise in adolescent development through childhood trauma will tell you he's a typical case of daddy issues. I'm not saying he knew any better or could do anything about it, but in lots of ways he kept himself from his own happiness and blamed something that definitely wasn't the thing to blame. It was even said that Chopin could've easily returned to Poland, he simply didn't want to, he would rather be depressed, which is sad, but doesn't make him special apart from his music. Let's be clear: I love his compositions, he was a musical genius, that is no debate

[@Gail-bz5kh]

When I heard the first twelve measures of Chopin's Barcarolle performed by Murray Perahia, my hair literally stood up on my neck. I immediately changed my career goals, changing from repetiteur for opera to learning how to recreate that beautiful and resonant shaping. From that time on, pursuing piano music became my greatest joy in life. That joy of recreating the shimmering sounds,:the frenzied deep tones, the gentle nuances, is life for me.( I only wish I had a slightly larger hands.)

[@1389Chopin]

Agreed - my favorite recording is van cliburn - his middle section and the finale driving to the resolution *chef's kiss - check it out

[@RolandHuettmann]

I completely reject the idea of comparing Chopin with any other composer. So much beauty is lost in our constant judging and comparing. Just take Chopin as Chopin. There is no second, and never will be. And take Bach as Bach, and Mozart as Mozart. Of course, analyze his music, see its roots, compare the notation, but the beauty only develops in the playing, in the alert listening, and in the intimate relationship that is formed between you and his music if your ears are tuned to it. .

[@thomassicard3733]

I'm enjoying playing all of his Nocturnes, these days. I'm 60, now. The Etudes and Ballades (No. 4, my favorite - as I matured) were a main thing of mine in the past, but now I like to play his Nocturnes in the middle of the night (when possible).

[@BladesAcademy]

As a Bach lover, I didn’t know Chopin was so connected.

[@nintendianajones64]

Listen to his Étude no 1 in C Major it's a major tribute to Bach's Prelude in C Major and expresses how much he loved Bach.

[@chipesh]

71 now I remember teaching myself to play piano as a teenager as best I could. Often buying collections of various composers I wondered at the strange Chopin pieces. Buying LPs of the Ballades etc I was overwhelmed by the experience. Your whole body tingling. The remarkable thing is I'm still here talking about the experience. Blew me away in a manner I never thought music could.

[@1389Chopin]

Garrick i think said it best in one of his lectures - when you hear what chopin does with sound - your eyes roll into the back of your head Its just so good

[@cadriver2570]

Please add additional video series on the Preludes and Etudes!

[@BrandonMJ-ng8dr]

It’s wild how Chopin revolutionized the pianist-composer landscape just for modern pianists to quit composing entirely

[@nintendianajones64]

After Chopin what else can you do? Lol

[@Mofos_of_Metal]

Chopin's popularity as a composer is absolutely astonishing considering he basically only wrote for piano. He is the 4th most popular Classical composer on Spotify. After Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. How he is THAT FAR up there with such a HUGE handicap of only writing for piano - it's testament to how phenomenal, universal and enduring his music is. It's somehow both very universal but also very... personal, individual, even idiosyncratic. He will always be my number one, no other composer touches my heart more. Beethoven may be more grand, Bach may be more perfect, Mozart may be more genius. But Chopin is just... well, he's Chopin.

[@karllieck9064]

You forgot Tchaikovsky.

[@ahauntinglybeautifulmelody]

you perfectly summed it up, especially that last sentence

[@michaelspeir6086]

Chopin: The flair of Hummel; the depth of Beethoven.

[@joeguthriePIANO]

Loved this. Great segment on my man Chopin. Well done- thanks!

[@hamidrezahabibi8111]

Magnificent as Ever 🫵♾️💎🎼🎶🎵😊

[@kevinhenry116]

I really enjoyed this video. I have always said that so Chopin music is like a song. That is where the pause for breath is in the best performers like Rubinstein. I really liked Robert Fleitz enthusiasm and expression. A lovely programme thank you

[@Mimi4UEyesNotBlue]

After retiring, I have sought to concentrate more time to the piano. I enjoy it so much! Now, in my 60's, Chopin confronts me repeatedly. My appreciation of his work grows daily. His pieces are set apart, I can only explain his notes as soul expressions. They are unique and a delight! Thank you for this video.

[@Gail-bz5kh]

What a beautiful and inspirational post. Thank you!

[@elysantos5297]

A pleasure watching this!!! Tks❤❤❤

[@scottfoster3643]

Excellent presentation!

[@CatholicWisdom]

Wonderful video !! Thank God for Chopin.

[@kopperbunny]

Chopin was my inspiration to start playing piano, and continues to inspire me. I'm always trying to learn one of his pieces.

[@NN-rn1oz]

I didn't know the Debussy quote before. When the video started the quote with "At the piano, Chopin discovered...", I was thinking "the next word HAS to be 'everything'." And it was! Debussy knew what he was talking about.

[@stevepearson2999]

What a great quote to end with!!

[@charlesdavid2741]

Brilliant, JUST BRILLIANT REVELATION ON CHOPIN 💝

[@Siansonea]

I don't play any instruments, but Chopin and Debussy and Tchaikovsky can affect me emotionally as few other artists can. I'm glad I am lucky enough to live in a time and place where their music exists.

[@AltohP]

It's quite simple really. I see Chopin on Tonebase, I click.

[@brandonreevesmusic5408]

Well written video!

[@arastoomii4305]

Well he composed for the most expressive musical instrument of his time. You can’t blame him for that.

[@mykofreder1682]

A big part for players is a large percentage are not hard to play at a non-recording level and enjoy your playing. I realized over a decade ago I didn't need to start young and if I played 300 days a year, at least a couple pages I could be good enough for my own pleasure given time. At 6 or 7 years in I could play most waltzes and mazurkas, I don't worry about speed but get most of the notes right. Bach is also generally at that level, I have probably 100 hours of stuff from them and others at about that waltz level and look forward to maybe an hour of playing before going to bed. Getting the elbows above the keyboard and a massage gun for the shoulders to the fingers allows me to play like that without problems at 65+, I started an evening playing around 55 on a piano I bought at 30 and convinced myself I would never be good enough to more than struggle. Al lot of it comes from being an equally bad reader till I took a train downtown every day and read, you go from reading word to word slowly losing the meaning to looking at the lines and getting the meaning. I went from no to note, oh no 2 hands worth of notes, what note is that, where is that on the keyboard. To, I barely know what notes I am playing, the keyboard position and note are one, middle c and dozen other landmark notes were like that at the start.

[@murdo_mck]

When I play, very badly, I appreciate so many details I missed when merely listening.

[@thisismoyukhsworld2022]

Please make another similar videos on Scriabin and Granados, who were quite Chopinesque in nature.

[@tonebasePiano]

Hey! We did comment on the connection between Chopin and Granados in a recent short: kzbin.infoxwaXv4XWR70?feature=share We will definitely keep that in mind!

[@margarethansen7480]

Excelent! ❤👏👏👏

[@ronl7131]

And then….comes Glenn G. Couldn’t take the feelings elicited by Chopin’s compositions. GG had massive technique, & oft’ times quirky views. In all fairness, the more the merrier, when exploring different sound worlds. So many to enjoy. I listened to GG Chopin PS3, again recently. I then thought of the self-discipline GG had, to perform this Chopin Masterpiece so consistently throughout the sonata, with that idiosyncratic Gould style. Only near the end, one almost senses the Romantic in GG, subtly held in abeyance. I enjoy listening to GG, on occasion, very quirky. So many pianists perform Chopin very well. I particularly enjoy the Artists like Horowitz, who recorded some compositions, like the Ballade 1 , several times. Reveals the challenges & journeys an absolute Master like Horowitz, experiencing the sound world of a genius Composer Chopin.

[@mirkoboi]

I've been playing the piano since childhood over 20+ years. After discovering Chopin, I realised I know nothing

[@Henri.d.Olivoir]

Does someone know which recordings they are using for the pieces on the background? I especially liked the Op. 15 No. 2 Nocturne in F-sharp major, so delightful...

[@arnausubiracanaleta3162]

And the first first price for the most handsome presenter goes to...😊❤

[@lindaross783]

He was magnificent

[@the_eternal_paradox]

im going to scream, ETERNAL SOTANA MENTIONED

[@anonymohipp9097]

Polish soul music.

[@AldenHardaway]

So thought-provoking!

[@juanramonsilva1067]

Even though Chopin was a genius I think he shouldn’t be mystified as a human. Because mostly he was just that a human, not a being from another planet. Being nationalistic is a pretty common human trait, he also loved Bach’s music which is astoundingly human as well. The over romantization of Chopin goes a bit far at times, his music just reflect his times, his intellect and his good taste.

[@drdarrylschroeder5691]

Hello - Chopin actually comes from the original early Earth, Yanini, otherwise known as Lemuria, dating back to eight million years ago. Imagine all the incarnations he has had since then and long ago already ascended as an Ascended Master. He was overshadowed by one of the Ascended Masters, Paolo Veronese, whose presence was often felt by the pianist while he was experiencing the inspiration to write and play uplifting music. His consumption also raised his vibrations which made possible the creation of music which requires tuning into the higher frequencies not possible under normal circumstances. He was specially sent by the Solar Hierarchy to bring his music to the World. Thank you.

[@dennisdeez123]

Source: “Trust me bro”

[@ChrisTaylor-dz6nk]

I went from jazz and later to classical. Chopin.haydn.liszt.and schubert.rachmananinoff.ps.volcalise.op.34.14.haydn.😅😊

[@Test-nj4fx]

Why was this edited with these weird cuts that cut to a zoom and then cut to another zoom? Why couldn't we just watch the person speak and then cut to another person speaking? It's as though the editor thought the speakers were so boring that he or she had to jazz them up somehow.it was distracting and disorienting.

[@mikesmovingimages]

Because, in all fairness, it is a commercial for Tonebass premium.

[@tronchalant]

Could anyone explain to me what Seymour Bernstein means at the end of the video?? "…through the discipline of music you project into everything you do in life"

[@Gr4pefru1t]

The discipline that you learn through hard work in music translates directly into other parts of your life. Being patient with yourself, practicing, and improving yourself are all important skills to have in general

[@tronchalant]

Thank you very much. Does it also mean music fosters some sort of "emotional intelligence" or sensitivity that’s useful for other areas in life? Because before that he specially mentions the word emotional understanding: "It’s rewarding for us to go into that area of emotional understanding…through the discipline of music etc."

[@Gr4pefru1t]

@@tronchalant why not! Ultimately the message I got is that "what you get out of music will be what applies elsewhere". If that means emotional intelligence for you or others, then I'd say that would certainly be accurate.

[@arturkranz-dobrowolski2959]

The truth about Chopin in a nutshell: During his last radio interview, William Kapell was asked if Chopin was a romantic. Without denying Chopin's romanticism, Kapell rightly answered that, above all, Chopin was a purist. All those who do not recognize Chopin's purism are far from understanding his music.

[@Astrid-jt8cd]

I heard that the heart of Chopin is buried in Poland and every pianist is encouraged to go there.

[@unnamedunnamed562]

He was more Polish than Poland

[@mikesmovingimages]

@@unnamedunnamed562 You get that way in exile.

[@IamKonstantin]

I was 14 when I first heard chopin... I literally gasped for air and asked..... "uncle who is that?!!".... I have never been the same since. Oh by the way Marina Lomazov's Etude Training course is TOP notch ! Highly recommend it. I hope there are plans for her to add more etudes.

[@beyondthekeys]

Video editor had a little too much coffee lol

[@classicgameplay10]

Wait. Did he said Hugh Grant ?

[@0nlyhoda944]

Yes. Hugh Grant played Chopin in the movie Impromptu (1991)

[@tkk0o]

Not bad. The more era-appropriate term for the Polish political exiles in France at the time would be 'émigrées' though, a word conceived well before 'expat', that disingenuous and evasive shorthand for an Anglo-American migrant feeling too exceptional to admit being one.

[@mikesmovingimages]

Too true. Expat can also mean long-term but temporarily abroad. When I lived overseas I grew to find most "expat" communities dull. They spent too much time comparing or, in poorer countries, living it up. I prided myself on learning the language and blending in, and considered myself successful when the locals could not guess I was an American (they might tell I was a foreigner, but weren't always sure of my provenance).

[@SpontaneityJD]

Shouldn't the title be "et al" -- et cetera is used to normally reference other things, not people. Great video as always!

[@tfpp1]

5:55 - YOU FORGOT IMPROMPTUS!!! 😩

[@samaritan29]

12:20 doesn't berlioz look like liam neeson

[@ChrisTaylor-dz6nk]

Haydn.i think is the missing link.❤😊

[@andreslka]

Cho-Pan

[@murdo_mck]

My daughter's piano teacher said some of her fellow students did not like Chopin. "Too much emotion". I can sort of understand but I fear they were not cut out to be musicians.

[@user-mr6de6tb3e]

Listen sonido bestial by richi Ray

[@adrianwright8685]

"Tormented Expat" - who did the tormenting? He was often ill for sure - perhaps that's what you meant?

[@jvcaloza]

Based

[@ChrisTaylor-dz6nk]

Ps. Played by kissin😊🎉

[@senseitiger2704]

Why is Chopin too good? Easy HES THE GOAT! THE GOOOAATTT🤲🏻🤲🏻

[@joeykremple]

This video reminds me of the Horowitz quote: There are only 3 types of pianists: Jewish, gay and bad. (Although Chopin was a hetero gentile)

[@C0nstellati0ns]

The editing of this video is stressful and exhausting. There's not a second without any words being said. It's too intense.

[@thomassicard3733]

"What is behind the legend of Chopin?" His compositions. Duh.

[@user-vj6hb5ls7x]

Why would you even put yourself in a category with Chopin . A little presumptuous ?

[@Damzified]

Kittens all around the world are dying because of your pronunciation of Chopin 😥 Cut the 'n' and save kittens. Tell your friends, too. Only the dude at 0:30 (Krieger?), Georges Sand at 3:33 and Schumann at 12:41 participated in this life saving effort.

[@mikesmovingimages]

In Polish, the 'n' is pronounced. Being the Polish nationalist he was, that would likely be his preferred pronunciation. Dropping the 'n' is to Frenchify the pronunciation.

[@Damzified]

@@mikesmovingimages Well it's a French name, given by his French father who apparently taught French in Poland.

[@mikesmovingimages]

@@Damzified OK, well, keep tilting at the celli, admonishing the flautists, and enjoy the Wiener Philharmoniker plaing Vahgner. Does one spell Mozart with a "t"?

[@Damzified]

@@mikesmovingimages Show-pen already sounds like an attempt at saying it in French, so might as well go all the way and drop the 'n'. That said... you're right, in the end it really doesn't matter.

[@mikesmovingimages]

@@Damzified At least it's not "CHOPpin' !

[@nintendianajones64]

Chopin's music is the only good thing about this awful nightmare world.

[@BrutalSnuggles]

Just one composer has a legacy of its own? Huh

[@stavrosk.2868]

I am 61 now. I have listened to Chopin for 40 years. But. There is only 1 . Bach.

[@zdzislawmeglicki2262]

I think too much is made of Chopin's Polish background and supposed suffering. His father was 100% French and Chopin spoke the language fluently and without an accent. He spent his whole adult life in France where he was quite happy indeed, enjoying soirees, fabulous food, great company, elegant women, and international publishing success. His music is as French as it is Polish, but above all it is universal and unique. No wonder Chopin is adored in Japan, Korea, and China. He was never banned from Poland, he was not involved in the insurrection, his family was not persecuted. He could visit Poland any time, but chose not to. Instead he was visited in Paris by his sister. Agreed, travel at the time was slow, full of hardship and peril, as only someone stuck for two days at the Detroit Airport due to bad weather will understand… but I digress. His physical problem was most likely due to cystic fibrosis. He never infected anyone with tuberculosis and he was infertile. We know this from his relationship with George Sand. He might have contracted tuberculosis later while touring Britain. It was a filthy place at the time. But he would have died at about 40 years of age anyway. Most cystic fibrosis sufferers do, even today.

[@Seleuce]

I'm sorry, but some of what you state as facts is speculation, some are false. I agree that the Polish nationalistic aspect and the illness aspect are generally overemphasized, which dates as far back as G.Sand and even to Liszt. Neither could hold themselves back, turning Chopin into a "feeble, immortal, chaste, asexual angel of music" in their biographies, while not getting tired to emphasize Chopin's weak constitution and hot temper. Many of his friends and his family objected to this picture. However: 1. Chopin did in fact speak with a mild, yet distinct Polish accent when speaking French. (At least one source from his day stated that) 2. CF is as much a speculation as is any other diagnosis of his illnesses, and not at all "most likely". 3. No-one can reconstruct a chain of infection of TB around Chopin during his lifetime because of the nature of the disease. But TB was overly present around him because it was generally everywhere. Every 4th adult suffered from it in Eastern Europe, France and Germany. Though, not every infected gets sick, not everyone dies. One can get ill and die a year later, or have constant relapses for decades between relatively healthy periods, or live with it in latent state and get 80 years old. TB is highly complicated, and that's why it wasn't understood for such a long time until the bacterium was discovered, since it isn't limited to the lungs, but can also infect the gastric system instead or as well, intestines, bones, brain, heart. And some people are almost immune to it. You can have a family of 6 in which 5 are TB positive, with only 2 being actually ill. You get the picture. From all we know, the whole Chopin family could have been TB positive. That doesn't rule out that Frederic had other illnesses or defects on top of that. He was unbelievably tough (if he had been frail, he would have died at the age of 16, not many people lived much longer once they entered the stage of hemoptysis, he lived over 20 years with it which is astonishing). So who knows? Several boys who lived in the Chopin family boarding school while Frederic and his sister Emila were still at home died of TB later. If I recall right, it was 4 of them. One was Jan Białobłocki, several letters from the teenager Chopin to him have survived, some when Białobłocki was already in a sanatory and eventually died of what was very likely bone TB, in 1828, age 22. Another very close friend, much later, died of TB literally in Chopins arms in 1842, Jan Matuszyński, his doctor and mate from the Warsaw conservatory. There is a heartbreaking letter from Sand describing how both, Chopin and her, cared for Matuszynski during his last weeks and how hard it was for Chopin, yet how courageous he was. Only a year before Matuszynski died, in 1841, he treated Chopin for yet another violent relapse of… let's call it Chopin's "ominous lunge disease" (Chopin mentioned in a letter to be spitting blood and how Matuszynski was caring for him). In the 1830s, the 2 friends had shared an apartment for 2 years. Matuszynski was sick for several years, no-one knows when he contracted TB. There are, of course, more TB cases around Chopin, some pupils who were definitely sick with TB while having lesson with Chopin (Carl Filtsch, etc.). But I think that's enough to get my point across. In conclusion, CF is not more nor less likely than TB. It is also not impossible that Chopin had both, a mild type of CF, + latent, relapsing TB. Or, he and his 2 sisters Ludwika and Emili had inherited the asthma from their father, which isn't exactly a great start for lungs in life before any antibiotics when TB joins. We won't know without testing. Chopin had no clubbing fingers, the distinct symptom of both TB and CF. Also, a curious puzzle piece. 4: Now for the infertility. How can you possibly claim that he was infertile? There is no evidence that he was, other than that he happened to have had no children that we know of today. I have no children either because I never tried to have some. That's no proof for infertility. Chopin wasn't married, he was often very sick, he was rather traditional and tried to live a pious, honourable life (*HAHA*... though his chastity ideal definitely got ruined when he met that light girl Teresa in 1831 and contracted a venereal disease, tsktsk). For all we know, he may just have been either extremely lucky, or the women were, or he was simply extremely careful (as he was a suspicious and wary personality anyway and condoms did exist in those days, used by the upper class, using them would be very much in character for fastidious and hypochondriac Chopin). And how do we know that this girl, Teresa, or any other girl didn't actually get pregnant? It's not likely, but it's also not impossible. Just because we are missing many facts and have so many gaps doesn't mean one thing or the other in conclusion. Maybe also interesting to note that his sister Isabella, the only seemingly fully healthy of the 4 siblings, had no children either, though married. But Ludwika, also suffering from "weak lungs", had 4 children.

[@zdzislawmeglicki2262]

​@@Seleuce I agree with you regarding Chopin's disease. He may have suffered CF throughout his life then contracted TB that was the last proverbial nail in his coffin. Perhaps before Majorca? Hence the reason for the trip. As to his infertility we know that he lived with George Sand for nine years. She was six years his senior. Their relationship began in 1838. He was 28, she was 34, still fertile (menopause occurs between 45 and 55). She had children, but not with him. So she was OK, he wasn't. TB generally does not affect men this way, does it? And she died 71 years old in 1876, of gastric distress (appendix?) and unsuccessful surgery.

[@Seleuce]

@@zdzislawmeglicki2262 Yes, on the surface it could seem that the absence of children during the years with Sand indicate possible infertility of Chopin. If we completely ignore the fact that Sand was promiscuous and had numerous prominent lovers, before, during and after her obscure relationship with Chopin. She had no children fathered by any of those lovers. So we can be utterly sure that she knew very well how to not get pregnant. She also claimed in a letter to Gzymala after the rupture that she had lived "like a Virgin for the last 7 years". While this is hard to believe (she definitely had affairs), it is believable that she didn't share the bed with Chopin in those years, possibly because he wasn't willing or because he wasn't able to. In any way, we can speculate that he was infertile or not, again, it's possible, but not at all certain. As for TB and infertility, yes it can cause infertility, too, both in females and males, though it's rare.

[@thesaucegroup1877]

You mean *foreigner*?

[@egay86292]

hype much?

[@jayr526]

This video did nothing to increase my love and appreciation for Chopin. I had to quit watching when it became evident that it was simply a glorified commercial.

[@j.davidtaylor2565]

bruh just read the transcript

[@militaryandemergencyservic3286]

Amazing how Ben has been able to change his face via plastic surgery / CGI into this bespectacled, curly haired android.

[@Gail-bz5kh]

So what?

[@williamsackelariou1860]

Bach Mozart Beethoven Chopin Debussy Stravinsky These are the most significant composers in all classical The others no matter how good or refined are footnotes😊😊😊

[@evennorthug2585]

I didn't like the 'Sorry Johan' remark. Composing is not a competition on clicks. Would hate to see Tonebase turn towards sports, ratings, winners and loosers. As you say yourself: Chopin brought Bach scores to Mallorca. You cannot compare the two. They bring different skills and insights, and they complement each other.

[@user-cg3nx7dl6w]

Never liked Ohlsson. What a hack.

[@Mini_Min_]

Nice video, except for the annoying, affected voice-overs. Hope they are left out in future videos.

[@idesof]

Why everyone so gay?

[@Gail-bz5kh]

Why does that bother you? People are people. To many of us, gay and straight, this music speaks deeply to our hearts, and that unites us. So sorry you're so scared and unable to appreciate what is being offered here.

[@jeffreykalb9752]

Chopin is decadent.

[@bodleyibolya7850]

Who is this stranger to dare to talk about Europeans?