Chopin, the Reluctant Romantic

Arguing that the familiar romantic image of Frederic Chopin masks the inner turmoil of a man largely out of sympathy with his age, Jeremy Siepmann offers a revealing portrait of this most beloved of all nineteenth-century composers. He draws extensively on the correspondence and diaries of Chopin and his intimate friends, as well as on contemporary accounts, and incorporates into his narrative penetrating discussions of the composer's extraordinary transformation of such genres as the polonaise, mazurka, and waltz.