Chopin in Manchester

Citation

McAulay, K.E. (2012), "Chopin in Manchester", Library Review, Vol. 61 No. 6, pp. 470-471. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242531211284366

In 1837, the Polish composer Frederic Chopin (1810‐1849) paid a brief visit to London. This was followed 11 years later by a seven‐month visit to Britain, largely hosted by the wealthy Scotswoman Jane Stirling and her family and friends, who eased his way to the extent of arranging accommodation and the hire of a piano whilst he was in London on the way north to Scotland. Although much of his time was spent in Scotland, the dying consumptive composer spent a few days in Manchester with philanthropists Salis and Julie Schwabe. There, he gave a public concert at the Gentlemen's Concert Hall and may also have given a private recital.

This slim book is a reprint of an article about that visit. Willis's article first appeared as “Chopin's Recital in the Gentlemen's Concert Hall, Monday 28 August 1848”, in Manchester Sounds, Vol. 8 (2009‐2010), pp. 84‐119, the journal of the Manchester Musical Heritage Trust, but the present hard‐backed book makes the narrative more widely available, with a print‐run of 1,000 copies.

Of course, there is already a substantial corpus of work about Chopin's life and work, in English and Polish, not to mention other languages. One can read extensively about Chopin the composer, the pianist, the piano‐teacher and the protégé, who benefited from the patronage of wealthy music‐lovers wherever he went. The present book sits alongside works such as Iwo and Barbara Zaluski's short The Scottish Autumn of Frederick Chopin (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1993). However, Dr Willis has another two books in preparation, which are likely to cast a shadow over the Zaluski book. Willis's forthcoming Chopin in Scotland, Chopin in London and the present publication, all stem from the PhD that he obtained at the University of Durham in 2009, “Chopin in Britain: Chopin's visits to England and Scotland in 1837 and 1848: people, places and activities” (Willis, 2009).

Dr Willis is in the rare position of possessing doctorates in both architectural history and musicology, and has enjoyed a long career as architect, architectural historian, scholar and teacher. Not unsurprisingly, the present work reflects those interests, focusing on the “people, places and activities” uncovered during the author's recent doctoral research. One would not expect a narrative of this length to discuss the music itself in addition to these foci. We are shown a glimpse into Chopin's brief stay in Manchester, and are introduced on the one hand to Chopin's patrons and some of the musicians that he encountered; and on the other, to the significant buildings he would have visited. We also find corroborative evidence of the composer's frailty and poor health, consistent with the observations in the Zaluski's book, and learn of his frustrating habit of deciding his concert programmes at the last minute – or of changing his mind.

The essay is well‐written and referenced, as befits an author of some considerable experience and there is an index of names. There is no discrete bibliography. As a published work, it is an extremely pleasingly‐presented volume, and it whets the appetite for the forthcoming extended works, Chopin in Scotland and Chopin in London. However, as it stands, the very subject matter probably makes it of rather limited interest beyond the obvious audience of Chopin scholars, social historians and those pursuing Mancunian local studies. It is not the kind of book that will appear on undergraduate reading‐lists.