Chopin's Heart
Watercolour and pencil drawing of Chopin on his death bed by Kwiatkowski. The painter was a witness to his last hours and death and drew a number of likenesses I receive the most interesting correspondence on Chopin from many people distinguished in their fields. I would like to share the latest with you from Professor Wilfred Niels Arnold Ph.D. who is Professor of Biochemistry at Kansas University Medical Center, Kansas City. The fact he is another Australian from Queensland makes this 'leak' all the more pleasurable. As the Chopin Year draws to a close it is a strangely fitting modern scientific reflection on the shuffling off of the composer's 'mortal coil' and the beginning of his musical immortality. We all know Chopin died of tuberculosis. I have always been interested in the more detailed conclusions of modern medical science on the deaths of great artists of the past. Professor Arnold has carried out extensive research on Chopin's tubercu