Frederick Chopin, as a Man and Musician — Volume 2
- Pages
- about 499
- Category
- History
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 9.2 h at 250 wpm
From the opening
CHOPIN'S VISITS TO NOHANT IN 1837 AND 1838.--HIS ILL HEALTH.--HE
DECIDES TO GO WITH MADAME SAND AND HER CHILDREN TO MAJORCA.--
MADAME SAND'S ACCOUNT OF THIS MATTER AND WHAT OTHERS THOUGHT
ABOUT IT.--CHOPIN AND HIS FELLOW--TRAVELLERS MEET AT PERPIGNAN IN
THE BEGINNING OF NOVEMBER, 1838, AND PROCEED BY PORT-VENDRES AND
BARCELONA TO PALMA.--THEIR LIFE AND EXPERIENCES IN THE TOWN, AT
THE VILLA SON-VENT, AND AT THE MONASTERY OF VALDEMOSA, AS
DESCRIBED IN CHOPIN'S AND GEORGE SAND'S LETTERS, AND THE LATTER'S
"MA VIE" AND "UN HIVER A MAJORQUE."--THE PRELUDES.--RETURN TO
FRANCE BY BARCELONA AND MARSEILLES IN THE END OF FEBRUARY, 1839.
In a letter written in 1837, and quoted on p. 313 of Vol. I.,
Chopin said: "I may perhaps go for a few days to George Sand's."
How heartily she invited him through their common friends Liszt
and the Comtesse d'Agoult, we saw in the preceding chapter. We
may safely assume, I think, that Chopin went to Nohant in the
summer of 1837, and may be sure that he did so in the summer of
1838, although with regard to neither visit reliable information
of any kind is discoverable. Karasowski, it is true, quotes four
letters of Chopin to Fontana as written from Nohant in 1838, but
internal evidence shows that they must have been written three
years later.
We know from Mendelssohn's and Moscheles' allusions to Chopin's
visit to London that he was at that time ailing. He himself wrote
in the same year (1837) to Anthony Wodzinski that during the
winter he had been again ill with influenza, and that the doctors
had wanted to send him to Ems. As time went on the state of his
health seems to have got worse, and this led to his going to
Majorca in the winter of 1838-1839. The circumstance that he had
the company of Madame Sand on this occasion has given rise to
much discussion.
A short sample. Read the whole book
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