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Topic: Chopin Letters in French and Polish  (Read 3537 times)

theholygideons

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Chopin Letters in French and Polish
on: August 24, 2021, 03:41:43 AM
Is there a book which contains Chopin's letters in their original languages, in particular those written in French? All I can find are the English translations of his letters.

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Offline brogers70

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Re: Chopin Letters in French and Polish
Reply #1 on: August 24, 2021, 09:45:03 AM
Search Amazon for "letters of Chopin French edition" and you will find volumes with his letters to Georges Sand and to his family, in French.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=letters+of+chopin+french+edition&ref=nb_sb_noss

Offline lelle

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Re: Chopin Letters in French and Polish
Reply #2 on: August 25, 2021, 08:51:11 PM
Reading composer's letters is something I often feel I should do. What might one glean from reading Chopin's letters?

Offline stringoverstrung

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Re: Chopin Letters in French and Polish
Reply #3 on: August 31, 2021, 08:51:35 PM
Hello,

I never read Chopin's letters but Beethoven's letters give a great insight in the personality and the daily problems he faced. They contain personal issues and feelings as their writers probably never imagined their letters would be public one day let alone available to all of mankind via digital carriers.

Offline kalirren

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Re: Chopin Letters in French and Polish
Reply #4 on: September 16, 2021, 06:58:14 PM
Reading composer's letters is something I often feel I should do. What might one glean from reading Chopin's letters?

Here's an amusing quote from Chopin's letters, regarding his later Scottish lady fangroup. "They look at their hands and play wrong notes - God help them."

Inference: Chopin didn't usually look at his hands when he played. (!)
Beethoven: An die Ferne Geliebte
Franck: Sonata in A Major
Vieuxtemps: Sonata in Bb Major for Viola
Prokofiev: Sonata for Flute in D Major

Offline lelle

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Re: Chopin Letters in French and Polish
Reply #5 on: September 16, 2021, 10:21:24 PM
Here's an amusing quote from Chopin's letters, regarding his later Scottish lady fangroup. "They look at their hands and play wrong notes - God help them."

Inference: Chopin didn't usually look at his hands when he played. (!)

One could also interpret it that he is reacting to that they still play wrong notes even when they look at their hands.

Offline ahinton

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Re: Chopin Letters in French and Polish
Reply #6 on: September 17, 2021, 04:51:20 PM
Chopin's Polish Letters, translated by David Frick

https://en.chopin.nifc.pl/institute/publications/other/id/4095

https://sklep.nifc.pl/index.php?produkt=1_137&jezyk=eng&ustaw_walute=EUR

Not cheap, at €60, but...

Best,

Alistair
Alistair Hinton
Curator / Director
The Sorabji Archive

Offline kosulin

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Re: Chopin Letters in French and Polish
Reply #7 on: October 03, 2021, 12:43:06 AM
Here are some in public domain:
https://archive.org/details/lettresdechopine00chop
https://chopin.nifc.pl/pl/chopin/listy

You can easily find online free scans of old Polish editions that are in public domain, such as
Fryderyk Chopin : życie, listy, dzieła (Warszawa, 1882)
Vlad
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