Chopin and George Sand (pen name of the French novelist Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Franceuil) came to Mallorca on 8 November 1838 and rented a former monastery cell, number four, at the former Charterhouse of Valldemossa from December to the following February. It was here that Chopin completed his 24 Préludes, thus a fitting location to celebrate the publication of Inside and Around Chopin’s 24 Préludes Opus 28; the book also exists in French and Spanish editions. Discussion by Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger of the Préludes and other compositions Chopin planned, sketched or completed in Valldemossa was complemented with performances by Roy Howat:
Nocturne, Op 37 No. 2
Mazurka, Op 41 No. 1
Preludes Op 28, Nos 4, 6, 9, 13, 15 and 17
Ballade No 2, Op 38
Polonaises, Op 40 Nos 1 and 2
Scherzo No 3 in C# minor, Op 39
The concert featured the Museo’s Pleyel grand of 1851, identical in build to Chopin’s last pianos of the 1840s, in the auditorium directly above Cell 4 where Chopin and Sand stayed. The Pleyel upright pianino that Chopin used during their Mallorcan stay is housed downstairs in the Museo itself, having remained with the family who bought it on Chopin’s and Sand’s departure in 1839.
The event also celebrated over four decades of friendship and collaboration between Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger and Roy Howat, the latter having overseen the 1986 English edition of the former’s renowned study Chopin vu par ses élèves (in English Pianist and Teacher, Cambridge University Press, 1986).
Reviews
Find out more in this review of the event, and this review which also appeared in print in the Diario de Mallorca.