Chopin and life in Paris

While in Paris, , Frederic Chopin found his delicate style didn't always enthrall the larger concert audiences, who had been exposed to the works of Franz Schubert and Ludwig Van Beethoven.

A fortuitous introduction to the Rothschild family opened new doors, however, and Chopin soon found employment in the great parlours of Paris as both recitalist and teacher.

His increased income allowed him to live well and compose such pieces as Nocturnes of Op. 9 and 15, the Scherzo in B-flat minor, Op. 31 and the Sonata in B-flat minor, Op. 35.

Relationship with George Sand

Though Chopin had had youthful love affairs and was at one time engaged, none of his relationships lasted more than a year. In 1838 he began a love affair with French novelist Aurore Dedevant, aka, George Sand. The couple spent a harsh winter on the island of Majorca, south of France, where Chopin became ill. In March 1839, Sand realised that he needed medical attention and took him to Marseille, where he was diagnosed with consumption (tuberculosis). There, a skilled physician helped him recover.

In May 1839, Frederic Chopin and George Sand settled in south of Paris in Nohant, Sand's country home.

The next seven years proved to be the happiest and most productive period of Chopin's life.

He steadily composed a series of masterpieces, including the B Minor Sonata, theOpus 55 Nocturnes and the Opus 56 Mazurkas.

The growing demand for his new works and his greater understanding of the publishing business also brought increased income and provided Chopin an elegant lifestyle.

Final years and death

By the mid-1840s, both Chopin's health and his relationship with George Sand were deteriorating. His behaviour had become erratic, possibly due to an undiagnosed form of epilepsy. The affair ended in 1848 after, among other things, Sand's unflattering portrayal of their relationship in her 1846 novel Lucrezia Floriani. At the end, both parties were too proud to reconcil and Chopin's spirit and health were broken.

He made an extended tour to the British Isles, where he struggled under an exhausting schedule, making his last public appearance on November 16, 1848. He then returned to Paris, where he died on October 17, 1849 at 38.

His body was buried at Père Lachaise cemetery, but his heart was interred at a church in Warsaw, near the place of his birth.

The Chopin Family Parlour (Polish: Salonik Chopinów) is a branch of the Fryderyk Chopin Museum.

It is in the south annex of the Czapski Palace at 5 Krakowskie Przedmiescie in Warsaw, Poland. It is the largest room of the former Chopin family apartment where Frédéric Chopin lived with his parents and sisters until he left Poland in 1830.

The family moved to the Czapski Palace (then called the Krasinski Palace) from a Warsaw University building, across the street, in June 1827, just a few weeks after the death of Frédéric's youngest sister, Emilia. Her death was the reason for the move, as it was emotionally difficult for the family to remain in the apartment that had witnessed her decline and death.

The new apartment comprised two levels. The family lived in a large second-floor flat, and the garret served as a boarding house for male students.

The latter was run by Frédéric's father, Nicolas Chopin. In a letter to his friend Tytus Wojciechowski dated 27 December 1828, Frédéric said that one of the former boarding-school rooms had been turned into a study for him.It contained only a desk and piano; it has not been reconstructed.

It was in the Czapski (Krasinski) Palace that Frédéric Chopin composed and first played for family and friends some of his most important youthful works, including Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11, and Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21. Frequent visitors included Józef Elsner, Samuel Linde, Juliusz Kolberg, Kajetan Kozmian, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, and Stefan Witwicki.

On November 2, 1930 a commemorative plaque was unveiled between the windows of the annexe second floor (viewed from the Krakowskie Przedmiescie side).

The inscription in Polish reads: Frédéric Chopin lived and composed in this house before he left Warsaw forever in 1830.

The CzapskiPalace was destroyed during World War II and reconstructed in 1948-59.

The little museum occupies just one room on the second floor of the building that now houses the Graphics Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw - The interior was designed by Barbara Brukalska, based on an 1832 drawing by Antoni Kolberg. None of the apartment's original furnishings have survived.

-Internet