How did Chopin play – vol. 6

Hyperbolic ecstasy, excessive excitement or tearful melancholy, romantic (allegedly) excessive emotionality – such qualities should never be present in interpretations of Chopin’s music.

The composer was elegant and reserved in everyday life – and we find the same qualities in Chopin’s compositions. From the accounts of his students, we know how much he tried to sensitize them to this. Friederike Müller-Streicher recalled the words of the Master:

‘Simplicity is everything. After having exhausted all the difficulties, after having played immense quantities of notes, and more notes, then simplicity emerges with all its charm, like art’s final seal. Whoever wants to obtain this immediately will never achieve it: you can’t begin with the end. One has to have studied a lot, tremendously, to reach this goal; it’s no easy matter.’ Jan Kleczyński pointed out the same thing in his lectures: ‘This style is based upon simplicity, it admits of no affectation, and therefore does not allow too great changes of movement. This is an absolute condition for the execution of all Chopin’s works and more especially of his Concertos; the richness and variety of embellishments would tend to sickliness and affectation if the execution were not as simple as the conception.’

Kamila Stępień-Kutera