Spirit of Chopin

The Spirit of Chopin seen through the eyes of his pupils

by David Cools & Anthony Hughes (eng):

Testimonies of direct pupils of Chopin - Czartoryska, Dubois, Gretch, Gutmann, Lenz, Mathias, Mikuli, Peruzzi, Rubio, Stirling, Streicher-Müller, Tellefsen and Viardot - through intimate diaries, letters, written souvenirs, dictations or verbal communication give us a good picture of Chopin, the pedagogue.

We focus on an aspect of his technique and style, namely his touch. Chopin designed an “independant finger exercise” which he taught the pupil from the very first lesson. “The goal is not to play everything with the same sound but rather to be able to modulate a fair amount of sound.” - Fr. Chopin. The goal is to achieve the most beautiful legato in which the accompaniment is integrated, thus making the Belcanto style possible. This “independent finger exercise” was noted down by Kleczynski, a pupil of Czartoryska.

Every note must be of equal length, dynamic and touch. Dynamics should vary from ff to pp and tempo from andante to prestissimo. Four phases are distinguished to culminate in legato playing.

We will discuss them but also demonstrate how they can be applied to the repertoire practise. Therefore, we ask the participant to bring a score/passage. Of course, we would like you to share with us how you practice it yourself also. We look forward to your feedback after you practised the passage the way Chopin suggests.