Mieczysław Tomaszewski - Chopin. The Man, his Work and its Resonance
‘Chopin. The Man, his Work and
its Resonance’ is the
revised and updated English-language version of Mieczysław Tomaszewski’s
multi-award-winning book ‘Chopin. Człowiek, dzieło, rezonans’ (Poznań,
1998), constituting the sum of the professor’s knowledge and reflections on
Chopin-related themes. Having entered the canon of the Chopin studies
literature in Poland, gradually, thanks to successive translations, the analyses of Chopin also
won over readers outside Poland. The volume became fundamental and obligatory reading for
all admirers of the brilliant composer. With time, its stature and
multi-aspectual nature were recognized with the ennobling nickname (applied almost
tenderly by those who know the professor personally) ‘the bible’.
924 pages
[Translated and edited by John
Comber]
Professor Mieczysław Tomaszewski is renowned in Poland among musical academic cognoscenti but as he wrote only in Polish his name is not well known (or perhaps even easily pronounceable !) outside of his own country. The book is a well organised compendium of a lifetime's writing, study and experience of Chopin's labyrinthine temperament, context, life and work.
Simply the most musically penetrating, perceptive, philosophical, aesthetic and profound book on this composer I have ever read. Remarkable, finely designed and laid out as well as brilliantly translated. He paints the contextual Chopin world with immense learning and sensitivity. The fluidity of his writing is deeply convincing, ranging effortlessly as it does over many interconnected artistic disciplines.
This work is absolutely indispensable to any devoted student of Chopin and any pianist who seriously engages with the manifold facets and immortal music of this complex, demanding character of world influence and significance.
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