The world owes much to that wise teacher who instilled a love of Bach into his young pupil. He answered some one who blamed him for allowing Chopin too much freedom: “Leave him alone! he treads an extraordinary path because he has extraordinary gifts and follows no method, but creates one. I have never seen such a gift for composition.” Later he marked his examination papers: “Chopin, Frederic (pupil for three years), astounding capacity, musical genius.”
At fifteen Chopin was adored by his companions and always held the affection of those who knew him. He seems to have been the original “matinee idol” of Paris, whenever he played, for he was the most poetic and finest pianist ever heard.
Though Chopin was seemingly French in manner, habits and tastes, he was extraordinarily patriotic and his music is perhaps the finest expression of Poland the world has ever seen.
No one has surpassed, or even equalled Chopin in writing for the piano. He understood its possibilities, limitations, tonal qualities and power to express emotion.
He did not leave a great quantity of compositions, but a well-ordered collection of music, so individual that even today, with all his imitators, when we hear Chopin—(and where is there a piano recital without at least one number?)—we instantly recognize it as his.
Strongly marked rhythms are among his most fascinating characteristics. He glorified and elaborated the dances of Poland, as had others in the past, who made art pieces of the gavotte, minuet, bourrée, gigue, etc.
What lovelier numbers on a program than Chopin’s mazurkas, polonaises, waltzes? There is also irresistible swing in the Ballades, Impromptus, the Berceuse, Barcarolle, and what could rival in fantasy the Nocturnes or Preludes? The Etudes cover a variety of moods, while his Scherzos stand alone in piano literature.
Chopin left no symphonies, no chamber music, except two piano sonatas and one for ’cello and piano, and what he did for voice could be told in a few words. He also wrote two piano concertos in which the piano work is beautiful but the orchestration is not as fine.
These concertos and his piano sonatas were the largest forms in which he wrote, proving that he could have succeeded here had he not chosen to perfect music in the smaller forms.
Chopin never had a fair start in life in the way of health, and while his delicate appearance made him the more interesting, especially to the ladies, he was a real sufferer. It would be unfair to believe that his work would have been greater had he enjoyed complete health, for his unhappiness and his sufferings gave him a sense of the mysterious and the beyond. He lived in a world far from material things and seemed able to translate all he felt into music.