CHOPIN
writes from London to his boyhood
friend
Wojciech Grzymala in Paris
Good Friday [April 21st 1848]
I crossed the water [English Channel] without much seasickness. But not
by the Courier, and not with my new travelling acquaintances, for they had
to search, by boat, for the vessel on the sea. So I preferred the ordinary
way of travelling, and yesterday arrived here at six [pm], as I had been
obliged to rest for a few hours at Folkestone. I had a sleep, and now am
writing to you.
The good Erskines [the 'very religious' Scottish Protestant Mrs Katherine
and her sister Jane Wilhelmina Stirling, a pupil] have thought of everything,
even of chocolate, not only of a lodging - which last, however, I shall
change, as since yesterday there is a better one oin their very street for
four guineas a week. I am at 10 Bentinck Street, Cavendish Square,
but in a few days I shall move to their address: 44 Welbeck Street.
They asked me a lot after you. You would not believe how kind they are;
I have only just noticed that the paper on which I am writing has my monogram,
and I have met with many such little delicate attentions. Today, as it is
Good Friday and one can't do anything here, I am going to the intimates
of the ex-king [Louis Philippe], who lives outside the town. How did you
get home? Did you witness any fighing on the way [a reference to the aftermath
of the February Revolution - chronicled so graphically by Berlioz in his
Memoirs]? Did you have any success yesterday with the army? Please
write, and may God bless you.
Your old CH
- from the translation by the novelist Ethel Lilian Voynich, New York
June 1931
THE LEGENDARY RECORDINGS
The Philharmonia Orchestra
ABBEY ROAD STUDIO 1
LONDON
April 21st 1960
the youthful
MAURIZIO POLLINI
completes his HMV recording of
Chopin's First Piano Concerto
with Paul Kletzki
'a conscious mastery both of traditions and of novel intuitions'
- Paolo Petazzi, 1999
the 'maestro'
CLAUDIO ARRAU
begins his Columbia recording of
Brahms's First Piano Concerto
with Carlo Maria Giulini
'warm, poetic ... culminating in blazing sunlight'
- Joseph Horowitz, 1982 |
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