Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times

About this book

Based on ten years of research and a vast cache of primary sources located in archives in Warsaw Paris London New York Washington D.C. Alan Walkers monumental Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times is the most comprehensive biography of the great Polish composer to appear in English. Walker sets out to dispel the many myths and legends that continue to surround Chopin. Fryderyk Chopin is an intimate look into a dramatic life; of particular focus are Chopins childhood and youth in Poland which are brought into line with Walkers latest scholarly findings and Chopins romantic life with George Sand with whom he lived for nine years. Comprehensive and engaging and written in highly readable prose the biography wears its scholarship lightly: this is a book suited as much for the professional pianist as it is for the casual music lover. Just as he did in his definitive biography of Liszt Walker illuminates Chopin and his music with unprecedented clarity in this magisterial biography bringing to life one of the nineteenth centurys most confounding beloved and legendary artists.