Category: Daily Dispatch

Chopin’s music may go right to the heart, but did you know that when the composer died, his heart went right to Poland?

Chopin had lived in exile in Paris since he arrived there in 1831 and became one of its most celebrated pianists; this in a city teeming with great pianists (including Chopin’s friend and rival, Liszt).

For most of his life, Chopin struggled against poor health. When he sensed his impending death in 1849, he made the request of his sister, Ludwika Jędrzejewicz, that his heart be removed from his corpse and transported back to the land of his birth.

Ludwika complied, smuggling her brother’s heart under her cloak in a jar full of booze (probably cognac), and delivering it to Holy Cross Church in Warsaw. The heart is now immured there in a pillar. A decorative monument to the composer soon became a rallying point for Polish nationalists.

During World War II, understanding the significance of Chopin as a source of national pride, the Nazis stole the heart (paging Indiana Jones!), but it was returned after the war and reinterred.

At Chopin’s funeral in Paris, Mozart’s Requiem was played, as were Chopin’s own Preludes No. 4 in E minor and No. 6 in B minor. His body was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery. At his graveside was heard the famous and now-hackneyed “Funeral March” from his Piano Sonata No. 2, in an orchestration by Napoléon-Henri Reber. The plinth on his grave is capped by a statue of Euterpe, muse of music, weeping over her broken lyre.

Mozart’s Requiem has been performed annually at Holy Cross Church, per the composer’s request, as part of a solemn mass conducted every year on the anniversary of his death, October 17. The International Chopin Piano Competition also takes place during this time.

While the ultimate cause of Chopin’s early demise (at 38) has been the subject of speculation – his death certificate reads tuberculosis, but modern medicine has posited, among other things, cystic fibrosis, cirrhosis, and alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency – an examination of Chopin’s preserved heart in 2014 (through the unopened jar) suggests the likely cause of his passing was a rare case of pericarditis indeed caused by complications of chronic tuberculosis.

To avoid risking a public outcry, the composer’s heart was exhumed by church officials, scientists, and medical experts under cloak of night. Their motive was no more sinister than ensuring that the container preserving the heart had not cracked. Happily, even though the patient appears to have died of tuberculosis, his heart remains in excellent health.

But enough about Chopin’s death. Let’s talk about his birth. Chopin was born on this date in 1810 – or was he? Chopin and his mom said so. However, his baptismal certificate, filled out on April 23, gives his natal day as February 22. The Chopin Society UK, in defiance of the composer and his family, is inclined to agree.

So it is that Chopin’s entrance into and exit from this world have been shrouded in mystery and mired in controversy. Moral of the story: don’t trust public records (at least in the 19th century)!

Happy birthday, Chopin.

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli plays the Funeral March

Samson François plays the Piano Concerto No. 2

Ballade No. 4

Sviatoslav Richter fires off an Étude

Alexander Brailowsky reduced to offal by Ophüls