Chopin in Winter - the truest, even heroic, devotion to his music in -10C and gloves


As I walked out one freezing morning last week and prepared to board the Metro at Młociny Station in Warsaw, the end of the M1 line, I thought I recognized a Chopin waltz. What was this ? Impossible surely. Having attended and reviewed hour upon hour of this charming music in the recently completed International Chopin Piano Competition, I felt my imagination playing tricks in such echoes of delight. 

I turned the corner and to my surprise here he was, in -10C and wearing gloves, playing Chopin for us on a keyboard. Surely the truest, even heroic, musical devotion to the Polish national composer I have ever encountered. Full of admiration at his accuracy, stamina and dedication, I mumbled pathetic appreciation as a fellow musician. 

'I just love his music!' our anonymous performer replied in heavily accented English. 

I felt my own devotion on a period Pleyel instrument in my warm flat with comforting hot coffee and biscuits to hand, rather lacking in selfless stature. 

I was so affected by this perfect sacrifice and dedication, I determined it should not be forgotten. So here you are. Think upon it and the deep musical and vocational implications of such a vision. A gesture of love and a distraction of creative truth during this welter of mendacity and moral decay we are experiencing.

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