Les années Nohant 1839-1846

Description

Chopin And Nohant
Nohant was for Chopin an exceptional place, in a way magical, if we think of his magnificent creation born there. This hamlet surrounded by fields that reminded him of the Mazovian plain brought him the necessary calm for creative concentration, after the obligatory labor with students and the hectic life in Paris, although the countryside always ended up boring him a little. We cannot forget that he spent 1200 days in Nohant between 1839-1846. Ryszard Przybylski wrote in his admirable book Cien jaskólki. Esej o myslach Chopina [The Shadow of a Swallow. Essay on Chopin's Thoughts], that Chopin stifled his hypersensitivity through life in salons, but, in fact, deep down in his being, “he wanted to strangle the horror of existence with an irrational wisdom of melody and harmony”¹ - in his work, in the form of his sound expression. He did not describe in his art either the “twittering of warblers” or “the song of nightingales” that mingled in Nohant with his music, as reported by Delacroix² nor the images of reality, but only the drama of his soul that he did not express through words but transformed into musical masterpieces.
“In the perspective of the bicentennial of Chopin's birth, I chose to record all of his works composed in whole or in part in Nohant during his stays. This was the result of several years of work, between 2005 and 2008 since there are 4 CDs in total. These recordings were published in a very beautiful book that I proposed to the Editions du Patrimoine. I thank Georges Buisson who was the administrator of the Maison de George Sand in Nohant as well as Dominique Seridji who was then directing the Editions du Patrimoine. Thanks to them, this book realized with the collaboration of Jean-Yves Patte for the texts and Claude Darre for the photos was able to see the light of day in 2009 under the title “The Summers of Frédéric Chopin in Nohant, 1839-1846” and thus bring together in one volume the life of the composer in Nohant and the works that were born there.” Yves Henry