5 Moments of Chopin's Life As If They Were Flowers

During the first public concerts that Chopin gave in Warsaw, he was accompanied by other artists, including the soprano Konstancja Gładkowska. 

At the beginning of his professional career Chopin was secretly infatuated with Gładkowska. We can only imagine what he felt, when right after performing his Piano concerto in E minor he was watching and listening to her performance. 

In a letter to his friend and confidant Tytus Woyciechowski, Chopin described that moment:

Then he [Carlo Soliva] directed Miss Gładkowska’s aria, who was most beautifully dressed in white, with roses on her head; it all suited her nicely. She sang the cavatina from La donna del Lago, together with the recitative, better than she has ever sung anything before, except for the aria in Agnes.  

Chopin was fascinated with opera singers. Henriette Sontag was his first true aesthetic enchantment as testified by his letters. Trying to find the right words to describe her voice he compared it to the scent of flowers. 

She seems to breathe into the stalls some sort of fragrance of the freshest flowers, and she caresses, delightfully, strokes the audience, but rarely does she move them to tears. 

In 1838 Fryderyk Chopin and George Sand went on a journey to Mallorca. Chopin was amazed by the breathtaking beauty of the island. At the same time he experienced a major strike of the lung tuberculosis that resulted in a period of suffering and a fear of death. 

I am in Palma, among the palms, cedars, cactuses, olive trees, orange trees, lemon trees, aloes, fig trees, pomegranates, etc. Everything the Jardin des Plantes has in its hothouses. 

Chopin reluctantly performed in public. He preferred playing for smaller audiences in the salons. When he agreed to perform in 1848 in the concert hall led by Camille Pleyel, the tickets were immediately sold. 

Wanting to encourage Chopin to play in public, Pleyel promised that he will decorate the stage with flowers so that the pianist could feel more like at home. Chopin could also practice on the same piano that was to be used during the concert. 

Chopin did appreciate the efforts of the music entrepreneur: The hall is conveniently arranged; it can seat 300 people. Pleyel always jokes at my stupidity, and in order to encourage me to give a concert he will be decorating the steps with flowers. It will be like at home, and my eyes will encounter almost only familiar faces. 

Coming back to Paris from his British tour, Chopin was feeling exhausted and feared that the end of his life is near. He asked his friend Wojciech Grzymała to prepare his apartment for his return. Among other things, he wanted to feel the scent of violets in his salon. 

Have a bouquet of violets bought on Friday, so that it smells sweet in the drawing-room – let me have a bit of poetry still at home when I return – passing from the living room to the bedroom – where I will certainly lie down for a long time.