JEAN JACQUES EIGELDINGER

Jean-Jacques Eigeldingers innovative study of the life of Chopin seeks to understand the world in which the composer, pianist and improviser lived in order to better understand the man. Divided into three parts, the work first situates Chopin according to esthetic influencesstudying his musical education, his artistic heritage, and the evolution of his styleand also according to his musical taste. Secondly, Eigeldinger examines the Preludes, from both a philological and historical point of view. The third section, largely historical, presents the reader with Chopins career in Paris and his relationship with Liszt. Eigeldinger also focuses on one of Chopins prodigious students, Carl Filtsch, who died in 1845 at the age of 15, and of whom Liszt once said, When the little one begins to travel, Ill close up shop. Based on unpublished documents and new approaches to previously known elements, Lunivers musical de Chopin will appeal to the general public as much as to specialists.

Plus que tout autre cadre, c’est le salon qui a constitué pour Chopin la situation idéale d’épanouissement de son art. C’est cet univers que se propose d’éclairer Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, en évoquan

Ayant très peu joué en public, Chopin a considéré lenseignement moins comme une servitude liée aux ressources quil lui procurait que comme une part essentielle de son art. Sa vocation de pédagogue si