Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric François Chopin (1810-1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist from Romanticism. He is generally regarded as the greatest composer that Poland has produced and is one of the greatest music poets in the history of music. His music, a personal fusion of Western European classical elements and the traditional Polish, makes more use of the expressive and technical properties of the piano than the music of any other composer.

Many of his works, such as the folk-inspired Mazurkas, he perform himself. He wrote others for his students. Due to his poor health, he quit early tours, and enthusiastically shifted his priorities to pedagogy. His Etudes are not only technically challenging, but at the same time innovative and sensitive. Despite the sometimes large gestures - Chopin really does make use of the full width of the keyboard although his compositions are very sophisticated. Friend and colleague Franz Liszt wrote a book about Chopin. A quote: "A thousand subtle shades that mix, cross and contradict each other, sometimes mask each other - it is almost impossible to decipher them in one go.