A Romantic Favourite...

By Sebastiaan

Classical music has recently grown to one of my biggest addictions. I've collected (bought, or received as a gift) many CD's, and my Chopin collection has nearly reached completion.

There are two words in that sentence I'd like to pick out and indulge on: "Chopin" and "completion". Let's start with the latter.

One can never quite complete ones collection of classical music: there is a wide, wide variety of performers of each piece of classical music. Think of the great Artur Rubinstein, one of the, if not the, most talented Chopin performers. Yet as I skim through my collection of CD's, names as Evgeny Kissin (Ballades) and Elisabeth Leonskaja (I really love her performance of the Nocturnes) cannot be excluded.

Frédéric François Chopin (born 1810, his only known photograph to the left, taken in the year of his death, 1849) is my all-time favourite composer. Now, let me make one thing clear: overall, I've listened to pop, rock and metal a lot more than classical music, yet it is a good fourth, and Chopin is among my top artists (momentarily 23rd on last.fm).

Chopin has composed in the "Romantic genre", so to say, but he has composed a variety of pieces. Among my favourites are the Nocturnes, which are pieces inspired by the night, the Waltzes, which is a ballroom/folk dance, and of course the Ballades, or rather: the Instrumental Ballades, a new musical form which Chopin invented.

I love Chopin's music for its subtlety, the nuances, the expression, the melancholy, though there are of course many dramatic pieces, and lovely melodies... All in all, I love his music for its variety.

I am still looking for a nice biography of Chopin. For those interested in Chopin, yet not into reading: check out Eternal Sonata, it's a very nice Japanese RPG for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, about the last days of Chopin. I'm probably going to post a more extensive post on the game when I've finished playing it (now in the last chapter, I believe).