F. Kalkbrenner, "aborted" Chopin's master

Musicologists aside, if any music lover today remembers Friedrich Kalkbrenner, it is for his inordinate claim to become the teacher of his namesake, Frédéric Chopin, when the latter showed up in Paris in 1831 and visited him to ask for tutoring. Maestro Kalkbrenner offered him three years of lessons. Chopin was enthusiastic, writing to his parents that "the best pianist in Europe" was going to take him under his wing and make him a great virtuoso. Frederic, a 21-year-old provincial boy, believed in his magic. It was not necessary. And the rapture was short-lived. After a year he gave up his lessons.

A talented pianist
Kalkbrenner certainly could play the piano and did so very well. He had given his first public concert at the age of five, in his native Germany. He soon came to study at the Paris Conservatory, where he graduated at thirteen. He lived in London for ten years, captivating the nobility of England with his prestissimo octaves and the passion he brought to specific passages. He caused a similar commotion in Paris, where he settled in 1824 as a virtuoso pianist and sought-after teacher. It was there that Chopin met him.

F; Kalkbrenner (1785 - 1849)

A composer too, but a forgotten one
Kalkbrenner composed everything: operas, sonatas, and piano concertos. But none of it has survived. It is highly unlikely that a single piece by the composer was heard in concert halls during the entire twentieth century. However, around the eighties, some enthusiasm was kindled in the record labels (the "rescue" fashion) and some of his music has been recorded ever since. At first, the short pieces, his Nocturnes, for example.

Lyricism for all tastes
Far removed from Chopin's Nocturnes (perhaps also from Field's), the works will nevertheless have moved the audiences of their time. He will be surpassed, on the piano, by far, by Chopin and Liszt. But Kalkbrenner would have cared little. Financially comfortable as a result of his successful career as a pianist and teacher, in his later years, he became a partner in the piano house Pleyel. Maestro Kalkbrenner would die rich.

Les Soupirs de la Harpe Eolienne

In a rendition by Dutch pianist Bart von Oort, presented here is the Nocturne in A flat major, opus 121 No 1, subtitled Les Soupirs de la Harpe Eolienne, recorded on an Erard piano of 1837.