Fryderyk Chopin

The next significant Chopin event was the arrival of Mr Edouard Boulanger in January 1855, a self-styled pupil of Chopin, and whose programs regularly featured his works, and for which we have the first reviews of a Chopin performance in the country. His first concert, again bearing the title "Soiree Musicale" was held on 22 February 1855. One of the advertisements in the lead up to the concert described Mr Boulanger thus:

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"Music.—To-morrow evening, a soirée musicale will be given by Monsieur E. Boulanger, a pianist of much reputation in Europe and America. He was a pupil of the distinguished and lamented Chopin, whose early death was deeply regretted and widely mourned in France, and wherever musical science of the highest character has been known and appreciated. The performances of M. Boulanger before Queen Victoria, and Her Majesty's flattering approval of them are recorded in the leading English journals. As a composer, M. Boulanger also stands high in Europe ; the Empress of the French has expressly given her permission that his " Meditations Harmoniques " may be dedicated to her. We have heard M. Boulanger at rehearsal, and are enabled to speak in high terms of his taste and masterly execution as a pianist. With the left hand, he may be said to produce effects which will, we have no doubt, surprise many of our youthful musical aspirants ; whilst they will remind older persons of the days when Hummell, Moschelles, Lizt, Cramer, and others illustrated the beauties of an instrument, whose notes evanescent as they have been often described by those who love to " linger on the notes of a cadenza," have yet secured for it the reputation of forming an orchestra in itself. M. Boulanger will be assisted by Mrs. Spence, who will make her first appearance in Sydney. This lady is a pupil of Garcia, and is very highly spoken of in musical circles. Mrs. St. John Adcock, so favourably received at late concerts ; Mr. J. Fairchild, and Mr. Henry Marsh will also perform. By permission of Colonel Bloomfield and the officers of H. M. 11th Regiment, their fine band will assist in the arrangements of the

evening."  (The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 February 1855)

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Mr Boulanger it seems was expected to give a performance of the highest order of the Scherzo in B flat minor at a Sydney Philharmonic Society concert that day advertised in the same Sydney paper on 3 July 1854. It was reported the work was “… one of the most brilliant, as it is perhaps the most elaborate and difficult of this great musician’s compositions for the pianoforte”. His performance was favourably reviewed on the 11th being “…executed with consummate skill and taste …”. Mr Boulanger went on to give several concerts for this Society in 1855 and was still performing in Sydney in 1863.

 

The popularity of Chopin’s works extended to amateur music playing. The Courier (Rockhampton, Qld.) 19 October 1863 reported Chopin on the program by the Wandering Minstrels – an amateur society of both sexes “belonging to the most fashionable classes of society”. Their concert was in aid of the House for Incurables.

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Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century various artists would provide one or two  Chopin piano pieces at these variety concerts but rarely more.

 

The Melbourne born Miss Florence Meyer was reported in the West Australian, 8 March 1887 to have given a concert at the Salle Pleyel in Paris of the major works by Chopin, Liszt and Schumann. She went on to have a career as a pianist in Australia and overseas. The University of Melbourne’s School of Music today awards the Florence Menk-Meyer Prize to the most promising interpretation of works by the Romantic composers including Chopin.

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A serious investigation of Chopin’s works featured in The Argus, 28 August 1890 under the title Chopin Concerts for “two concerts intended to illustrate the genius and methods of Frederick Chopin, both as a composer and as a pianist were given last evening in Glen’s music-hall by Herr and Madame Pabst”. The works included eight preludes, a ballade and three nocturnes.

 

With the centennial of Chopin’s birth in 1910 Mr William Silver announced in the Advertiser (Adelaide, S. Aust.) 3 March 1910 a pianoforte scholarship would be given to the best performer for any three Chopin compositions.

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Chopin was performed in aid of the YMCA work for Australian soldiers wounded in Egypt. The Australian concert was reported in the Advertiser (Adelaide, S. Aust.) 2 July 1915.

 

One of the earliest radio broadcasts featuring Chopin was advertised in The Argus, 1 November 1924 with Miss Myrtle Liddy to perform Chopin’s E minor Valse on the 2 November. The appreciation of music extended to sound recordings. The journalist and Honorary Polish Consul Ladislaus Adam de Noskowski reviewed Moriz Rosenthal playing Chopin’s Concerto no.1 in E minor recorded by Parlophone. This was one of the earliest record reviews and appeared in his weekly column New Records in the Sydney Morning Herald, 27 February 1932.

 

In 1913, just prior to the First World War, Australia was introduced to the ballet Les Sylphides by dancers of the Imperial Russian Ballet. This ballet blanc is danced to a collection of Chopin’s music arranged for orchestra. The prima ballerina Anna Pavlova in her first Australian tour in 1926 danced another version of Les Sylphides known as Chopiniana. On her second tour in 1929 she introduced her own choreographed ballet Autumn Leaves depicting the fate of a chrysanthemum bloom which too was set to Chopin’s various piano pieces.

 

Les Sylphides was so popular it was included on all three Australian tours of the Ballets Russes between 1936-1940. When members of the company remained behind to start their own ballet companies, the Polish Australian Ballet and later the Australian Ballet would feature it in their repertoires or opening seasons.

 

The great Polish pianists touring Australia all gave Chopin only recitals beginning with Ignace Jan Paderewski (1904, 1927), Arthur Rubinstein (1937, 1964), Ignaz Friedman (1927, 1940-1943). Witold Malcuzynski was in Australia for the 100th anniversary of Chopin’s death (incl. 1956) and also gave all Chopin recitals. Australia’s own Roger Woodward who studied six years in Poland performed the cycle of the complete works of Frederick Chopin at the Sydney Town Hall between January 1983 and February 1985 in four series over seventeen programmes.

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Carinia Records was formed in 1952 by Mr. Mrs Kulakowski, Polish migrants, to provide music for migrants homesick for the music from their countries.  They were one of the most successful private record companies in Australia and on their 25th anniversary in 1977 presented Australia with a bust of Fryderyk Chopin by the famous Polish sculptor Alfons Karny.

 

During the second half of the twentieth century saw the establishment of several Chopin societies in Victoria (estab. 1964), Sydney (estab. 1989) and more recently the Australian Chopin Society in Melbourne (estab. 1998)

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Chopin’s popularity was evident in 2005 when ABC Classic FM radio surveyed the top one hundred piano pieces Australians couldn’t live without.  Although Chopin came in 13th with the Fantaisie-Impromptu op.66 Australians included another nineteen works. No other composer had a total of twenty pieces in the survey. Chopin had one fifth of the hundred making him one of the most popular of the classical composers.

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The tyranny of distance does not appear to have impacted on Chopin’s fame, influence or legacy during his lifetime and up to the 200th anniversary of his birth in 2010.

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