Easy-Listening Piano Classics
CHOPIN

Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849) was born in the village of Zelazowa Wola in Mazovia, the son of a French father and a Polish mother. This mixed heritage would weave like a double helix through Chopin’s career as a composer-pianist. Following studies at Warsaw Conservatory (1826–29) and concerts given in Warsaw and Vienna (1829–30), Chopin settled in Paris in 1831. His most famous romantic liaison was with Aurore Dudevant (a.k.a. novelist George Sand), the years 1838–1847 coinciding with his most productive period. Shortly after their relationship ended, Chopin visited Britain in 1848, where his already precarious health deteriorated. Almost 3,000 people attended his funeral the following year at the Madelaine in Paris—though he remained a Polish patriot throughout his short life, he became a French citizen.

Although educated in the tradition of Beethoven, Haydn, Moz