(Fri-drikh Fran’-zhek [Fra-da-rek’ Fran-swa’] Sho-pan) 1810–49 Polish composer Chopin was unique among composers of the highest achievement and influence in that he wrote all his works, with the merest handful of exceptions, for the solo piano. Leaving Warsaw, which at the time offered only restricted musical possibilities, and living most of his adult life in Paris, ...
the instrument progressively demanded more and more volume and stronger, iron-framed grand pianos were developed accordingly. These improved designs subsequently aided the rise of piano virtuosos such as Frédéric François Chopin (1810–49) and Franz Liszt (1811–86), who gained celebrity status, dazzling audiences with their dexterity, power, sensitivity and stamina, and writing increasingly challenging music. The instrument became ...
, the great virtuosos were almost always important composers – think only of Bach, Handel, Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757), Mozart, Muzio Clementi (1752–1832), Beethoven, Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837), Chopin and Liszt. Of the great composer-pianists before 1850, only Mozart, Hummel and Chopin were content to work with what they had. Beethoven and Liszt, above all, ...
new foot-pedal mechanism and a divided bridge that was a departure from the harpsichord type of a single, long bridge. Both Beethoven, in his latter years, and Chopin famously played on Broadwood pianos. Mendelssohn, not surprisingly given his connections with Britain, was a Broadwood customer, as was Hummel. In 1853 three major piano manufacturers were ...
Hz. The instrument was usually played by two performers (four hands) and repertoire tended to be popular classics of the day by people like Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), Frédéric François Chopin (1810–49) and Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868). Telharmonium Performances Although a small number of performances were given in front of live audiences, Cahill’s vision was to transmit music to listeners down ...
is vast, incomparably nourished by the works of Mozart, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), Franz Schubert (1797–1828), Robert Schumann (1810–56), Frédéric François Chopin (1810–49), Franz Liszt (1811–86), Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47), Johannes Brahms (1833–97), Claude Debussy (1862–1918), Maurice Ravel (1875–1937), George Gershwin (1898–1937) and many more. Its foremost practitioners, from Liszt to Ignacy ...
(Al-yek-san’-der Skre-a’-bin) 1872–1915 Russian composer and pianist Scriabin’s early music, nearly all for piano, is close to Chopin, but his philosophical and religious views (he was influenced by Nietzsche and, more strongly, by theosophy) brought a rhapsodic and visionary quality that continued to intensify throughout his short life. Convinced that music has a religious power and ...
the piano with conducting, directing the first performance in Paris of Götterdämmerung at the age of 24. As a pianist he specialized in Romantic music, especially Schumann and Chopin, and in music by contemporary French composers. He co-founded the Cortot-Thibaud-Casals piano trio in 1906. Introduction | Modern Era | Classical Personalities | Marcel Dupré | Modern Era | ...
the 1930s for private study, he continued touring for the rest of his life. He played classical and modern music, and was particularly highly regarded for his poised Chopin playing. Introduction | Modern Era | Classical Personalities | Artur Schnabel | Modern Era | Classical ...
to be anxious about playing, Alkan extended the technical challenges of piano repertory to astonishing new peaks. A child prodigy and young virtuoso, he performed alongside Frédéric François Chopin (1810–49), but thereafter became an eccentric recluse, seldom appearing in public. His death was as enigmatic as his life – he is rumoured to have been crushed under a ...
1917–50 Romanian pianist Lipatti studied with Cortot in Paris. His concert career after 1945 was cut short by cancer. The delicacy and clarity of his playing made him an ideal interpreter of J. S. Bach, Mozart and Chopin. He made a number of recordings, including his last recital a few weeks before his death. Introduction | Modern Era | ...
Maazel and Ashkenazy among conductors, and with Martha Argerich, Isaac Stern and Joshua Bell in chamber music. But it is for solo performances of the Romantic repertoire (especially Chopin and Rachmaninov) that he is most in demand: in 1997 he gave the first ever solo piano recital in the main Proms season. Introduction | Contemporary | Classical Personalities | ...
richly sonorous and harmonically beguiling, with a sensuous use of modes. His lyrical inspiration also pervades his Requiem (1887) and opera Pénélope (1913). His piano works owe much to Chopin, as is shown by their descriptions as impromptus, barcarolles and nocturnes, yet display distinctively French sonorities that also permeate the impassioned Second Violin Sonata (1917) and his ...
, with the invasion by Germany and Russia, he was appointed President of the Polish government-in-exile in France. His most popular works, in a Romantic style influenced by Chopin and Liszt, include the Minuet in G, Piano Concerto in A minor, Polish Fantasy for piano and orchestra, Symphony in B minor and the opera Manru ...
1909), which attracted the attention of Serge Diaghilev, who was busy preparing his second season of Russian ballet in Paris. Stravinsky was asked first to orchestrate two pieces by Chopin for a new production of Les Sylphides, then, to a tight deadline, to supply a new ballet score. The result – the brilliantly colourful and Rimsky-Korsakovian The ...
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